2015
Assistance of over 124,000, more than one hundred performances scheduled, and an excellent artistic level, highlighted by the media.

The 50th Heineken Jazz Festival, the Anniversary edition of the San Sebastian Jazz Festival
The 50th Heineken Jazz Festival, the Anniversary edition of the San Sebastian Jazz Festival, was a resounding success from the artistic point of view and the audience. Between July 22 and 26, more than 124,000 attended the 109 scheduled performances in 17 different stages, of which 80% were free. Despite a couple days of rain, you could find a huge crowd in the Festival, selling out of the Plaza de la Trinidad and giving a great atmosphere to the Kursaal and the Green Stage at the Zurriola Beach.
All the artists gave much more than what was expected from them. Special mention for Jamie Cullum and his trilogy of concerts: as a DJ on the Green Stage, playing solo and voice in the Kursaal Auditorium and leading a Big Band in Plaza de la Trinidad packed up to the slopes of Mount Urgull, everyone enjoyed the artistic genius and ability to communicate by the British artist.
All the singers that performed in the Plaza de la Trinidad were captivating, each in her own style. Sílvia Pérez Cruz with her exquisite Mediterranean sensibility, Zaz and her jazz manouche and the perennial appeal of the French chanson, Dee Dee Bridgewater with her mastery of the stage and her fantastic voice, Melody Gardot was sophistication with great band, Andrea Motis with her charming youth and her talent not only as a singer but also as a trumpet and sax player.
The program of the charming Plaza de la Trinidad, where it all started fifty years ago, the cradle of the fiftieth edition, was completed with two great jazz concerts: the quintet led by Andrzej Olejniczak and Iñaki Salvador, being one of the starters for San Sebastian European Capital of Culture 2016, and the New Standard Trio, three Musketeers in jazz today that are still to give many joys together and separately.
The Kursaal Auditorium as usual welcomed several concerts of the highest degree, besides Jamie Cullum solo. Benny Golson, the sax player who had the privilege to start rehearsing with John Coltrane when both were kids, was happy with the Donostiako Jazzaldia award and gave a concert that was a lesson in sobriety and action at the same time. The Bad Plus, known for seeking new ways of expression, together with Joshua Redman one of the most outstanding saxophonists of the past two decades, with a result that could only be, and was, a great concert. John Zorn returned to San Sebastian two years after his historic Masada Marathon, and he did it squashing the sonic wall that he built with bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Dave Lombardo.
The proposal for the Victoria Eugenia Theatre was very interesting, this year bringing the PUNKT festival held in the Norwegian city of Kristiansand to San Sebastian. Therefore the three performances were called PUNKT Donostian. The essence of PUNKT created by Jan Bang and Erik Honoré, is to play a concert with more or less usual instruments and then perform a remix on the same stage done by other artists. In this experiment, co-produced by the Heineken Jazz Festival and San Sebastian European Capital of Culture 2016, participated, along with Bang and Honoré, artists such as Eivind Aarset, Arve Henriksen, Nils Petter Molvaer, Sly & Robbie, Josetxo Silguero, Sidsel Endresen, Suso Saiz or Mungolian Jet Set leaving a great impression among fans.
The Victoria Eugenia also welcomed with a packed theatre the effective approach between Bach and jazz performed by the pianist Iñaki Salvador and Alexis Delgado.
The Green Stage fulfilled the purpose for which it was designed: to be a perpetual party. It started well: Jamie Cullum with a proposal never seen in public, as a DJ. Earth, Wind & Fire Experience was a success as well as the beloved reggae played by one of its creators, Jimmy Cliff. The remaining days of the Green offered good jazz (Gregory Porter), soul of the best kind (Lee Fields & The Expressions), and good examples of indie and power-pop by Neuman, Lonelady, KAKKMADDAFAKKA and the local Bullet Proof Lovers, who succeeded and will continue to develop an unstoppable international career.
Other very attractive proposals were the San Telmo Nights, all very different from each other. Zanmari Baré and the exotic enchantment of the songs of the island of Reunion. Julia Biel, singer and pianist, beware those who have not discovered her yet, its already late. The San Sebastian bass player Gonzalo Tejada, a true value for Basque jazz, in his unique tribute to Norma Jeane Baker, Marilyn Monroe. Trumpet player Arve Henriksen and the three female voices of Trio Mediaeval, a trip thru time and places of European music.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Festival could not forget to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Spanish jazz magazine Cuadernos de Jazz, essential in spreading jazz music thanks to efforts of its editors. To play tribute to the magazine we had a fantastic jam session at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre in which Azar Lawrence and Charles McPherson took part in with their quartets, reinforced for the occasion by Andrzej Olejniczak, Maciej Fortuna and Mikel Andueza.
The Kursaal (Frigo, Heineken, Coca-Cola stages) were a grand party during the five days of the Festival, with a permanent crowd who enjoyed the many proposals, some of international level, such as The Cookers, Ray Gelato & Claire Martin and Carla Cook, and others featuring more than twenty local groups who had the opportunity to show what they can do.
The fiftieth anniversary was also celebrated with an exhibition at the San Telmo Museum, titled Round Midnight. 50 Jazzaldia, and #JAZZALDIA50 the documentary, which had been issued by Spanish and Basque televisions.
It’s funny what happens with the San Sebastian Jazz Festival: Just when it turned 50, it was younger than ever and with enough strength to keep writing glorious pages in the history of contemporary jazz for a long time more. Polish jazz will certainly be present in the 51 edition of the Festival, because the European Capital of Culture 2016 will be shared by San Sebastian and the Polish city of Wroclaw. So, as the Poles say: “Sto lat! (May it live a hundred years!) “.
Some information
- More than 100 performances scheduled.
- Massive public attendance, more than 124,000 people.
- 17 different stages.
Just one click
Poster
Poster 50 Jazzaldia 2015 (author: Alfredo León).
Txikijazz
Txikijazz, the festival for children and families, reached its third edition with great success. A bet of the Festival to reach new generations endorsed by the enthusiasm of the children and parents. Along with several recreational and fun activities, the smaller ones first heard the sounds of jazz made for them by musicians such as Ray Gelato, Carla Cook, Andrea Motis and Joan Chamorro. A huge step forward in terms of public attendance (7,100), quantity and variety of scheduled activities and quality of the artists involved.
Documentary and book
Jazzaldia 50 documentary
El Festival de Jazz de San Sebastián, resume sus 50 años de historia en el documental #jazzaldia50, mediante los testimonios de algunos de sus protagonistas y las imágenes de extraordinarios conciertos que perdurarán siempre en la memoria.
Con sus más de 50 ediciones, el Jazzaldia es el festival más antiguo del Estado y está también entre los más veteranos de Europa. Todos los grandes nombres del Jazz, sin excepción, han pasado por San Sebastián, algunos varias veces. Por eso, el documental no es sólo la historia del Festival, sino la de todo el Jazz contemporáneo.
El documental está realizado por Morgancrea y coproducido por Televisión Española, Euskal Telebista y Donostia Kultura, con guión y dirección de Carlos Rodríguez. La duración es de 56 minutos.
Para llevar a cabo el documental, se han efectuado más de cincuenta entrevistas con músicos, promotores, periodistas, colaboradores y aficionados, y se han recuperado archivos gráficos y audiovisuales que permanecían, en muchos casos, inéditos.
#jazzaldia50 cuenta con un importante material de archivo que debemos agradecer a numerosas fuentes documentales. Citamos las más destacadas:
- TVE, cuyas primeras grabaciones conservadas se remontan al año 1967 y que desde 1970 ha grabado gran parte de los conciertos que han tenido lugar en los escenarios principales del Festival.
- EiTB, cuyo archivo documental ha permitido retratar el aspecto más social y local del Jazzaldia, así como los distintos espacios y escenarios que ha ocupado durante estos 50 años.
- KUTXATEKA, que conserva un legado fundamental de fotografías de las primeras décadas, muchas de ellas procedentes de periódicos ya desaparecidos como La Voz de España y Unidad.
- EL DIARIO VASCO, que reúne un material de un valor excepcional (artículos y fotografías) no recogido en otros medios audiovisuales.
- JAZZALDIA. La propia organización del Festival ha recopilado minuciosamente, a lo largo de estos años, toda la información histórica del Jazzaldia: programación, anécdotas, fotografías, carteles…
Por lo que se refiere a los personajes entrevistados, destacan músicos internacionales de la talla de Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin, Stanley Clarke, John Scofield, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dave Holland, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Nicholas Payton, Bugge Wesseltoft, Enrico Rava y Nicholas Payton, así como los vascos Iñaki Salvador, Gonzalo Tejada, Mikel Azpiroz, Makala y Mikel Erentxun.
Aparecen también tres de los cinco músicos que formaban parte del primer grupo vasco que tocó en el Festival (Alvaro Gurrea, Eugenio del Río y Miguel Angel Urrutia), algunos de los primeros organizadores (Imanol Olaizola, Ramón Peironcely, Rafael Aguire Franco, Francette Lafont y Rafael Briz).
Entre los periodistas, dan su opinión los principales críticos de Jazz de los medios de comunicación españoles y también los de algunos medios de Estados Unidos, Francia y Noruega.
El documental está dedicado a aquellas personas que contribuyeron a la historia del Festival y ya no están con nosotros:
- Trabajadores y colaboradores
Charo Fernández, Esther Casares, Carola Ciriza, Renato Valeruz, Pedro Lafont, Francisco Antín, Xabier Portugal, Santiago Ugarte - Musika kritikariak / Críticos musicales
Federico González, Xabier Rekalde, Javier de Cambra, Raúl Mao, Juan Claudio Cifuentes
Jazzaldia 50 book
Jazzaldia 50 documenta las cinco décadas de historia del Festival de Jazz de San Sebastián, el más longevo con diferencia de todos los festivales del Estado y uno de los más veteranos de toda Europa.
Jazzaldia 50 contiene la crónica, el cartel y los artistas de cada una de las cincuenta ediciones, ilustradas con abundantes fotografías de calidad. Destacan los excelentes retratos a toda página de las numerosas figuras que han desfilado por el Festival: Charles Mingus, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Miles Davis… Como puede apreciarse, la historia del Festival de Jazz de San Sebastián es la historia de todo el jazz contemporáneo.
Cuenta con un índice con más de 5.000 nombres, así como el año de su actuación, por lo que es un instrumento muy útil, especialmente para los aficionados al jazz.
El libro, de tapa dura y 288 páginas en papel couché de alta calidad, tiene un precio de 15 euros.
Si desea comprar el libro Jazzaldia 50, póngase en contacto con la siguiente dirección: [email protected]. Gracias.
Cover of the book Jazzaldia 50.