The 60th Jazzaldia unveils its programme

Jamie Cullum + Melody Gardot + The Beach Boys + Marc Ribot + Dave Holland + Chief Adjuah (Christian Scott) + Dee Dee Bridgewater + Hermeto Pascoal + Oscar Peterson Centennial Concert + Kurt Elling + The Yellowjackets + Chris Potter + Steve Coleman + Marco Mezquida + Yerai Cortés + Ray Anderson + Kirk Knuffke + Chicuelo + Andrew Bird + Bojan Z + Baptiste Trotignon + Pierre de Bethman

The San Sebastian Jazz Festival will celebrate its 60th edition with a top-quality, varied, intense and hugely attractive musical offering.

As in previous years, this preview refers to the concerts that will be held in the Plaza de la Trinidad, Kutxabank Kursaal Auditorioa, FCC Victoria Eugenia Antzokia and Škoda San Telmo Museoa (Cloister).

Single and season tickets will be on sale from 19 December at 10:30 am. Purchases can be made both in person (at the ticket office), and online on our website (www.jazzaldia.eus), and on the Donostia Kultura website (www.donostiakultura.eus).

Kutxabank Kursaal Auditorioa:

It will all start at the Kutxabank Kursaal Auditorioa on 22 July with a concert by one of the stars of Jazz and pop music today, British musician Jamie Cullum, a true idol for this Festival's audience and a huge success every time he has performed in Donostia. Cullum will offer a second concert at the 60th Jazzaldia, which will be free of charge, on July 23rd, at the Keler Gunea on Zurriola Beach.

From that day on, the Kursaal Auditorium will present 5 more concerts, all of them of the highest level. On 23 July, a legendary group in the history of music, The Beach Boys, led by one of its original members, Mike Love, and with Bruce Johnston, who has been a member of the band since the mid-60s.

On Thursday 24th we will have one of the musicians with the greatest future as a guitarist, the flamenco artist Yerai Cortés, with a young and contemporary repertoire that crosses styles and has become popular in a very short time, performing on stages and in festivals open to a wide variety of audiences.

This Festival has tried on several occasions to bring Hermeto Pascoal; Brazilian, brilliant, tropical and unique. We had to cancel his participation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Friday 25 July, at last, Hermeto will perform in the Kursaal Auditorium.

On Saturday 26 July, we will be able to see and listen to the trio of one of the most unclassifiable, versatile and original musicians in contemporary music, Andrew Bird, singer and violinist. Another of the interesting new features of this programme.

The performances at the Kutxabank Kursaal Auditorioa will close on Sunday 28th with a concert celebrating the centenary of the birth of one of the great legends of Jazz, Oscar Peterson, born in Montreal in 1925. And we will do so in the company of three extraordinary musicians: Sullivan Fortner, an outstanding pianist from the latest generation of New Orleans performers, and the legendary duo formed by a bassist and a drummer who are historical figures of our music, John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton (the latter, the drummer in Peterson's band for many years).

Trinitate Plaza:

The most emblematic stage of the Jazzaldia will offer, as always, four nights that will each offer us the chance to enjoy a double bill concert. This year's programme is packed with big names and interesting proposals.

On 24 July we will begin with the always masterful Steve Coleman and his Five Elements; always intense and dynamic, Coleman is one of the most charismatic alto saxophonists of the current Jazz scene. We will continue with Kurt Elling, one of the best Jazz singers today, whose extraordinary concert with Branford Marsalis at the “Trini” Plaza is still remembered, and who, on this occasion, will be accompanied by the Yellowjackets, another of the significant novelties of this edition. Together, Kurt Elling and the Yellowjackets will perform their covers of Weather Report's great songs.

On Friday 25th the night will begin with the great guitarist Marc Ribot and his new line-up, Hurry Red Telephone. Afterwards, one of the great female performers of vocal Jazz, Dee Dee Bridgewater, will present her project “We Exist!”.

On July 26th, we will have a group made of two true Jazz stars: Crosscurrents Trio with Dave Holland on double bass and Chris Potter on saxophone. Following the recent passing of the great Zakir Hussain, the person who will complete the trio on percussion is yet to be confirmed. The second concert will be given by an innovative, surprising and unpredictable artist; the trumpeter, composer and producer Chief Adjuah (Christian Scott).

For the last double bill session of the “Trini”, on 27 July, two proposals that combine quality with accessibility. Firstly, the trio co-led by pianist Marco Mezquida and guitarist Chicuelo, two of the most in-form musicians of the Iberian scene and a format that is a real best-seller. After them, Melody Gardot, one of the most brilliant and personal female performers who is coming to present her latest album: The Essential Melody Gardot (2024).

Škoda San Telmo Museoa:

Three French pianists, all three with boundless creativity and an overwhelming mastery of the solo piano, will show us the strength of this style in the French Jazz scene and will be the protagonists of the first three days of the matinée concerts in the cloister of San Telmo: Baptiste Trotignon, Bojan Z and Pierre de Bethman.

On 26 July it will be the turn of our special guest, Marc Ribot, to offer us a solo concert: guitar and vocals. An extraordinary moment to delight in the personality of an outstanding creator.

Finally, on 27 July, we're moving away from the solo format, but staying with the acoustic arrangement. Cornetist Kirk Knuffke's quartet, featuring bassist Stomu Takeishi and legendary drummer Bill Goodwin, along with fantastic trombonist Ray Anderson.

FCC Victoria Eugenia Antzokia (XI JazzEñe):

For the fifth consecutive time JazzEñe will be held within the framework of Jazzaldia, at the FCC Victoria Eugenia Antzokia. It will be the eleventh edition of JazzEñe, organised by Fundación SGAE and which, as in previous years, will consist of four double bill concerts, from 23 to 26 July, in showcase format, with the best of Hispanic Jazz. The programme with the eight selected proposals will be announced in spring 2025.

On 27 July, the Victoria Eugenia theatre will host the third concert by the great Marc Ribot at the 60th Jazzaldia. This time with one of his most consolidated line-ups, Ceramic Dog; a masterful trio that presents a complete and surprising panorama of the music by this genius.

Free concert programme:

Tomorrow we will be putting the paying concerts on sale, but we have yet to announce a large part of the Jazzaldia programme, as important or even more so than the one already presented: all the free concerts that, as every year, will flood our city with music.

The programme of the 60th Jazzaldia will be expanded and completed shortly, but we can already anticipate some names: singers Clare Martin and Jessie Gordon; the piano quartet PianoForte; the winners of a Grammy for best Contemporary Blues album, War & Treaty; the legendary saxophonist Lew Tabackin; the young Catalan pianist Jordina Millà, who has just had her live album "Munich" released by the prestigious ECM label, in which she shares the limelight with bassist Barry Guy; the marvellous Franco-Syrian flautist Naissam Jalal, with a line-up that includes several musicians from the Hindustani tradition; one of the most attractive groups from the young Euskal Musika scene, Bulego; Crystal Murray, a French singer and the daughter of saxophonist David Murray; guitarist and singer Judith Hill, and many more.

Over the coming months we will announce all these free admission concerts, which will take place in venues such as Keler Gunea, Nauticool, and the Terraces of the Kursaal, among others.