42nd Festival Jazz Terrassa

A bet for contemporaneity

We are initiating a new edition of the Festival Jazz Terrassa excited to be able to offer a new programming where the present dialogues with the legacy of a genre that is constantly reinventing itself so that it doesn’t lose the battle against contemporaneity. This is one of the main points of this event, embracing the history of jazz with all of its shades, edges and subterfuges, to keep looking forward and betting for the jazz that is to come. At the same time, the FJT keeps supporting the city’s cultural texture and all of its parallel activities, like expositions, documentaries, workshops, contests, jam sessions and dancing swing meetings.

In this manner, the 42^nd Festival Jazz Terrassa in its fifth historic decade of life with an exciting and expansive programming inspired in the universal character of jazz, at the same time as it keeps and reinforces its outreach spirit. The comeback of the Picnic Jazz this year, one of the big novelties of this edition – along with the release of the Picnic Xic -, and the incorporation of new locations outdoors, reinforces the commitment to make jazz accessible to a wide and diverse audience.

In this edition some totems of the history of jazz are going to be visiting us, such as Monty Alexander, a musician with a unique personality that mixes with the traditional Jamaican rhythms. These two figures of note from the new New York scene will also not go unnoticed: the pianist Gerald Clayton, leading a formation of great talents, and the battery Ulysses Owens Jr. in its comeback to the Festival now as the lead of Generation Y, a quintet of emerging figures willing to reformulate the bop language.

In the list of international names, we could highlight Paolo Fresu and Omar Sosa with the debut of the Cuban pianist in the city of Terrassa. Chano Dominguez, another master of the piano shinning on his own merit, is also returning to the Festival to recreate the universe of Michel Pettrucianni with the trumpeter Flavio Boltro as its faithful partner.

The North-American singer Robin McKelle is also going to be doing her first show in Terrassa, she is going to give a night concert to invoke the spirit of the great lady of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald. This year the traditional “Nit de Blues” is bringing us closer to the electric blues of the Californian soloist E.C. Scott, a lady of the soul blues with a career more than fifty years long.

The program is full of a very wide range of record releases from the Catalan scene that amplify the bet of the Club for the local talent during the regular season. In this edition we will be able to discover the new projects of Lluís Coloma, Roger Mas, Lluc Casares, Oriol Vallès or Lluís Capdevila and Luismi Segurado in a special concert devoted to the art of the trio.

On its 20^th edition, The Jazzrerrasman Prize rests with the saxophonist Joan Albert (Barcelona, 1950). An active musician since 1973 and a key piece in the tradition and dissemination of the Jazz in Terrassa, where he has participated and performed a total of 248 times.

Aside from the programming in the Nova Jazz Cava, emblematic headquarters of the Festival, which will host up to 17 performances, the live music experience is still on our region, and it is reaping the fruits of the bet of the FJT to keep spreading the bug of jazz, and it is expanding to new locations such as Plaça del Rector Homs or the stage at the Parc Sant Jordi.

The Picnic Jazz is back at the Parc de Vallparadís, after three years of absence, with a new childhood space and the the kick start of the big band Barcelona Jazz Orquestra to a day with four first level music performances.

The jazz party is also bringing back the gastronomic route Menjazz. In this edition the voice of the pioneers and promoters of the jazz in the city, as well as the new generations that have been brought up with the Festival is immortalized with the premiere of the documentary “Terrassa és Jazz”, directed by Antoni Verdaguer.

The offer is diverse, intense and extense with sixty concerts and activities which will happen in 22 different locations in Terrassa, Matadepera, Vacarisses and Viladecavalls during 19 days. The organization by the Club de Jazz de Amics de les Arts i JM thanks the close to 200 musicians involved, the support of the institutions, sponsors, collaborators and invites you to participate.

An edition dedicated to the musical journalist, member of Jazz Terrassa and friend, Karles Torra (Caldes de Montbui 1960 – Terrassa 2022).

OFFICIAL IMAGE

The official image, designed by the studio from Baku, will lead a dynamic campaign with different photographic images of protagonists of the city's music scene.