Jazzaldia Award for Chucho Valdés

July 3, 2021

The San Sebastián Jazz Festival has closed the program of its 56th edition with the additions of singer José James and pianist Chucho Valdés, who will also receive the Donostiako Jazzaldia award, which will recognize his career almost 20 years after his father, Bebo Valdés, was honored.

Both musicians replace Arlo Parks and Mulatu Astatke, residents of Great Britain, who had to cancel their concerts due to the obligation to quarantine upon their return from the San Sebastián festival, which this year will host, among others, Brad Mehldau, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Silvia Pérez Cruz, Kenny Barron, Dave Douglas, Noa, Jorge Pardo, Buika, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Bill Frisell and Marc Ribot.

A total of 60 concerts, of which 29 will be free, make up an edition still marked by anti-covid measures and which its director, Miguel Martín, has defined as "absolutely extraordinary and brilliant," of "great artistic quality" and one of the "most important and attractive in recent years."

Chucho Valdés will replace Mulatu Astatke at Trinidad Square on July 22, the second day of a Jazzaldia that had already sold out tickets for this concert, so those who wish to hear the Cuban pianist will only be able to do so if there are returns after the cancellation of the performance by the Ethiopian musician.

For Valdés, who together with his siblings Maira and Rickard attended in 2003 the presentation of the Donostiako Jazzaldia award to his father, the San Sebastián Festival professes "affection and devotion." "He is one of the most admired and recognized musicians not only of Latin jazz, he is one of the icons of music respected by fans and musicians of all styles," Martín has highlighted.

But the Cuban is not the only award winner this 2021, as the Catalan big band La Locomotora Negra will also be distinguished, which this year, coinciding with its 50th anniversary, has decided to take to the stage for the last time.

The other novelty in the programming is the eclectic American vocalist José James, who made his debut at the Jazzaldia in 2016 and who now returns to replace Arlo Parks at the Kursaal auditorium on the first day of this edition which, as in the previous one, foregoes the inaugural Jazz Band Ball with free concerts at Zurriola Beach.

The festival, which will close on July 25, has sold its tickets "at such a speed," according to Martín, that it has already sold out the available passes for Trinidad Square, the Kursaal auditorium and the San Telmo museum.

The sold-out signs have also been posted for three concerts at "la Trini," those of Noa, Brad Mehldau and Bill Frisell, as well as the aforementioned Chucho Valdés; for Silvia Pérez Cruz at the Kursaal, and for those of Marcin Masecki, Marco Mezquida and Iñaki Salvador at San Telmo.

The 56th Jazzaldia will be distributed across eight venues, including Chillida Leku, where Cécile McLorin Salvant, who will be on the first day at Trinidad, will headline a prologue day on July 18.

Also, for the first time, San Sebastián will host another "festival in itself," Jazzeñe, which after Madrid, Zaragoza, Valencia and Málaga, will occupy in its seventh edition the Victoria Eugenia stage, where from the 21st to the 25th will pass Chano Domínguez Trío and seven other groups selected for this cycle of the Fundción SGAE whose objective is the internationalization of Spanish jazz.

The Jazzaldia will maintain the reduced capacities from last year at the paid venues, but will multiply by five those of the Kursaal terraces for free concerts, which will accommodate a greater number of Basque groups, as well as a "Txikijazz," which will be given "a boost" to recover its pre-pandemic format.

The festival is adding sponsorships and, after the departure of Heineken, a local beer brand has joined, which will give a new name to the venue in the Old Town, Trinitate Plaza Keler, while FCC will sponsor the performances at Victoria Eugenia.

Guuk will do the same with the Kursaal terraces. It has also created an application about the Jazzaldia, from which there will be access to concerts by 18 artists that will be broadcast in "streaming."