Jazz-Tastic Spring Festival

Last week’s jazz events for the Spring Festival 2007 provided by the Gibraltar Jazz Society were extremely successful. The first one sponsored by Gibtelecom which took place at the O’Callaghan Eliott Hotel veranda bar was well attended with the audience waiting patiently to be treated to a superb evening of jazz by top musicians. The twenty one year old virtuoso jazz saxophonist from Malaga Enrique Oliver was the star for the session with Juan Sainz on drums; well-known for his involvement with many top artists in Spain and the rest of Europe. Most unfortunate was the fact that Marcelo Saenz and Ivan Gonzalez who were also special guests for the evening were turned back at the frontier because one of them lost his ID card however, despite this incident the event went ahead with great success.

Atsuko Shimada was piano for the evening with husband Juan Galiardo close by and also sitting in on selected tunes. Behind the double bass stood George Posso very excited with this very special encounter with fine musicians.

The quartet started off with the very popular “All the Things You Are” and from then on it was time to sit back and enjoy the rest of a most entertaining set played par excellence, with a selection which included “I’ll Remember April” and “How Deep Is The Ocean” and leading on to a well-deserved long break.

The second set was equally as exciting and finished well past midnight with the audience wanting more. Special thanks to Gibtelecom for sponsoring this event.

FRIDAY JAZZ AT THE STREET PARTY

Jazz continued the next day and formed part of the Spring Festival street party with a live performance by the Cathedral of St Mary the Crowned with a great number of musicians and singers taking part. Together with Enrique Oliver and Atsuko Shimada who featured the previous night we had Marcelo Saenz on guitar, Ivan Gonzalez on trumpet, Dany Torres on tenor sax, Juan Galiardo on piano and drums, Mitch Jansen on trumpet and vocals, John Levy on tenor sax and Maria Cavaes on vocals. The local musicians and singers who also feature included Anselmo Torres on tenor sax, Norman Tonna on drums, Nicky Gonzalez on alto sax, Helen Gustafson on vocals, Stephanie Rodriguez on vocals, Denis Mander on vocals and Tito Chipolina on vocals.

The band kicked off with “Sonny Moon for Two” with Enrique and Ivan playing duets and almost sounding like a big band. The first of the singers Stephanie gave her usual outstanding performance with two tunes entitled “Georgia” and “Moondance”.

Next was Helen Gustafson who sang an excellent “Fever” with confidence and control. Maria Cavaes came in with “How High the Moon” and “Triste”. Tito Chipolina stepped in on the second set with Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” with Denis Mander following right behind with “Where or when” and Mitch Jansen being the last of the singers with Stevie Wonder’s “Sunshine of My Life”, all singers receiving warm applause for their marvellous performance. The instrumental numbers mainly featured Enrique, Ivan and Dany but Anselmo, John, Nicky and Mitch joined in at times forming a seven piece woodwind section and with the quartet on rhythm section totalling eleven musicians on stage. It was a ‘jazz-tastic Spring Festival’; the first of it’s kind by the Gibraltar Jazz Society. A very special thanks for the Ministry of Culture for sponsoring this event; without their support this wouldn’t have been possible. Thanks also to visiting and local musicians, Father Paul for the electricity supply, Latino’s for providing extra seating facilities and our sincere apologies to the residents in the neighbourhood for any nuisance caused.

Thursday Jazz Night At The O’Callaghan Eliott Hotel

This Thursday 31st May 2007 we will have Albert Chiappe on piano with Cesar Ramirez on drums, Nicky Gonzalez on sax and George Posso on double together with guest musicians and singer. See you there!!!
Performance from 9pm to 11.30pm

Saturday Jazz at Café Solo

On Saturday jazz continues at Café Solo with “Jazz Friends” with Anselmo Torres on sax, Atsuko Shimada on piano, Louis Chipolina on bass and Norman Tonna on drums and vocals.