Gasteiz Jazz Festival

[Lois Gilbert]

Norah Jones, Ornette Coleman stars at the Gasteiz Jazz Festival


From July 15th to 21st, the capital of Alava will welcome the best artists, the jazz fans and, in short, everybody who wishes to spend a week with the best music.

Norah JonesComposer, singer and pianist Norah Jones, Ornette Coleman, one of the great jazz innovators, film director Spike Lee and Spain's Niño Josele and Buika will be the main attraction of the 31st Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival de Jazz held in the Basque city from July 15th to 21st. During these seven days, the capital of Alava will welcome the best artists, the jazz fans and, in short, everybody who wishes to spend a week with the best music.

One week a year Vitoria-Gasteiz takes over the baton of New Orleans and becomes the world-wide capital of jazz. As an international reference, Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival celebrates its 31 festival in 2007 and it is the most prestigious jazz festival in Spain and represents an unmissable date for music lovers.

Four stages, one jazz seminar, a brass band, jam sessions … a complete program that allows us to enjoy 24 hours of the best jazz. Beginning early in the morning, the music becomes part of the life of the city. In the afternoon, it is focused in the Principal Theatre and during the evening the action takes place in Mendizorrotza Sports Arena and in several clubs.

What is the secret of Vitoria-Gasteiz? The combination of big stars with the names who will write the history of the music in the near future. Many important artists have appeared for the first time in Spain in the Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival: Bobby McFerrin, Roy Hardgrove, Madeleine Peyroux, Jamie Cullum, ...

Sonny Rollins and Wynton Marsalis were the last big stars to come to Vitoria-Gasteiz, and the city commemorated Marsalis’ stay with a statue of the man himself in the Paseo de la Florida, and he paid homage to the city performing for the first time a musical suite dedicated to Vitoria-Gasteiz.

In short, seven evenings in which the joy and the nightlife of the jazz turn the green colour of the capital of Alava into blue and black. One week a year New Orleans concedes its place as the capital of jazz to Vitoria-Gasteiz, where the best jazz in the world can be heard.