Celebrate At The Panama Jazz Festival
During the month of January each year, jazz festivals are held in several cities all over the globe. One such invigorating and uplifting annual jazz festival is the Panama Jazz Festival which is held at several venues all over the multi-ethnic Central American city of Panama. The Panama Jazz Festival which is celebrating its sixth anniversary this year brings together the world’s best jazz artists and students from all over the globe who come to Panama City to celebrate the mission statement of the festival which is to celebrate the world’s diversity through jazz.
This year the festival which is expected to attract more than 16000 attendees will be held from Monday the 12th of January through Saturday the 17th of January. The festival will feature a number of events which are to be held at historical venues like the Teatro Nacional and the Plaza de la Catedral which are located in Panama City’s Old Town popularly known as Casco Viejo. This jazz festival was conceptualized and created by Boston-based Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez who founded the festival in 2003 to celebrate Panama City, which is home to the great engineering marvel and facilitator of world trade, the Panama Canal. This festival aims to bridge the gap between different cultures through the common medium of jazz in the same fashion that the Panama Canal bridges the gap between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
The festival each year honors one great musician and this year the 2009 Panama Jazz Festival is dedicated to the late Panamanian jazz great, Clarence Martin Senior who was a famous bassist, singer and composer who made great contributions to the world of Panamanian Jazz music. His works continue to influence the present generations of Jazz musicians today.
The festival will include several free and ticketed events which will showcase the talents of contemporary Jazz greats such as American jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes, Puerto Rican saxophonist Marco Pignataro and his quintet which includes Puerto jazz double bassist Edie Gomez and renowned drummer Billy Drumond, American singer Luba Mason whose quintet also features the famous flutist Hubert Laws, bassist Jimmy Haslip and her husband the vocalist, Ruben Blades.
Apart from musical entertainment the festival each year also features an important educational component which is coordinated and executed by the Danilo Perez Foundation. This educational component consists of auditions for scholarships which are held during the festival. These auditions help needy Panamanian music students to get scholarships to renowned centers of musical instruction such as New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and the Conservatorio de Puerto Rico.
Further all the international artists who participate in the festival also teach a one hour master class to music students and anyone who is interested in the genres of art, culture and music. This year these instructors will include ChuchoValdes, John Patitucci, Brian Blade, and pianist Edna Golandsky amongst others. The educational institutions who are taking part in this year’s festival namely the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, Puerto Rico Conservatory, and the Golandsky Piano Institute will also be conducting clinics and workshops during the festival.
Under this program the New England Conservatory Ensemble will host workshops on ensemble, flute, trumpet, guitar, composition, drum, bass, piano, and saxophone while the Berklee college departments of Music Production and Engineering and Music Synthesis will also hold clinics on recording,mixing, and live sound. All these classes will be held at the Ascanio Arosemena Educational Center, on the Panama Canal Administration Campus from the 12th to the 16th of January.
The sixth Panama Jazz festival promises to be a great bonanza for the jazz lover and if by chance you are planning to have a musical start to the new year by attending this exhilarating jazz festival, you may want to check out the attractive rates being offered by several city center hotels like the Coral Suites Hotel Panama City, the Crowne Plaza Hotel Panama City and the Intercontinental Miramar Panama Hotel specially for the festival.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Fun, South America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 17th, 2009 at 1:08 am
That sounds like a good time. I’m always looking for an excuse to escape subzero weather. i’d never heard of this before but it sounds pretty big. thanks for the heads up.
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:43 am
I love jazz music and am always interested in checking out different music festivals around the world. How would you say this compares to some of the other big jazz festivals around the world?
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 pm
The Panama Jazz festival is relatively young compared to other global jazz festivals but it does open your eyes to an new genre of music( mostly Latin jazz). Have a look at their website for videos of participating artists.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:01 am
I love jazz music and it sounds like it’d be a great trip to make sometime…until then I’ll just have to rely on videos
February 7th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Wish I could have been there, sounds like i missed out on a good time.
June 19th, 2009 at 4:48 am
While it is not exactly the Panama Jazz festival this Saturday is the Panama Music Festival at Plaza Catedral, Plaza Herrera, Paseo Esteban Huertas, Teatro Anita Villalaz, Arco Chato y La Casona. The Festival begins at 4 PM, FREE and will feature a broad range of musical styles such as Tipico, Jazz, Tropical, Reggaeton, Rock, Clásico. For more information call 209-6300
June 20th, 2009 at 2:32 am
Thanks for the information.
July 7th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Ive seen videos of last year’s show… absolutely outstanding. Beautiful country, great music, what more could you ask?
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