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| Dixieland Festival of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. The 13th International Dixieland Festival of Tarragona will be held for the thirteenth time between the 3rd and 9th April 2006. The festival will take a special look at the world of big bands and sessions for school children will be increased up to 4, 500 places--1500 more than last year. The festival in Tarragona will gather 25 bands, four more than last year. For the first time, the city of Reus will also participate in the festival thanks to the cooperation established between the Dixieland Festival of Tarragona and the Trapezi Festival of Reus (focused on the circus) and their respective City Councils. For this reason, the traditional horse-drawn cart provided by the main sponsor of the festival of Tarragona, Cerveza Mbar, will also visit Reus on 4th April in the afternoon with the Bulgarian-Catalan band Cooperativa Rakia. Also for the first time, the festival is cooperating with another European festival, the Dixieland Festival from the Portuguese city of Cantanhede, which will take place this year for the third time. In 2004, the Portuguese organisers came to Tarragona to learn about the details. The agreement has materialized in the exchange of the Catalan Pixi Dixi band for the Portuguese Dixie Gang. Big bands will be this year's core. The organisation of the festival didn't intend to present a uniform view, so the three participating bands will offer three completely different repertoires. The Italian band Millennium Bugs' Orchestra, from the area of Florence, will be presenting on Saturday 8th--and for the first time in Spain--an homage to Frank Sinatra, on occasion of the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of one of the most famous voices at international level. Santiago Ausern and the Original Jazz Orchestra Taller de Msics will be the other famous names at the festival. On Friday 7th, they will be revising a great part of the repertoire of one of the most famous pop groups in Spain in the 80's, Radio Futura, and also of their epilogue Juan Perro. Finally, the third band will be the local group Big Band Aula Music's from Tarragona, that played for the first time in the 2004 festival. Now, two years later, they are offering a new programme that includes melodies with Catalan roots and swing rhythms in a performance that is co-produced by the festival itself. Ticket purchase will be required for the performances by the Millennium band and by Santiago Ausern, while invitations will be necessary for the local big band. One of last year's negative points was the lack of enough places at school sessions. For this reason, the organisation has increased the availability of places going from six to nine sessions and from two to three days. A total amount of 4, 500 schoolchildren will be able to enjoy the performances offered by Jazz Classic Quintet, a band formed by members of the Vella Dixieland, one of the first bands to bring jazz closer to children and which encouraged the organisers from Tarragona to include these sessions in the festival. The nine performances will be held, as usual, on the main stage of the Metropol Theatre. The starting and closing concerts of the festival will be respectively led by La Vella Dixieland, this time with the singer Marian Barahona and the trumpeter Josep M. Farrs (Metropol Theatre, night of Wednesday 5th, free), and by Llibert Fortuny Elctric Quintet, the most successful Catalan saxophonist at international level (Caixa Tarragona Concert Hall, Sunday 9th in the evening, charity ticket). This way, the festival will include from the most genuine Dixieland to one of the most modern and international names of the new Catalan jazz. Other important groups that will participate in the festival are: the Milano Hot Jazz Orchestra, the Cie Du Dixie Blue Band, the Gumbo Jass Band and the Sitjazz. The Italian band Milano Hot Jazz Orchestra was formed in 1977 with the intention of reproducing the sound of the bands of the 30's. For this reason, many of their arrangements are of those days. Their repertoire includes themes by Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman. The Milano has played in Germany, England, Switzerland, France and the USA. They are playing in Spain for the first time. The French Cie Du Dixie Blue Band will probably stand out for their staging. Mornings and evenings, they will go around on a Mississipi boat playing along the different itineraries of the festival. This is usually one of the sections of the festival with more attendance. This will be another premiere in Spain. Finally, in the Catalan section, the Gumbo Jass Band will be the protagonist of the second night at the Metropol Theatre, offering one of the great concerts. This is the first time they have taken part in the festival. The Sitjazz Band will offer their new CD, co-produced by the festival, like the performance by Quartet de Clarinets de Tarragona or the photo exhibition by Marco Gallo, born in Madrid but living in Cambrils. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |