Tarragona will become –between 16 and 20 March– a small New Orleans, due to the Dixieland International Festival. This year’s programme is simply stunning, with over 100 live performances by groups, bands and artists coming from, besides Catalonia and Spain, Austria, France, UK, Italy or Germany. This 22nd edition will bring melodies and sounds that go from the so-called manouche jazz (aka gipsy jazz) music, to the Berlin cabaret, plus music by Renato Carosone and the unmistakable American Dixieland and swing music.
The 22nd Festival will kick off with the manouche jazz and the music by Quintette du Hot Club de France. This vitalist music style is still a reference genre within jazz music. The interpretative style of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli is still inspiring guitarists and violinists of all ages.
The 2016 Dixieland Festival will also provide us with the work by Kurt Weill, which goes from the opera and Berlin cabaret to the Broadway musicals. His repertoire has been popularised by Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holidays, Nina Simone or Frank Sinatra, among others. The Berlin singer Juliane Heinemann will actually present, in collaboration with the 22nd Dixieland International Festival, a new extensive journey across this essential German composer.
On the other hand, the show Carosones will pay tribute to Renato Carosone, who worked on the Neapolitan music and jazz on such a singular and successful way; the sound of Mediterranean swing music. Songs such as Tu vuò fà l’americano or Torero –which topped the USA music charts for 14 weeks– have been adapted from the moment they were created on a number of languages and music styles.
The purest Dixieland and swing music will be performed by Marina & The Kats, Matthieu Boré, the Sant Andreu Jazz Band and Potato Head Jazz Band, from Granada, –possibly the best Spanish Dixieland music band–, which will introduce their latest show with the incredible dancer Ksenia Parkhatskaya.
The 22nd Dixieland International Festival will also gather a number of local musicians and bands that grew and made the festival grow in the recent years.
Check our the official programme on the following link.
Text: Ivan Rodon (@irodon on Twitter)
Translation: Artur Santos (@ArturVilaniu on Twitter)
