STELLAR LINEUP
New Mexico Jazz Festival books top talent for 13th annual event
After 13 years, it’s all about improvisation. And it’s fitting for the New Mexico Jazz Festival. The annual festival aims to bring the best performers in jazz to the Land of Enchantment.
This year’s event is the 13th, and there is a stellar lineup.
“People are always talking about the talent that we line up for the festival,” says Tom Guralnick, founder and executive director of the festival. “There is no set structure how it all comes together. It’s very fitting, because there really isn’t one way with jazz music. We always go with the flow.”
This year’s festival is already underway and runs through July 30 at venues in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos.
Tonight, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra performs at the Albuquerque Museum.
By the end of this month, the festival also will include performances by Eric Bibb, Ranky Tanky, Irma Thomas, the Dee Dee Bridgewater Quartet, Chucho Valdés and Gonzalo Rubalcaba.
Guralnick says the festival has always had high-quality performers, as well as a variety.
“These concerts are meant to draw a lot of people,” he says. “We are looking towards bigger audiences. In some cases, we have to fill 800-seat theaters. We have to keep 40,000 people entertained in the streets of Albuquerque at Summerfest. We definitely want artists that are going to have wide appeal. For Summerfest, we are bringing in Irma Thomas, who will be the first woman to headline the event in a while. It’s been more maledominated in the past.”
Guralnick says the festival is continuing its partnership with St. John’s College Music on the Hill in Santa Fe.
It is also one several free events offered during the festival.
The South Carolina-based quintet Ranky Tanky performs the timeless, hip-swingin’ music of the West African Gullah tradition at Music on the Hill at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 18. The band will open the eighth annual Route 66 Summerfest weekend at the Outpost Performance Space on Friday July 20. Ranky Tanky will also perform at the Taos Mesa Brewing Mothership on Thursday, July 19, in an affiliated NMJF event, Guralnick says.
“They use a lot of jazz elements in their music,” he says. “They also have their own language. This allows us to collabroate with them in the jazz workshops.”
Guralnick is also looking forward to having Eric Bibb return to Albuquerque.
The blues musician is the nephew of John Lewis, who grew up in Albuquerque.
Lewis was jazz pianist, composer and arranger who is known as the founder and musical director of the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet.
“John Lewis was a great educator all his life,” Guralnick says. “He was raised in Albuquerque and gave to this community. We also incorporate a youth jazz clinic.”