Wynton’s Blog

De Cadi a New Orleans a la Montreal

We played an experimental and fun concert last night to open the 30th Montreal Jazz Festival. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was joined by the great Spanish pianist Chano Dominguez and his group. We performed movements from my 'Vitoria Suite' written for the great jazz festival in that city in the Basque region of Spain and a 20 minute piece of Chano’s entitled “De Cadi a New Orleans”.

Chano was joined by Israel Suarez, master of Cajon; Blas Cordoba, a most humane and humble singer who creates the deep cry of Cante Jondo; and Tomatito, a flamenco dancer of flair, wit and elegance. We featured our fantastic musicians, all of whom play with intent to create a great time.
Before his piece, Chano said he was honored to share the stage with such great musicians.
We feel the same way about them. They are always working on rhythms and living their music. We do that too. Sing and syncopate and be natural.

An annual award given to someone in the business community was established by the festival in the name of legendary recording executive Bruce Lundvall. Before the concert, Bruce was the first recipient. The festival promoters and I had the honor of presenting it to him. We look forward to playing more concerts with Chano and his cats to become even closer to that gypsy soul. We will record both of our compositions in Vitoria later this summer.

Wynton

Concert set list:

  1. Mov. I.Inaki’s Decision
  2. Mov. III. Jason and Jasone
  3. De Cadi de New Orleans
  4. Mov. IV. Buleria El Portalon
  5. Mov. VIII. Deep Blue
  6. Mov. XII. Mendizorrotza Swing (Dan and Chano trade Piano)

Encore

  1. Mov. X. Dato Street Fiesta

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