Veronica Swift, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Chris Potter light up a colourful Canarias Jazz & más festival

Taylor Swift is currently sparking the biggest hype in the music industry worldwide. And the audience at the beautiful Teatro Pérez Galdós was also completely enthralled by another artist who shares her name, rising jazz vocal star Veronica Swift. From the very first moment, the singer puts on a gigantic show bursting with energy. The American can sing anything. Hard rock, jazz, pop. Her voice suddenly duels with the guitarist in her band, sounding like a second guitar. And she doesn't need a trombonist, she imitates the instrument incredibly well with her voice. The fact that Ms. Swift is performing at the Canarias Jazz & más festival in a theatre and not in the large football stadium in Las Palmas is due to her first name. Because the woman who whirls around the stage like a female Freddie Mercury, the pole of the microphone stand almost always in her hand, is called Veronica and not Taylor, but musically she is certainly not the worse Swift. Anyone who has only known Veronica Swift from recordings and her jazz albums will have rubbed their eyes in amazement in the Canary Islands capital at what this thoroughbred artist can do, even if she sometimes went a little over the top with her show.

The day before, Dave Douglas and his new project ‘Gifts’ played no show, just incredibly good music in the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, located directly on the long city beach Playa de Las Canteras. With saxophonist Jon Irabagon, drummer Ian Chang and guitarist Rafiq Bhatia, who always comes up with surprising, bass-heavy sounds, the US trumpeter plays music that quotes Miles Davis or Billy Strayhorn, linking jazz history, the present and the future with seemingly boundless creativity, all in a rhythmically electrifying setting. A festival highlight!

The Buenos Aires Jazz Café didn't even exist at the last edition of the festival, but this year several concerts took place in the narrow, intimate jazz club in the historic centre of Las Palmas. Such as the one by Alto For Two, a quintet with two bandleaders who both play alto saxophone and have just released their debut album of the same name. Irene Reig from Spain and Kika Sprangers from the Netherlands complement each other perfectly in their band with the rhythm section led by the great Spanish pianist Xavi Torres, with their vocal power on their instruments, their interplay, their different sound colours in the interesting original compositions flowing in the waters of modern mainstream.

The Canarias Jazz Festival not only offers concerts on all eight inhabited islands of the Canary Islands, but also a wide range of music. In the small town of Santa Brígida on Gran Canaria, 500 metres above sea level, you can listen to the Belgian-Tunisian Aleph Quintet, rising stars of the Brussels scene, and let the violin, oud, piano, electric bass and drums take you on a multi-layered musical journey to North African music, Gnawa rhythms and virtuoso jazz. Tenerife is also home to first-class musicians. In the old, beautiful former capital of the island, San Cristóbal de la Laguna, for example, with its historic town centre dating back to the 16th century, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Saxophonist Chris Potter, pianist Brad Mehldau, double bassist John Patitucci and drummer Jonathan Blake (pictured above) play in the over 100-year-old Teatro Leal, albeit without much adventurousness and always a little predictable. That certainly doesn't apply to Cécile McLorin Salvant (pictured below). Because the sets she plays on an evening are spontaneous, even on stage. Her first-class band sometimes has to change and think at lightning speed. Her concert in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the oldest theatre in the Canary Islands, the Teatro Guimerá, which dates back to 1851, thrives on these spontaneous ideas. She sings jazz standards, music by Gregory Porter or Gretchen Parlato and, at the end, the great hit of Chilean folklore, ‘Gracias a la vida’. And how she colours all these songs individually with her amazing voice!

And then there are the free open-air concerts in Santa Ana Square in the heart of Las Palmas' enchanting old town, which always attract a large audience. The musicians have to deliver. Nigerian singer and guitarist Adédèji did just that with his rousing Afro-funk, as did the fiery Serbian singer and blues guitarist Ana Popovic the following evening. US jazz trumpeter Theo Croker also played with his band on this large stage. And he played a gripping, intense set, which would perhaps have been better heard in a quieter setting in a theatre or club.