El Jazz y el Flamenco emergen y se desarrollan con cualidad de vehículo expresivo, a la par que válvula de escape y nexo interno, de sendas comunidades que malvivían sin apenas posibilidad de mejoría, víctimas de un sistema social injusto por naturaleza y directamente racista, que les negaba unos derechos fundamentales: el pueblo gitano y el afroamericano, respectivamente. En ambos casos, tocar, lo mejor posible, la música propia, para solaz de un público blanco bien situado en términos económico-sociales y de cierto gusto estético, representaba una de las escasísimas vías para subsistir con cierta continuidad, aun modestamente. Dentro de estas comunidades, la música irradiaba mediante intensidad cegadora, trascendía a sí misma, significaba más de lo que era, en unas comunidades hermanadas en última instancia mediante una génesis tribal purísima, estricta, cuyas profundas raíces remiten a la denominada “noche de los tiempos”. 

A música instrumental brasileira vive um ciclo de renovação ancorado em palcos de proximidade em São Paulo, com casas como o JazzB funcionando como verdadeiros laboratórios onde o encontro entre músicos e público molda repertórios, areja a improvisação e atualiza a tradição. A cada noite, formações testam o limite entre escrita e improvisação, e esse teste ganha rosto quando surgem exemplos como o do piano inventivo de Amaro Freitas (em turnês constantes pela Europa e EUA) e de Salomão Soares (presença frequente em festivais internacionais), a guitarra de Pedro Martins (vencedor do Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition) ou os sopros como os de Thiago França (Metá Metá, circulação ampla no exterior), que definem contornos de linguagem que já nascem cosmopolitas.

Flamenco Jazz represents the first — and perhaps the most fertile, rich, and meaningful — meeting ground between flamenco and jazz. It’s the most vibrant and thought-provoking blend in the history of both genres, and arguably the most significant expression of Spanish music in the last forty years. What’s more, it has spread beyond Spain, embraced by musicians around the world — proof of its truly universal dimension.

Jazz is an art form built on tradition, molded by the transatlantic currents of rhythm and resistance. Beneath its heady harmonies and soaring solos lies a history of migration, resilience, and cultural collaboration. Through the violin and voice of Yilian Cañizares, this heritage becomes audible: a synthesis of Afro-Cuban rhythms, world-class violin technique, and jazz-latin fusion. 

At the beginning of the 1940s, jazz underwent a profound transformation. In the nightclubs of Harlem—especially at Minton’s Playhouse and Monroe’s Uptown House—a group of young African American musicians began developing a new musical language that would break away from the dominant style of the time: swing. From those informal sessions, bebop emerged—a movement that would forever change the history of jazz.

Picture this: Havana, Cuba in the mid-19th century.  There is music everywhere; infectious rhythms and lively dancing make the city feel alive.  Locals tap their feet, dancing the Contradanza, a popular style of dancing based around a specific polyrhythm, the Habanera.  Fast-forward 100 years to 1956, and hear the same rhythmic pulse driving tantalizing new sounds of the Horace Silver Quintet. How did one rhythm travel thousands of miles to shape the sound of jazz and all modern music? 

El Flamenco Jazz constituye el primer mestizaje tanto del flamenco como del jazz, el más fértil y rico, el más sustancioso e interesante. Asimismo, es la mejor índole de música española de los últimos cuarenta años, la de mayor significación e inquietud. Por añadidura, también se cultiva fuera de España y por músicos extranjeros, en señal de su perfecta dimensión universal.

Jazz, which emerged in the United States at the end of the 19th century, soon found fertile ground in Mexico for its reception and transformation. Early contact between Mexican and American musicians allowed the genre to spread throughout the country, where it acquired its own characteristics through interaction with local traditions. Over more than a century, jazz in Mexico has gone through phases of introduction, consolidation, experimentation, and contemporary revitalization, becoming an essential component of national cultural life.