The Buenos Aires Jazz Festival is a music festival first organized in its current form by the city government of Buenos Aires in 2002. The festival takes place in multiple venues, attracting around 36,000 spectators during each of its first few years and over 70,000 in 2012.

Overview

The Buenos Aires Jazz Festival was inspired, in part, by the after-dinner "café concerts" popular in large Argentine cities during the 1960s and '70s. This was followed by Carlos Inzillo's ''Jazzología'', which he first organized in September 1984 and remains the oldest continuously-running jazz festival in Argentina. Jazz festivals had been organized intermittently in Buenos Aires and a number of other Argentine cities, such as Rosario, La Plata and Avellaneda, during the 1990s. Defying conventional wisdom during the depths of a severe economic crisis, the city of Buenos Aires announced a Buenos Aires Jazz Festival in July 2002. This first event was held on August 6-20, and was free to the public. Featuring mostly local artists, notably

Pablo Ziegler Pablo Ziegler (born September 2, 1944) is an Argentine composer, pianist, arranger based in New York City.Oteri, Frank J"Pablo Ziegler: Making the Music Dance" NewMusicBox, July 1, 2014; accessed July 9, 2014. He is currently the leading exponent ...

and

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, it was held in three locations: Thelonious, Notorious, and The Casual Bar. The event's success led to a second festival in April 2003, with the addition of the important San Martín Cultural Centre as a venue and with the introduction of paid ticket admission. U.S. jazz vocalist Jane Blackstone was among the 2003 festival's notable international guests. Since then, the event has attracted other internationally renowned jazz artists, among them Kenny Barron,

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Ch ...

Michael Brecker Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of M ...

, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ron Carter, Dave Douglas,

David Gilmore David Gilmore (born 5 February 1964) is an American jazz guitarist. Gilmore studied at New York University with Joe Lovano and Jim McNeely. In 1987 he began working professionally with the M-Base Collective and Ronald Shannon Jackson. In the ...

, Herbie Hancock, Fred Hersch, Freddie Hubbard,

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Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Dav ...

Ralph Towner Ralph Towner (born March 1, 1940) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He plays the twelve-string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion, trumpet and French horn. Biography Towner was born i ...

Chucho Valdés Jesús Valdés Rodríguez, better known as Chucho Valdés (born October 9, 1941), is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger whose career spans over 50 years. An original member of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, in 1973 he fo ...

Randy Weston Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston (April 6, 1926 – September 1, 2018) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection. Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious ...

, and

Cassandra Wilson Cassandra Wilson (born December 4, 1955) is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. She is one of the most successful female Jazz singers and has been described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed wi ...

. Local pianist Adrián Iaies has been the festival's artistic director since 2007.''La Nación''
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buenos Aires Jazz Festival Jazz festivals in Argentina Argentine music Festivals in Buenos Aires Music festivals established in 2002 Music festivals in Argentina 2002 establishments in Argentina