We enjoyed the 54th version of Jazzaldia, the local jazz festival, at the end of July. The organizers do a terrific job – there are many stages and lots of free concerts in addition to paid concerts in several venues around the city. Opening night we saw the legendary Joan Baez – for free, right on Zurriola beach. Joan, who was one concert away from concluding her “Fare Thee Well” farewell tour was an inspiration. We read into her background and she’s led quite an interesting life. Apparently, she speaks Spanish – her father was born in Mexico – but she spoke to the audience in English. Still, she sang some songs in Spanish and even one in Basque. Her commitment to human rights and justice is amazing. The crowd was huge and enthusiastic. It is difficult to estimate crowd size in open spaces, but our best guess is that there were more than 30,000 people enjoying the beachfront scene and singing along. Here are a few photos that don’t quite capture the event:
The next night we saw Joe Jackson at the Kursaal concert hall, which was not a free show but tickets cost less than 30 Euro. Joe was celebrating 40 years of music – not quite as long as Joan, but still a legendary career. He’s an energetic performer with a talented band. We knew a lot more of his music than we expected, as did the locals. He performed his 1982 hit “Steppin’ Out” just as it was recorded – bringing out a vintage 1980’s drum machine, and having his bass player perform on the glockenspiel, his guitarist play an electric organ, and his drummer only play the snare drum. Joe played all the instruments when he made the original recording. What a kick!
Sadly, when we left Joe’s concert it was raining and it continued to rain heavily over the next 3 days, which put quite a damper on our ability to enjoy the remainder of the festival's free outdoor venues. That’s alright though, next year’s Jazzaldia is already on the calendar.
Hasta luego,
Shana & Jeff
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