• Home
• Destination
• Ticker
• About
• Store
• Newsletter
• Blog
• Forum
• Contact

Riviera Maya Jazz Festival 2011

Now in its 9th season, this event will take place from the 24th to 26th of November 2011. The musical celebration, which over the years has succeeded in capturing the hearts of music lovers far and wide, arrives renewed with incredible artists, ready to take Playa del Carmen by storm.

Great legends and Grammy winners have graced the stage of Playa Mamitas during the annual festival, including George Duke, Four Play, Sergio Mendes, Herbie Hancock, Ivan Lins, David Sanborn, Earl Klugh, Armando Manzanero and Sacbe among many others, delighting the Riviera Maya public and making a name for the Riviera Maya Jazz Festival.

November 24th

By the late 1970s, keyboardist and composer Jeff Lorber had become a prominent figure in the new movement known as jazz fusion – a marriage of traditional jazz with elements of rock, R&B, funk and other electrified sounds.

Lorber and his band, the Jeff Lorber Fusion, first honed their craft in the Portland, Oregon, club scene and rapidly expanded their reach to a national and international audience via a combination of complex harmonies, unconventional time signatures and compelling rhythms.

In subsequent years, Lorber dropped the term “fusion” from his billing as the movement evolved into what is currently known as contemporary jazz. Still, he continued to explore the innovative, improvisational potential of grafting other musical forms to the jazz idiom.

November 24th

*Natalia Lafourcade *

Natalia took flute lessons, dance, painting, theater, piano, guitar, saxophone and singing. When she was 10 ventured into Mexican traditional music.

She won several MTV Latin awards and was nominated for a Latin Grammy.

She recorded her first instrumental album with the National Youth Orchestra from Veracruz. Last year she was invited to participate in a concert with “La Big Band Jazz de Mexico”, this was one of her dreams.

Thanks to this, she decides to form a jazz quartet with which she gave a series of concerts in a very well known place in Mexico City.

November 24th

Randy Brecker

Randy Brecker has been shaping the sound of Jazz, R&B and Rock for more than four decades.

His trumpet and flugelhorn performances have graced hundreds of albums by a wide range of Artists from James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen and Parliament­Funkadelic to Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan, David Sanborn, Jaco Pastorius, Horace Silver and Frank Zappa.

The following years Randy found a balance between touring the world with his own bands and guesting onstage and in the studio with a wide array of artists.

As a composer, performer and in-demand Yamaha clinician, Randy Brecker continues to influence and inspire young musicians around the world.

He feels like he is just starting out!
Toussaint Bros & Enrique Pat

November 25th

Enrique and Fernando Toussaint, with keyboardist Enrique Pat from Aguamala will make a special tribute to the career of Eugenio Toussaint (1954-2011).

With a completely new project and songs composed specially to make a tribute to one of the most remarkable and important jazz musicians and composers in Mexico. He performed with “Sacbè” in several editions of the Riviera Maya Jazz Festival

November 25th

Jon Anderson

Jon Anderson is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable voices in progressive rock as the lead vocalist and creative force behind YES.

Anderson was the author and a major creative influence behind the series of epics produced by YES and his role in creating such complex pieces as “Close to the Edge”, “Awaken”, and especially “The Gates of Delirium” was central to the band’s success.

Additionally, Anderson co-authored the group’s biggest hits, including “I’ve Seen All Good People,” Roundabout,” and “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”.

It is a commonly held misconception that Jon Anderson sings falsetto, a vocal technique which artificially produces high, airy notes by using only the ligamentous edges of the vocal cords; however, Jon Anderson does not sing falsetto. His normal singing (and speaking) voice is naturally above the tenor range. In a 2008 interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jon stated, “I’m an alto tenor and I can sing certain high notes, but I could never sing falsetto, so I go and hit them high.”

November 25th

Stanley Clarke

Recording artist, performer, composer, conductor, arranger, producer and film score composer, Stanley Clarke is one of the most celebrated bass players in the world with 36 years career as a bass virtuoso.

Clarke became the first bassist in history to headline tours, sell out shows worldwide, and craft albums that achieved gold status. He was the first bassist in history to double on acoustic and electric bass with equal virtuosity, power and fire.

In his ongoing efforts to push the bass to new limits, he has invented two new instruments, the piccolo bass and the tenor bass. Both of these instruments have enabled Clarke to extend his melodic range to higher and more expressive registers and extended the range of his music.

November 26th

• Alex Otaola*

In 1994 began his musical career professionally, he joined SANTA SABINA – A recognized Mexican rock band-. Later in 98 he became part of other bands such as LA BARRANCA and in 2009 of SAN PASCUALITO REY, also in that year created an amazing duet with Iraida Noriega.

At that time he played music in the film “The Man with the Movie Camera” – Dziga Vertov, 1928 – in the Cineteca Nacional and was selected to play for the Latin-American premiere of the restored version of the classic “Metropolis” – Fritz Lang, 1929 – in the 2010 edition of the “Festival Internacional de Expresión en Corto.” Thanks to ‘FRACTALES’ he is the first Mexican guitarist whose music has been included on the CD-sampler of the magazine ‘Guitararra Total’.

Over 15 years of career he has performed in the main forums and festivals of Mexico and in major cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toulouse, Berlin, Dublin,Madrid, Barcelona, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima.

November 26th

Richard Bona

Ever since his solo debuts in 1999, Richard Bona has defended the idea of music that’s universal: generous and accessible to all.

Richard was playing the balafon by the time he was four, and then he taught himself to play the guitar. Later, in the capital of Douala, a jazz-club owner played him records by bassist Jaco Pastorius; Richard decided he’d teach himself to play the bass as well. In 1989 he went to Europe, living in Germany for a while before moving to France to complete his bass education. In 1995 Richard went to New York. For the next few months he visited the city’s famous jazz clubs and worked with Michael and Randy Brecker, Pat Metheny, Larry Coryell, Mike Stern, Steve Gadd, Joe Zawinul, even singer Harry Belafonte.

The musician found his audience immediately: his brio as a fluid instrumentalist made everything seem easy, and his slender singing-voice had real melody; coupled with these musical talents were his gifts as a natural showman, for Bona appeared to be born for the stage. Above all, his compositions naturally took in different sources: Africa, jazz, fusion… Bona was still highly sought-after as an instrumentalist, and he regularly received calls from some of the greatest musicians.

November 26th

Yellowjackets

In 1979, the singer and guitarist, Robben Ford assembled a group of veteran musicians to record the album: The Inside Story.

Among them was the drummer Russell Ferrante and bassist Jimmy Haslip, and promptly noted in the group certain chemistry that would lead to the formation of Yellowjackets, The album debut “Yellowjackets, ” recorded in 1981, was the beginning of a great public and critical success that continues to this day.

Yellowjackets celebrate 30 years as one of the premiere jazz groups of our time with the release of “Timeline” on March 15. William Kennedy is back in the drum chair after a 10 year hiatus, and “Timeline” features a guest appearance by Yellowjackets alumni, Robben Ford. Yellowjackets first recorded in 1980 with Robben on guitar.

The energy and creativity sparked by the quartet’s interaction, honed over three decades now, results in one of Yellowjackets’ finest albums, and it sounds like that there is plenty of gas left in the tank.

Riviera Maya Jazz Festival