San Sebastián (EFE).- Soft waves breaking against the great cube of the Kursaal. A calm, subtle, measured swell. Waves of jazz, blues, country, gospel and other sounds that rock the 1,800 spectators delivered to the voice of Norah Jones.
The soloist from New York has captured the attention of this second day of the Jazzaldia in San Sebastián with an elegant recital in the Kursaal auditorium, next to a today friendly Cantabrian sea, which caressed the shore of Zurriola beach with a similar cadence.
The large cube designed by Rafael Moneo, filled to the last location. And that the tickets to listen to Norah Jones have gone down in history for being the most expensive (95 euros) ever sold in the 58 editions of the San Sebastian Jazz Festival.
It is the “big star” of this edition, as its director, Miguel Martín, has admitted, and Jazzaldia has thrown the house out of the window to have it this Saturday. Jones is the most expensive contract in the entire successful history of the festival.
Nine Grammy Awards
It is not for nothing that she is a great diva who has won nine Grammy Awards and has sold more than 50 million records since her debut in 2002 with “Come Away With Me”. She is a great lady of those who try to impose unaffordable conditions on photographers, at least in San Sebastián.
We will have to remember her -the 1,800 lucky ones- or imagine her sitting in front of the glossy piano at the Jazzaldia, wearing a long red dress to the feet, a checked camisole and black and white stripes, accompanied by Chris Morrisey on bass, Dan Lead on guitars, and Brian Blade behind the drums.
His sentimental partner, Peter Remm, played the Hammond B3 on tour, but today he did not go on stage at the Kursaal.
Jones, who does not lavish himself excessively on stage, has arrived in San Sebastián from Cap Roig in Calella de Palafrugell and will end his time in Spain in Marbella.
The New Yorker does not stop anywhere. Luxury and elegance with a salty flavor and sea breeze.
He has made a firm start with “Just a Little Bit”, after which he has approached “I’m Alive” on the piano, the song he shared with Jeff Tweedy, the leader of Wilco, to advance subtly through his repertoire, which is based on jazz to incorporate without complex nuances of blues, gospel, some pop and quite a bit of country.
The delicious “Sunrise” has moved an audience in love, to raise the tone towards the gospel choruses of “Can We Believe”.
Halfway through the recital, she’s left the piano shelter and slung the guitar to perform an already openly country hiatus with the energetic “Don’t Know What It Means”, and slow down again on “Rosie’s Lullaby”, a subtle ballad accompanied only by Dan Lead’s ‘steel guitar’.
A turn of the screw towards blues with “All a Dream” and a return to piano and jazz -“Don’t Know Why”-, with the permission of the most poppy “Chasing Pirates”, until in the last part of the concert he has aroused the public by interpreting the long-awaited “Come Away With Me”.
In the first batch of encores, Norah Jones has dared with nothing less than Tom Waits and his wonderful ballad “Long Way Home”, to close the concert, after being requested again by the public, with “Turn Me On”, from her acclaimed first album.
Guitars in La Trinidad
Now that Jones’s long-awaited recital is over, the San Sebastian jazz night moves to its most beloved stage.
The charming Plaza de la Trinidad, the guardian jar of the essences of Jazzaldia, opens today with the guitar as the main protagonist.
The first in the double session is the American Juian Lage, leading a trio made up of Joer Roeder on bass and Joey Baron on drums.
Lage, who explores the contribution to jazz of the sounds of the electric guitar, published in 2022 the album “View With a Room”, the second he edits with the Blue Note label, the result of which he will show in this first part of the night recital in Trinidad.
Behind him is the Bill Frisell quartet, also headed by the Baltimore musician on electric guitar, accompanied by Greg Tardy on brass, Gerald Clayton on piano and organ, and Johnathan Blake on drums.
He passed through Jazzaldia in its 56th edition, although then in a trio formation, and on this occasion he presents his new album “Four”, his third album with Blue Note, in which he reinterprets some of his previous compositions and adds nine original songs.