Mercedes Zabaleta
San Sebastián (EFE).- Ben Harper has offered a lesson in vibrant music without labels on the third day of the Jazzaldia in San Sebastián. Folk, blues, rock’n’roll, reggae. Everything has a place in the music of Californian Ben Harper, a resounding vocalist and guitarist who has made eclecticism his hallmark and who has shown this Sunday at the Kursaal in San Sebastián that labels are not his thing.
tagless music
Harper has been in his debut at the San Sebastian Jazz Festival with his usual band “The Innocents Criminals”, a traveling companion since its inception, saving some intermittencies in which it was supported by “Blind Boys of Alabama” or “Relentless 7”.
Adrian “Alex” Painter (guitar), Darwin Johnson (bass), Oliver Charles (drums), Christopher “CJ” Joyner (keyboard), Leon Mobley (percussion) have wrapped Harper in the carousel of musical experiences that has been the recital.
More than half an hour in which there has been space for almost spiritual recollection and for the most frenetic rock and roll led by this Californian who grew up surrounded by music, since his mother was a singer and his father a percussionist, and who spent his childhood in his grandparents’ store full of records, books and, of course, guitars.
Before a Kursaal that was sold out, the concert began with “Bellow Sea Level” sung “a cappella” by Harper and the members of his band.
intimate versions
The folk air “Diamonds on the inside” has given way to “Burn To Shine”. A theme seasoned with reggae notes with which the revolutions of the auditorium have begun to rise. It was followed by another of Harper’s essentials: “Dont’ Give Up On Me Down”.
With another of her classics, “Steal My Kisses”, Harper has brought out her “lap steel”, an instrument on which she has shown her mastery, and has encouraged the audience to sing along to the choruses.
At this point in the concert, the band has withdrawn from the stage. Harper has been left alone with his guitar to offer some intimate versions of “Walk Away”, “Acoustic”, “Another Lonely Day” and “Giving Ghosts”. The only song from his latest album that was offered to the San Sebastian public.
Rhythm has returned with the frenetic rock of “Say You will” and with the Jamaican air of “Two hands”, which has concluded with the audience on their feet dancing to the Jamaican rhythm of the song and Harper himself jumping on stage.
The encore “Amen Omen”, which has included a nod to Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’on Heaven’s Door”, has closed a round concert.
Jazz from Africa in Trinidad
During this third day of the San Sebastian festival, the Japanese pianist Yosuke Yamashita (Tokyo 1942) has received the Donostiako Jazzaldia 2023 award, an award that he will share with the trumpeter Enrico Rava and Abdullah Ibrahim, the South African musician who stars tonight in the first part of the evening in Plaza de la Trinidad.
On his sixth visit to the Jazzaldia, Abdullah Ibrahim goes to the stage in the square in the old part of San Sebastian with a trio. The subtlety of his music, in which echoes of traditional South African roots and jazz resonate, achieves a musical emulsion that borders on the religious and the modern.
At 88 years old, this pioneer of jazz in Africa whose beginnings in the genre were sponsored by Duke Ellington, has offered a lesson in good practice before an audience of which he is already well-known.
He has been succeeded on stage by the young London saxophonist Nubya Garcia, representative of the new generation of jazz figures from the British capital.
Daughter of a Guyanese mother and a Trinidadian father, Nubya Garcia studied music from an early age and grew up listening to her father’s records that ranged from reggae, to jazz, to funk and soul. Some influences that she has absorbed in her compositions.
Garcia presents his first album, “Source”, which he published in 2020, with new versions and arrangements.