The Festival
The Wichita Jazz Festival will be celebrating its 41st year this April with a collection of some of the world’s best-loved Latin jazz players. Since its creation, jazz has been influenced by the musics of Latin America and the Caribbean Islands: Jelly Roll Morton had his “Spanish Tinge”, Duke Ellington collaborated with Juan Tizol, and Dizzy Gillespie pulled from the deep well of Afro-Cuban music. This year the cutting-edge Afro-Peruvian Sextet, Grammy-nominated saxophonist Miguel Zenón, and the legendary Poncho Sanchez and Terence Blanchard will join us in honoring the rich tradition of Latin jazz.
The festivities will begin on April 18th at 7:30 as the Wichita Jazz Festival returns to Doc Howard’s Lounge with a concert by Gabriel Alegria and the Afro-Peruvian Sextet. Since their formation in 2005, the Afro-Peruvian Sextet has been helping define Latin jazz in the new millennium, simultaneously generating new directions for the music while staying true to their Peruvian roots. They’ve released two albums to widespread critical acclaim and have frequently been cited as innovators in today’s musical world. Tickets for this concert will be $30. The event is open to all ages.
On April 20th, guest artist Miguel Zenón will take part in an informal artist discussion at the Fisch Haus Gallery, highlighting his experience in the modern jazz world and the influence his cultural heritage has had on his music. Miguel Zenón, the recipient of multiple Grammy nominations and both the Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowship, is one of today’s great saxophone players, uniting the world of traditional jazz with Latin American folk music. This event begins at 7:30 and is free and open to the public. Come out and meet one of the world’s top jazz artists!
The following afternoon, at Evergreen Park, Miguel Zenón will be hosting a creativity workshop open to artists of all ages who are interested in the methods of a great artist.
Finally, at 7:30 on the evening of April 21st in Wichita State University’s Miller Concert Hall, Miguel Zenón and his Quartet will perform on what will surely be a fantastic double-bill with the great Terence Blanchard and the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band. Tickets for this concert will be $50.
Since the beginning of his career in the 1980s, when he played with jazz legends Lionel Hampton and Art Blakey, Terence Blanchard has been one of the top trumpeters in the jazz world. Also a highly-successful film score composer, Blanchard has worked with many of jazz’s greatest names and currently serves as the artistic director for the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz.
Mexican-American percussionist Poncho Sanchez has been one of the leading Latin jazz players for over three decades now, recording more than twenty albums and performing with artists such as Hugh Masakela and the great funk-fusion group Tower of Power. Together with Blanchard, Sanchez and his band perform a musical tribute to the music of Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo, whose work together laid the foundations for Latin jazz.
