Jazz is obviously very popular up here in the north of Mallorca, no sooner has Sa Pobla’s International Jazz festival finished (to great acclaim and even greater audience enjoyment) than Alcudia has picked up the baton for its turn.

Alcudia Jazz started on August 31st with a performance by Palma-born Esther Bosch and the Tia Cardell Group in the intimate surroundings of the Biblioteca Can Torro. The rest of the concerts, however, take place in Alcudia’s Auditorium, a terrific venue with great sound facilities.

September 8th sees a concert in which Spanish pianist Iñaki Sandovall presents his first album of modern jazz. He will be accompanied by Horacio Fumero on double bass and Peer Wyboris on drums. Then, the following week, on the 15th, it is the turn of the Kitflus Quartet. Experienced pianist Josep Mas Portet (Kitflus) gets together with an old friend, Rafael Escoté Climent and other accomplished musicians to show their virtuosity in improvised melodies. Sure to be a highly polished professional performance as well as good fun.

The Pedro Iturralde Quartet are billed for September 22nd. Pedro Iturralde is one of the most important jazz music figures in Spain, a virtuoso on the sax and clarinet.

The final concert in the festival brings American group Human Feel over to Mallorca. The group, made up of clarinet/tenor sax player Chris Speed, bass clarinet and alto sax player Andrew d’Angelo, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and drummer Jim Black, have released five recordings since their formation in 1987, the latest Galore, just this year.

Human Feel - (photo by Scott Friedlander)