The most outstanding jazz and folk artists from New Orleans land in Madrid this weekend thanks to the Holanola Lab-Fest. More than a usual contest, it is a laboratory where musicians exchange their work and life experiences with artists and the audience in our country.
This itinerant exhibition has already visited the cities of Ourense and Santiago de Compostela and lands today and tomorrow at Café Berlín in the capital. On Friday, Sabine Mc Calla, Sam Doores, Casey Jane, and Steph Green will perform at this venue, and on Saturday, it will be the turn of Duff Thompson, Max Bien Kahn, and Gina Leslie.
Although the atmosphere of the event revolves around New Orleans - the city where jazz was born - the Holanola festival is eclectic and has no style limits, so the concerts are not isolated but open for musicians to collaborate with each other.
Therefore, the program includes from more local sounds to universal ones like rock and roll. "We have brought ten musicians from the US to live and explore what we have. On this journey, they have discovered the tambourines of traditional Galician music. It is a cultural exchange between New Orleans and the Iberian Peninsula aimed at creating an artistic community rather than just a festival," explains Martín Calviño, the festival director.
This is the third edition of the festival that works with a community of American musicians that emerged after Hurricane Katrina, artists who play on the street and are heirs of the folk performers from the 1920s who strummed the guitar during train journeys.
The concerts are complemented by a vermouth session with surprise performances that will take place tomorrow at Café Varela. In it, Gonzo, Fernando Navarro, and Jacobo Rivero will address the theme that the music of New Orleans has not only been an artistic expression but also became a tool of cultural resistance, preserving the city's identity.