Closing night of the Riviera Maya Jazz Festival in Playa del Carmen, Mexico opened with an unexpected experimental fusion from Alex Otaola. The performance featured a unique, live soundtrack to a collage of 1950s video clips that seemed to leave the audience either loving or hating it. Jazz great Richard Bona amped up the energy when he jumped onto stage. Festival goers were on their feet, dancing in the sand before Bona earned a heartily applauded exit. As the hour reached midnight, the Yellowjackets eased into the final act with smooth jazz that soothed the soul…
One half of this music, the melody, was all pomade and sugar and sentimentality. The other half was savage, temperamental and vigorous. Yet the two went artlessly well together and made a whole. ~ Herman Hesse, Steppenwolfe
The bold and sassy rhythms of jazz are beguiling and seductive. Romantic serenades, heart-wrenching soul or spicy latin fusion, jazz music delves deep and evokes vivid emotion. The sensual notes of jazz dance along the coast of the Riviera Maya, hopping from wave to wave before ascending to the starry night sky, at destination weddings year-round. But, the Riviera Maya Jazz Music Festival is an event true jazz aficionados are not to miss. A musical experience unmatched, jazz greats gather on the sands of Mamitas Beach for a three-day music fest that fuses lively “blood-raw music” with Caribbean paradise.
The 9th annual Riviera Maya Jazz Festival takes place November 24th through November 26th. This years artists include:
Natalia Lafourcade
Jeff Lorber
Randy Brecker
Hnos Toussaint & Enrique Pat
Jon Anderson
Stanley Clarke
Alex Otaola
Richard Bona
Yellowjackets
“Jazz – spontaneous creativity.” ~Kenny Burrell
For me too, its raw and savage gaiety reached an underworld of instinct and breathed a simple honest sensuality. ~Herman Hesse, Steppenwolfe
