Barcelona Jazz Orquestra with Leroy Jones — 22 October, Palau de la Música (Barcelona)

Jazz

Dani Alonso’s big band and the New Orleans trumpeter, commissioned by the 58th Barcelona Jazz Festival

The Barcelona Jazz Orquestra play the Palau de la Música Catalana on Thursday 22 October at nine in the evening, with trumpeter and singer Leroy Jones as guest. It’s an exclusive commission from the 58th Barcelona Jazz Festival, produced by The Project.

The programme runs through Louis Armstrong’s repertoire. The festival presents it as marking the “70 years + 1” since Armstrong’s arrival in Barcelona, in December 1955.

The big band is led by Dani Alonso, who also plays trombone. On saxophones are Víctor De Diego, Lluc Casares, Koldo Munné, Artem Zhuliev and Jaume Badrenas; on trumpets, Matthew Simon, Raül Gallego, Oriol Vallès and Víctor Carrascosa; on trombones, Alonso himself with Marina Planellas and Pablo Martín. The rhythm section is Marc Martín on piano, Albert Martínez on double bass and Esteve Pi on drums.

Jones was born in New Orleans in 1958 and while still young led the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band, the youth ensemble set up by banjoist Danny Barker. In 1991 he joined Harry Connick Jr.’s big band, where he was lead trumpet for more than twenty years, and since 2004 he has also played with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. In 1996 he recorded “Props For Pops”, an album dedicated to Armstrong.

His latest release under his own name is the double single “My Cherie Amour / Feel Like Makin’ Love”, from May 2024.

Ticket prices aren’t listed on either the festival’s page or the Palau’s own.

Text by Aina Torrents