Kyle Eastwood – Malaga Jazz Festival 2021 – Concert summary
Kyle Eastwood visited Malaga on November 7 with the music of his album ‘Cinematic’. Our collaborator Reme Díaz attended the concert and leaves us here a special article exclusively for SoundTrackFest.
Kyle Eastwood presented his concert Cinematic at the 35th Malaga Jazz Festival
Musician and composer Kyle Eastwood presented his concert Cinematic last November 7, 2021 at the Teatro Cervantes in Malaga (Spain), within the 35th Malaga Jazz Festival.
Unlike last year, when the concert had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 restrictions, this year it has even been possible to expand the capacity to answer the great demand of the public for this event, clearly one of the highlights of the Festival.
Before the concert began, Juan Antonio Vigar (Director of Málaga Procultura, the local institution that manages the Teatro Cervantes) thanked the audience its response to the Festival and he introduced Jesús Sánchez (Asociación MAHOS, collaborator in the Jazz Festival) who was in charge of giving the 2020 MalagaJazz Award to Kyle Eastwood for his musical career and his contribution to jazz.
The concert started right away with Skyfall – Main Theme, altering the order in which themes appears in the album Cinematic. The Quintet formed by Kyle Eastwood (double bass and electric bass), Andrew McCormack (piano), Chris Higginbottom (drums), Quentin Collins (trumpet and bugle) and Brandon Allen (saxophone) dazzled the public from the first notes.
After that, Kyle appreciated being at the Malaga Jazz Festival and introduced his band members and his album, Cinematic, a combination of his two passions: Jazz and Cinema. During the rest of the concert, he was introducing each theme creating a complicity atmosphere with the audience.
The program continued with The Eiger Sanction, composed by John Williams for one of the first movies directed by his father, Clint Eastwood, which was followed by a cover of Taxi Driver, the last soundtrack composed by Bernard Herrmann before he passed away in 1975.
One of the most touching moments of the evening was the version of Cinema Paradiso, definitely a tribute to Ennio Morricone that doesn’t belong to Kyle’s original Cinematic album, in which we can find another theme from the Italian composer instead, from the movie Per le Antiche Scale. For this piece, the band became a trio in which the piano, saxophone, and electric bass (played by Kyle as a double bass, strumming the strings of the instrument). They achieved an intimate and emotional climate and the audience gave them back a great ovation.
Kyle continued with the electric bass when the band became a quintet again and we could enjoy a cheerful performance of Charade, a soundtrack by Henri Mancini that allowed the different artists to highlight in their solos. This, once again, started the applause among the attendees.
The time for Gran Torino came, one of the soundtracks composed by Kyle Eastwood himself for the movie directed by his father, who collaborated in the composition as well. In this theme, Kyle returned to play the double bass with a distinct jazz style.
Another highlight of the concert was the version of Bullit, by composer Lalo Schifrin, who is one of the most acclaimed artists by Kyle, as he told us in the intro. A vibrant theme in which both Kyle and the band demonstrated their virtuosity and where the audience clapped to the beat set by saxophonist Brandon Allen.
Eastwood again showed his complicity with the artists on stage in the last piece of the program, the version of The Pink Panther, by Henry Mancini. Undoubtedly, a jazzy theme by nature to which the quintet gave its personal touch.
Before giving an affectionate farewell to the public, Kyle surprised with an encore that doesn´t appear in the Cinematic album either (even when two tracks of the album weren’t performed: Unforgiven and Les Moulins de Mon Cœur). He introduced it, half in Spanish and English, as it is a theme specifically composed for our country by himself and his pianist, Andrew McCormack. A piece called Andalucía.
No need to say that the audience of the Andalusian theater effusively applauded that gesture. They enjoyed a jazzy and classic Spanish music that could be used as a soundtrack for any series or movie. A perfect ending to a spectacular concert.
Article & pictures by Reme Díaz
CONCERT PICTURES (by Reme Díaz)
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