Successful tour to the Panama Jazz Festival

Panama Jazz Festival was founded in 2003 by the multiple Grammy-winning composer and pianist Danilo Pérez with the vision of improving people’s lives through the shared experience of music. Much of the festival takes place at the City of Knowledge, a center for education, innovation, and charity in Panama City.

Bohuslän Big Band has had a long-standing collaboration with Pérez; among other things, he has been Artist in Residence at Vara Concert Hall and with Bohuslän Big Band. In the autumn of 2024, their joint album was also released Lumen.

“Getting the opportunity to perform at the Panama Jazz Festival is a tremendous honor. We have had a long-standing collaboration with Danilo Pérez and are very happy that this collaboration has resulted in an invitation to the festival,” says Bohuslän Big Band’s orchestra director Eric Brandström Arellano.

Musical encounters with children and young people

The festival has a strong educational focus and brings together young people from Panama and all over Latin America. It is one of the few festivals that offers students the opportunity to meet professional musicians. For students, participation is also free of charge, and many depend on this festival for their musical development. During the festival, Bohuslän Big Band held, among other things, a mentorship day together with the Panama University Jazz Orchestra, as well as various clinics and a few masterclasses.

“You could maybe compare it a bit with the Side by Side camp that’s organized in Gothenburg; young people come from all over the region and during one week they get to rehearse together, attend workshops and perform together. The atmosphere is incredible and it’s really wonderful to be a part of it,” says Joakim Rolandsson, saxophonist in the Bohuslän Big Band.

“It’s also wonderful to see how music makes encounters and exchanges across language barriers possible. The participating students spoke Spanish and many times an interpreter was needed for them to understand one another – but when they played together, it was like a language everyone could use,” says Therese Söderström, producer for the big band.

Divided into sections, the musicians in the big band held various clinics. Joakim Rolandsson, Linus Lindblom and Martin Bjurek Svanström from the saxophone section led a clinic focusing on improvisation, while the trumpet, trombone and rhythm sections focused on what it’s like to play in that section. In smaller groups, participants had the opportunity to ask questions and try playing together with the musicians in the band.

“It was great fun! When we asked if five people wanted to join in and play, the participants practically threw themselves forward and it ended up being maybe 15 people instead. An incredible level of commitment, and so much fun that they dared to join in and play,” says Lennart Grahn, trumpeter in the big band.

The engagement with the music continued even outside the classrooms.

“When we then came out from the different workshops, you could hear that the young people were standing around the area playing the songs they had just learned from the musicians in the big band. It was really great to see that they immediately carried on the joy of playing that we had experienced together,” says Ralph Soovik, producer for Bohuslän Big Band.

Concerts with Danilo Pérez – with up to 30,000 in the audience

Bohuslän Big Band also gave two concerts together with Danilo Pérez. On Friday, the big band played for a sold-out Teatro Ateneo, featuring music from their joint album Lumen. The music is a fusion of Nordic jazz traditions and Latin American rhythms, reflecting both Bohuslän Big Band’s stylistic range and Pérez’s innovative compositions. During the concert, the band was joined, among others, by vocalist Nadia Washington on the song “Beloved,” which is a tribute to the American author Toni Morrison.

Bohuslän Big Band also gave their biggest live concert ever as the closing act at the festival’s big outdoor concert. The big band also performed then together with Danilo Pérez, and there were up to 30,000 people in the audience.

International assignment from the Västra Götaland Region

Bohuslän Big Band has an artistic commission from the Västra Götaland Region, which also includes a focus on the big band working internationally. Having the opportunity to perform at the Panama Jazz Festival is an important step in the band’s international development and a chance to represent Swedish big band music on the global stage. The fact that the festival also focuses on education and cultural exchange is likewise very much in line with the commission from the Västra Götaland Region.

“It feels incredible to have been in Panama for a week. That we in Bohuslän Big Band have been able to be part of Pérez’s idea that jazz brings musicians and people together,” concludes Joakim Rolandsson.

Tip! Watch the closing concert online

The festival’s grand closing concert with Bohuslän Big Band and Danilo Pérez was recorded and can be watched digitally afterwards. Check out the concert!