On October 23, 2006, the project Jazz en Dominicana was born. It was originally a blog whose intention was to inform about the Jazz that was presented in the Dominican Republic (by local and international musicians), as well as about what dominican jazz musicians were doing in other beaches. Before completing its first year (September 2007), the first weekly live jazz venue was born – Jazz Dominicana at Casa de Teatro.
This October it will reach 18 years of having begun its mission of working to spread jazz; contributing to diversifying the type of public that enters the world of jazz, of increasing the venues for live jazz, of supporting emerging talents and of making known, positioning and promoting jazz inside and outside of the country through, today, a series of products and services that it has developed.
During this time the Jazz en Dominicana web page (http://www.jazzendominicana.com) has posted over 2,470 publications: concerts and festival reviews, articles, interviews, biographies, photographs and more, offering a window into the jazz scene in the country during this period of time. Also, during this period, in more than 1,450 events, there have been enriching moments of instrumental and vocal jazz, presentations have been made with more than 250 musicians and vocalists from all corners of the Caribbean nation, as well as guest artists from Haiti, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Jamaica, Curacao, Aruba, Spain, France, Italy, Russia, Holland, Denmark, Israel, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Canada, Ecuador and the United States. Fiesta Sunset Jazz, which is held every Friday on the 8th floor of the Dominican Fiesta Hotel, will celebrate its 650th event this coming November 15th, and in the 2019 All About Jazz Reader´s Poll came in as the no. 21 jazz venue in the world!
Jazz en Dominicana´s sixth book was published in July of this year: ¨Jazz en Dominicana – The Interviews 2023¨, is the fifth in the interview series. These publications open a window to various actors who have been, are and will be part of the jazz scene in the country! The special and different thing about these books is that not only are they written in Spanish and English, but they are integrated with Augmented Reality. The books published to date contain interviews with 43 musicians and 10 producers of radio programs, concerts and festivals, as well as the presentation of 50 women, who have contributed and are contributing enormously in all styles and in all periods of the history of jazz in the Dominican Republic.
Additional highlights so far in 2024 were that for the 13th consecutive year, Jazz en Dominicana hosted multiple events to celebrate International Jazz Day; and, for the third time participated as co-host in the virtual programming of the New Orleans Jazz Museum’s International Jazz Day, this time with the presentation of eight jazz groups from the country. Event that was recognized by International Jazz Day and the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. As well Fernando Rodriguez De Mondesert continues his monthly column ¨Hablemos de Jazz (Let´s talk about Jazz) in the renown publication Ritmo Social.
[Fernando Rodríguez De Mondesert]
