6 minute read
The European smooth jazz scene
from May 2019
Seaside view of Mallorca, Spain, one of the many attractions found during the Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival (May 13-19)
By Melanie Maxwell
“I love smooth jazz,
and when I read about the Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival, I thought it would be an amazing experience to listen to my favorite music on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea,” said Cassandra Waller, who, along with her partner Terry Ward, had been looking for a unique cultural experience. “This was the most fun I’ve had at a smooth jazz festival,” added the 55-year-old Monterey, California, resident, who has been to hundreds of festivals in the United States, but cited this April 2018 trip as her first festival abroad. Tap your finger on a spinning globe, and wherever it lands, you’ll most likely find a prime jazz festival. Several genre stars and festival promoters have even taken their landbased entertainment, and eager audiences, out to sea. These jazz-themed cruises have become so popular that most are booked through 2020. Both weeks on the Dave Koz & Friends at Sea full-ship charters are sold-out, as well as the eightnight Capital Jazz SuperCruise. The first of two back-to-back sailings on Rick Braun’s European River Cruise Getaway is sold out, with a few cabins left on his week-2 voyage. But all of them offer wait-lists. Travel-hungry smooth jazz fans can still combine a trip to Europe with their musical passion, thanks to Christian Bössner, a German-based concert promoter who produces the Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival and the Algarve Smooth Jazz Festival with his wife, Sandra.
“I would say 50 percent of the festivals’ newbie-guests were from North America in the past few years,” said 38-year-old Bössner via email recently. “The word-of-mouth promotion is in full swing. Returning U.S. guests bring their friends, and it’s becoming more and more every festival.”
Waller and 65-year-old Ward had such great memories from their time in Mallorca, that when they were in London later that year, they spontaneously flew to Portugal with friends to attend the Algarve Smooth Jazz Festival.
“The resort venue is a short walk from your hotel suite. It has an intimate setting for concerts, a delightful buffet restaurant, performances by the pool, and a lounge for the nightly after-parties,” Waller explained, adding that she appreciated the unique concert venues, including a quaint indoor amphitheater and several cultural sites on the island. “It was also a wonderful experience meeting new friends from all over the world––Australia, Germany, the U.K., Africa, France, Italy and the U.S.” continued on page 28
continued from page 27
The success of Bössner’s festivals relies on this type of passion from American smooth jazz fans, as it is still not a well-known genre in Europe. “The typical [European] response is ‘Smooth jazz? Oh, I don’t like jazz.’ Or, ‘Smooth jazz? Well, that’s not real Jazz’,” he said. “We have to admit, in the beginning, Sandra and I did not differ from a lot of other Europeans. We had no idea that something like smooth jazz even existed. Of course, we knew Sade and Candy Dulfer. And, of course, we had heard of names like Grover Washington Jr. or George Benson before. But that was all.”
Bössner wasn’t yet born when Richard Elliot, one of the headliners for this month’s Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival, was playing sax in Tower of Power before launching his solo career. But a family friend introduced him to the genre and shared his dream of bringing a festival to Europe.
Photo: Christian Nordström
“Having been a young event organizer looking for a chance to realize my own conceptual ideas and my intention to build something new and unique, I teamed up with him to establish an annual smooth jazz event in Europe. We announced the festival premiere in Bregenz, Austria, at Lake Christian Bössner with guests and artists during the 2017 Constance back in 2008,” said Bössner, who Algarve Smooth Jazz Festival in Portugal was only 27 at that time. The event successfully attracted guests from all over Europe, and the feedback was that it had been an exceptional experience. But it didn’t pencil out financially, and their partner left the company. “For Sandra and me, already having put our hearts and souls into this project, giving up was no option,” said Bössner. “We improved our concept and evolved from a pure concert organizer to a music travel organizer.” Eleven years and 22 successful festivals later, producing unique smooth jazz events is Bössner’s full-time job. Aside from the artists and the type of music they play, the experiences he offers are distinctive from the festivals most American fans are used to. While stateside festivals typically sell thousands of tickets to a single event, Bössner caps capacity at around 600 guests. “We focus on boutique events offering a boutique experience,” he said. “That means we’re a
Christian and Sandra Bössner, producers of the Algarve Smooth Jazz Festival and Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival
small crowd of like-minded people from over 25 different countries per festival, coming together to enjoy smooth jazz in an awardwinning holiday setting. Our festivals take place in a hotel resort that is also the venue. The artists and musicians are within your reach. They stay in the same hotel, hang at the same bars and eat in the same restaurants. It’s like a cruise on land.”
This year’s Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival is scheduled for May 13-19, and will be held at the five-star Protur Biomar Gran Hotel & Spa in Sa Coma, Mallorca, Spain. The eighth annual event includes a welcome dinner with the artists, a morning boat trip and show, poolside shows, live artist interviews, after-show parties and an off-site concert featuring Pieces of a Dream performing at Església Nova, an unfinished, historic, open-air church in nearby Son Servera. A bus trip to a traditional Mallorcan bodega and tours of local attractions can also be booked as optional excursions.
In the fall, the fourth annual Algarve Smooth Jazz Festival, scheduled for Oct. 1-6, will move to a new venue at the Pine Cliffs Resort in Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal. The five-star seafront resort sits atop red cliffs overlooking the Praia da Falésia beach.
“We don’t just organize a bunch of concerts at some place; we produce a great time at a great place and bring together great people from all over the world to share a unique smooth jazz experience. It’s a bit like Woodstock-goes-smooth jazz,” said Bössner.
“The hosts, Christian and Sandra, made you feel as if you were part of a grand event throughout Europe. It’s the perfect vacation,” said Ward, who plans to return to the Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival this month with Waller. “I wanted to see how smooth jazz was represented to others outside of the U.S., and after attending both festivals, I realize smooth jazz belongs to the world.”
For more information on the Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival and Algarve Smooth Jazz Festival, check out our Annual Jazz Festival & Cruise Guide beginning on page 30, or visit www.mallorca.smoothjazzfestival.de
