Ray Santos To Be Honored At PR Heineken Jazzfest 2016

Luis Álvarez, Vice Pres­i­dent of Mén­dez & Co. Click on image to see it larger.

Jazz is in the air in sun­ny Puer­to Rico! Why? Because the 26th edi­tion of the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zfest is just six weeks away at the Tito Puente Amphithe­ater in San Juan. When? From March 17 thru the 20th. Accord­ing to Luis Álvarez, Vice Pres­i­dent of the Liquors Divi­sion at Mén­dez & Co., the orga­ni­za­tion spon­sor­ing and orga­niz­ing the event, this year’s hon­oree will be Ray San­tos, a Gram­my Award win­ning com­pos­er, arranger and sax­o­phon­ist of Puer­to Rican extrac­tion who’s career has spanned over 50 years work­ing with oth­er immor­tals like Noro Morales, Machi­to, Tito Rodríguez and Tito Puente.

But Ray San­tos’ per­for­mance on Sun­day, as tal­ent­ed and spec­tac­u­lar as he is, will only be the tip of the ice­berg. This year’s line­up reads like the “who’s who” of Latin Jazz with favorites like Char­lie Sepúlve­da (trum­pet), Ralph Irizarry (per­cus­sion­ist) and his group Tim­bal­aya, Luis Sali­nas (a vir­tu­oso —and self taught— gui­tarist from Argenti­na), José “Furi­to” Ríos (sax­o­phon­ist), Anto­nio Sánchez (drum­mer), Paquito D’Rivera (sax­o­phon­ist), Rober­ta Gam­bari­ni (singer) and many others.

Abdiel A. Are­nas Alicea presents the win­ning poster. Click on image to see it larger.

Álvarez also announced the win­ner of this year’s com­mem­o­ra­tive poster com­pe­ti­tion. After a long and care­ful selec­tion process this year’s win­ner was young Puer­to Rican archi­tect, from the town­ship of Humacao, Abdiel A. Are­nas Alicea, with a piece titled “Mam­bo Puer­tor­ro”. The selec­tion com­mit­tee was com­prised of graph­ic arts experts, Mén­dez & Co. rep­re­sen­ta­tives and exec­u­tives from the Heineken brand.

Are­nas will receive a $2,000 prize, 4 Jazz Pass­es and the pres­tige of being the win­ner of such a impor­tant competition.

So, if you are a Jazz lover like me, and you’re tired of all that snow and nasty weath­er, why not have some “fun in the sun” in beau­ti­ful Puer­to Rico? You can arrive here a few days before the Jaz­zfest, enjoy the Island’s won­der­ful beach­es, its world-class cui­sine, its caves, canyons, antique sug­ar plan­ta­tions, Span­ish Forts, the radio tele­scope, the rum dis­tillery, Old San Juan, the rain­for­est… the list goes on and on. And then, from the 17th to the 20th, relax under the stars and enjoy the best music in the world at the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jazzfest.

Tick­ets go on sale on Feb­ru­ary 15th.  You can order online a www.ticketpop.com or pur­chase them over the counter at La Bode­ga de Mén­dez, in Guayn­abo, PR.  For more infor­ma­tion call 787–277-5800 (San Juan) 787–651-1999 (Ponce) or 787–826-7560 (Añas­co).

You still have six weeks to put it all togeth­er so call your trav­el agent right now!!!

©2016,Orlando Mer­gal, MA
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Bilin­gual Con­tent Cre­ator, Blog­ger, Pod­cast­er,
Author, Pho­tog­ra­ph­er and New Media Expert
Tel. 787–750-0000, Mobile 787–306-1590