Iñaki Añúa, whom the Spanish newspaper ‘El Correo’ so correctly named ‘the soul of the Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival’, passed away from Covid 19 just shortly after his 79th birthday. For 40 years he run the festival in the north of Spain with passion and vision, making it one of the most important annual jazz festivals in Europe.
I met Iñaki for the first time in 1993, when I was introduced to the International Jazz Festival Organisation at their meetings in New York and we immediately started to talk about ideas and plans for the festival. In the following years Iñaki would create in Vitoria some of the Verve Nights I had envisioned in our first meeting and we worked well together presenting the artists I was looking after for Universal Jazz at the time. His programming of the festival was guided by a love for the music, with a slightly more traditional touch, but he was always open to present and book new acts as well, even starting a series of concerts for new talents. It was always fun and easy to work with Iñaki, as he was driven by his enthusiasm for jazz.
I remember in 1995 he had booked singer Linda Sharrock and her band for a concert, but unfortunately the band got stuck somewhere on the transatlantic flight and didn’t make it to the concert in time. Linda and her then husband, saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig, had made it to Vitoria, but had no band. They didn’t want to cancel the show and therefore asked percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan to join them. Which he did, not knowing any of their music, nor having any instruments, as these were onstage for the concert he was to play with Joe Zawinul. But in the end, the show was truly amazing and luckily recorded by local radio station Radio Vitoria – EITB. Iñaki wanted this to be released, as he could as well as I, hear how special that concert was and, after two years, Wolfgang Puschnig prepared the album for release on Emarcy, which was the label I was looking after for Universal in terms of A&R.
In 1998 the International Jazz Festival Organisation had their annual meeting in September in Vitoria and I was invited for some of the discussions. Iñaki had organised a trip to the vineyard Marqués de Riscal and we had lunch there and tried some excellent wines and when at the end we left he had a bottle of the Rioja wine for everyone from the year of his/her birth – Unbelievable!
Over the years we had many great shows together with artists we both liked and I saw as well many great concerts in Vitoria by artists that were not recording for Universal at the time, like Enrique Morente, Miguel Poveda, Brad Mehldau and many more. From the numerous acts I worked with, concerts by Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Paco de Lucia, Lizz Wright, James Brandon Lewis, Madeleine Peyroux, Branford Marsalis and Dee Dee Bridgewater are the most memorable. Iñaki brought Dee Dee a few times to Vitoria and one of these was in 2009, when she was premiering her new program dedicated to Billie Holiday. This concert was recorded for Spanish TV and featured among others sax player James Carter. The show was great, so I asked Iñaki if we could use the footage as a bonus DVD for the release of the studio recordings of this Billie Holiday tribute and he helped to clear the film with the TV company and in 2010 the album was released and we had a limited edition with the DVD from Vitoria, which sold very well. In the same year, after some negotiations with Wynton Marsalis, the JALCO and the festival we released as well the Jazz At Lincoln Center With Wynton Marsalis album ‘Vitoria Suite’, featuring Paco De Lucía. This wonderful double CD was the result of Wynton’s friendship and respect for Iñaki Añúa, dedicating the music to the festival, it’s director and Paco de Lucia.
On a personal note, I have as well to mention that in 2002 at the festival I met a fun, intelligent and beautiful woman, who a few years later would become my wife and together we have spent many great evenings at the festival and had dinners with Iñaki, musicians and dear friends there. I have so many more great memories connected to Iñaki and the festival, and they all paint Iñaki Añúa as a kind and generous man, who lived his passion and loved his music.
My deep condolences go to his family, wife Elena and daughter Jasone, and the whole team of the festival. Vitoria-Gasteiz and the Spanish jazz scene have lost one of their most ardent promoters. May He Rest In Peace.
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