Gibraltarian jazz musician presents latest fusion show

The John Mackintosh Theatre in Gibraltar will host the performance of Yo, El Agua; Tú, El Fuego (I, the Water; You, the Fire), the latest show by Gibraltarian musician Elie Massías. The performance, which takes place on Thursday, 6 March, fuses jazz with flamenco and classical music, an idea that the jazz musician began to explore during the pandemic.

Massías will be joined by the Gibraltar String Quartet, made up of musicians from the Gibraltar Academy for Music and Performing Arts (GAMPA), along with the Narteka Flamenco Ensemble, a company of musicians and dancers from Algeciras, including vocalist Rafael El Lele.

The work is a further step in the musical evolution of Massías, a guitarist who lives between Gibraltar and New York, where he has received critical acclaim both as a jazz performer and as a music producer and arranger.

His latest show, which was created for the New York Flamenco Festival, fuses flamenco styles like alegrías, tientos and tangos with traditional jazz, enhanced with the classical arrangements of the string quartet.

The musician, who believes that the flamenco guitar is "the supreme guitar of all guitars", has been accepted into the Algeciras flamenco community, "a community in which you have to enter with a lot of respect and a lot of love".

Tickets for the show, which starts at 7pm, cost 22 pounds and are available on www.buytickets.gi