Cabarete, Dominican Republic.- The tenth annual Dominican Republic Jazz Festival played to packed crowds on Playa Cabarete from November 6th through the 8th, drawing more than 2,000 people from across the Dominican Republic and internationally.

The Dominican Republic Jazz Festival is the biggest yearly Cabarete event outside of wind sports, and the excitement can be felt from beach to barrio. Each "night" -- well into the morning hours -- post-festival party goers participated in improvisational jazz jam sessions and then boogied it at the thumping beach-front Cabarete clubs.

This year, Peruvian pianist and composer, Ania Paz, started things off Friday night with her jazz ensemble of Afro-Peruvian and Caribbean flavored stylings. Though the highlight of Friday night was decidedly the energetic improvisations of the Holograma Quintet, whose strong bass, guitar and sax played beautifully off of the pulsing rhythms of percussion master, Wilson “Chembo” Corniel.

The weekend continued with youth workshops during the day on Saturday, led by the world renowned talents of bass master Ramón Vázquez, professor and founding member of the New Jazz and Caribbean Music Department of the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, Italian composer, jazz columnist and saxophone extraordinaire Marco Pignataro, and more top of the line maestros. Even though it was a free day from school, children from the neighborhoods, including a host of DREAM project students, absolutely packed the main stage seating.

Saturday evening welcomed the talent of Dominican group, Fellé Vega + Un Folclore Imaginario -- Fellé Vega playing his inventive percussion instruments into near religious ecstasies, the international ensemble, Saxophone Encounter, who displayed their insights into ultra-improv, and three-time Grammy award winning drummer Antonio Sanchez pounding out the rhythm of his quartet.

The show wrapped up Sunday night amidst the downpour of a tropical rain storm. Concert goers huddled in under the covered seating in every way possible, packed tighter than the most utilized of guaguas, while the Marco Pignataro quintet played one beautifully orchestrated piece into another. The weekend finished with a literal bang, as Dominican born “El Canario” José Alberto whooped up the crowd with his contagious and courageous Latin / Caribbean / jazz big band. They wailed all the way into Sunday night and through to the earliest hours of Monday morning with Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Dominican classics that had the whole crowd up and dancing along with them. José Alberto ended the event with an energetic pass through the crowd, singing his heart out, as fireworks exploded over the beach behind the spectators.

Event organizer, Lorenzo Sancassani, described the festival as having gone “perfectly.” When asked how this year compared to previous years, he said, “Structurally it just keeps getting better and better, but other than that, the feeling, the excellence in music, it is the same.”

Though there was no special fanfare for the tenth anniversary aspect, Sancassani revealed big plans for the festival's fifty year celebration... Long live The Dominican Republic Jazz Festival!

For more information, visit www.drjazzfestival.com.