Who is Jueves de Jazz / Federico Garcia (aka Jueves)?
Jueves de Jazz is a very nice radio show created by Federico Garcia (it’s me hello!), a Mexican/Belgian jazzlover.
Born back in February 2017 in the Belgian radio station Radio Alma, also known as the Mediterranean voice of Brussels (shows and music in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Greek).
When I proposed this show to Radio Alma I was given a slot to broadcast on Thursdays (Jueves in Spanish), then getting the name for the show was a piece of cake… Jueves de Jazz (Thursday Jazz) later on I would discover that so many concerts, jazz venues and even jazz projects are called Jueves de Jazz as well, oh yeah.. kind of funny. Nevertheless, ignoring that, I started producing my shows right after I created the visual identity and implemented it online, which apparently many people liked (the mark/logo).
Almost at the same time since I broadcasted the first Jueves de Jazz shows emerged the idea to expand its horizons and let other jazzlovers know about my radio show Jueves de Jazz. And yes, the best channel was social media, despite I never liked it (and still I don’t), this was a great idea, though. Very soon I would get in touch with great musicians on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and beyond Europe and the American continet… more than 2000 musicians so far I recall.
Tens of times many musicians wrote to me (calling me Jueves , as many did… it was funny) requesting to be interviewed and to play their music on my shows, which many times I did despite the crazy amount of work an interview takes… 100s of hours editing the interviews mostly in English (which as ridiculous as it sounds is a language forbidden to be used in this little Belgian radio station due to the identity conflict part of this Belgian society lives and the historic rivalry between Flemish speaking people and French speaking people… yes hard to believe I know) such a mini country and such a huge conflict. So transcribing the recorded interview and translating them to have a final text to record the voice-over voices… a nightmare sometimes… many times. But what the heck? as I love sharing the musicians’ stories and their projects I have done it for already a long while…. Maybe I kind of stop that kind of interviews one good day soon… or better I bring my awesome radio show somewhere else, perhaps to Austria where I also live….Life is so short…
I love Jazz and I love producing and hosting Jazz radio shows, therefore besides Jueves de Jazz I have created two other radio shows:
Jazz Intercontinental is a radio show in French (broadcasted in the ULB’s radio station Radio Campus 92.1 fm in Brussels), where I try to find fantastic Jazz from all over the Planet: Europe, America, Asia, Oceania, Africa… and believe it or not sometimes I come to great music from places I never imagined might be such great creativity and grandiose jazz. The show broadcasts every first Monday of the Month at 19:00 cet since 2022.
Jazz made in Austria is a brand new radio show I am so lucky and thankful to have the opportunity to broadcast directly from Vienna in a fantastic Austrian radio station, said to be the best Free Radio station in Austria called Radio Orange 94.0 with 25 languages spoken and programs and music simply amazing.
The idea behind Jazz made in Austria started since the end of 2020 when in my Belgian radio show Jueves de Jazz, then I got in touch with a great Austrian music organization called MICA Music Austria where I met Helge Hinteregger, thanks to Sabine Reiter who put us in mutual contact. Some months after that year I traveled to Vienna to meet Mr. Helge Hinteregger and Mrs. Teresa Indjein at the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs (BMEIA), where the New Austrian Sound of Musica (NASOM) a biannual sponsorship program created by Mrs Teresa Indjein with the participation of Helge Hinteregger to promote emerging Austrian and Austria-based musicians performing abroad.
Here you can read this very interesting Conversation with both (https://www.jazzhalo.be/interviews/an-interview-with-teresa-indjein-and-helge-hinteregger-from-nasom/).
Then I went to the 2 days NASOM festival with fantastic concerts at Porgy & Bess, where I had a chance to have a great conversation with Cristoph Huber (https://www.jazzhalo.be/interviews/a-conversation-with-christoph-huber-at-porgy-bess-vienna-austria/)
And that was the beginning of a double series I produced and hosted in my Jueves de Jazz show with incredible Jazz made in Austria (the last series started at the end of 2023 and lasted for almost 11 months with fantastic Conversations with many musicians making Jazz and living in Austria), both Austrians and from abroad who have made Austria their home, luckily for the Austrian jazzlovers and people like me who spend the a good part of the year.
So keep your ears ready to listen to the very nice Jazz made in Austria shows live or on podcasts… with a grandiose versatility and richness in musical creations, that has really no end.
Long Live Jazz !!!
As the great Frank Zappa said back in the awesome 70’s: “Jazz is not dead… it just smells funny”
… Long Live Jazz!