Murals of Boquete #6 & “All That Jazz!”

The Boquete Jazz Festival begins this week and it’s going to be the best year ever!  The big events are held at the outdoor amphitheater in Valle Escondido, a beautiful community near the town center in Boquete, Panama.

Each year, the Boquete Jazz Festival invites jazz artists from different parts of the world to play in Boquete.  Residents and visitors await the arrival of these talented musicians in late February each year.

The jazz festival occurs over a 4-day period, beginning on Thursday, February 25.  There are complimentary teaching events scheduled on Friday and Saturday, February 26 & 27 at the BCP Theater, featuring the Jon Day Quartet and Francisco Buckley, Jr.

The Outside Jazz Band, Francisco Buckley, Jr., Bannaba Project de Panama, Kurt & Norman and Jon Day’s Quartet are the big headliners.  Other groups will be playing all around Boquete during these days, including a performance in the park on Sunday, beginning at 11:00 m.

But why all the murals?  Because no lover of jazz can go away from Valle Escondido without seeing and appreciating the many lovely murals throughout the property.  How can you separate music and art?

On your way to the amphitheater, be sure to stop inside the chapel to see the mural of Boquete and Volcan Baru on the far wall.  If you walk up close to it, right up next to the nudes standing by the river, you can actually hear the river running.  It’s the most wonderful mural I have ever seen and heard!

Walk around the buildings on your way to the Boquete Jazz Festival events and appreciate the museum-quality artwork that graces many of the walls.  What appears to be molding along the bottom of this waterfall scene, is part of the mural.

You’ll love hearing the jazz bouncing around the valley.  And, as you’re enjoying the sounds of Boquete, you’ll know that not only the jazz is special, you’ll enjoy more hidden beauty that surrounds you, if you look for it.

“And all that jazz”, from my favorite movie, “Chicago”.
Cora