The Panama Jazz Festival

Danilo Pérez, the Panamanian pianist who spent years in Wayne Shorter's quartet, founded this festival in 2003 and built it on an unusual premise: the concerts matter but the teaching matters more. A week each January brings international musicians to Panama City for masterclasses, clinics and auditions through which Panamanian students win scholarships to conservatories abroad, alongside evening concerts and a free open-air day. It has grown into the largest jazz event in Central America and has drawn players of the first rank. The programme leans on the connection between jazz and Panamanian and Caribbean rhythms rather than treating them as separate.

What you actually see

• The evening concerts - international players at the Ateneo and other venues.
• The free day - open-air concerts in the city.
• The clinics and auditions - the teaching side the festival was built for.
• The Panamanian repertoire - local rhythms worked into the programme.

When to go

The festival runs for about a week in mid to late January. Programmes are announced a few months ahead. Tickets for the main concerts sell out; the free open-air day is the easiest way in.

Honest expectations

Ticket prices for the headline concerts are high by local standards. Venues are scattered across the city and moving between them needs taxis. The programme is confirmed late. It is a working education festival, so a good deal of the week is clinics rather than performance.

Nearby

Casco Viejo and the city venues; the Ateneo is at the City of Knowledge.