Madrid is preparing to host an event steeped in the city’s musical history and resilience: after first announcing its closure and then an extension of its stay in Plaza del Ángel, the legendary Café Central will finally embark on a new chapter on April 16 under the auspices of the Ateneo, celebrating the good news with the musical parade “Funeral and Resurrection of Jazz.”
The name chosen for this traveling concert is a true statement of intent: it is a “symbol of this transition, ” according to the Ateneo de Madrid, marking the end of an era and a historic journey spanning more than four decades in Plaza del Ángel, but also a new beginning “that goes beyond a change of location.”
The jazz musical parade will depart at 5:00 p.m. from the venue on Plaza del Ángel, where nearly 15,000 concerts have been held and through which great figures of jazz—”heirs to the legacy of Miles Davis or John Coltrane”—have passed. And it will end, of course, at its new home at 10 Santa Catalina Street, where La Cantina del Ateneo was located until recently.
This musical stroll through downtown Madrid is free and draws directly from the tradition of New Orleans marching bands to transform the capital’s streets into a true celebration where “memory, identity, and collective energy” are connected through music.
The new life of Café Central at the Ateneo de Madrid
The final concert at Café Central’s historic venue will take place on April 15, and just one day later—coinciding with the jazz musical parade—it will inaugurate its new chapter at the Ateneo, which “will embrace and nurture the magic of Café Central, preserving its essence, safeguarding its history, and continuing everything that has been built night after night,” as stated in a post on its Instagram.
Proof that the vitality of this musical venue remains undiminished lies in the performances confirmed for this new phase by musicians who have been part of its history, such as Joshua Edelman, Jorge Pardo, Guillermo McGill, Cecilia Krull, Lluís Coloma, Sheila Blanco, Federico Lechner, and Ignasi Terraza.
And as they themselves have summarized in a heartfelt post, “Café Central is changing locations, but not its essence. Because it has never been just a physical space, but everything that has happened within it. And that story continues✨🎷.”