Oldest act to headline a live-stream concert

Tino Contreras (Mexico, b. Fortino Contreras González, 3 April 1924) was 97 years 7 days old when he headlined a live-stream concert at Museo Frida Kahlo (aka La Casa Azul; “The Blue House”) in Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico, on 10 April 2021. The Chihuahua-born jazz drummer, whose seven-decade recording career began in 1953, released his latest album, La Noche de los Dioses (“The Night of the Gods”), in October 2020.

The legendary musician, described as “one of Mexico’s national cultural treasures”, began drumming at the age of eight and formed his first band – Cadetes del Swing – at 15. He made his professional debut with Luis Arcaraz’s Latin swing orchestra in the 1940s and kicked off his recording career with Orquesta de Tino Contreras’ Volado por los Merengues in 1953. Famed for “melding Latin influences with free jazz, psychedelia, avant-garde experimentation and global sounds from Egypt, India, Turkey and elsewhere”, Contreras has rubbed shoulders with many of the jazz greats, including pianist Dave Brubeck, The Duke Ellington Orchestra and saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. In 2020, he released the album La Noche de los Dioses on DJ Gilles Peterson’s London-based record label Brownswood Recordings, at the age of 96.

“Contreras remains a vitally creative musician and explorer; the basket of traditions and sounds he creates and weaves are nothing less than astonishing and almost shamanic in their emotional and spiritual power,” concluded an AllMusic review of the album. The drummer composed, arranged and produced the seven-track collection.

Presented by La Linea – The London Latin Music Festival, with support from The Anglo Mexican Foundation, the intimate performance by Contreras and his band was streamed around the world and was the first-ever concert to be held at the Frida Kahlo Museum, in the historic municipality of Coyoacán.

The concert’s $17/£12/€14 virtual admission tickets were available with an option to make a donation to Museo Frida Kahlo, which had been deprived of visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Named after its cobalt-blue walls, the house museum is dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (b. Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón in Coyoacán on 6 July 1907, d. 13 July 1954). The building was Kahlo’s birthplace and where she grew up, lived with painter husband Diego Rivera and died (of a pulmonary embolism).