Our History

Since its opening in 1982, Café Central’s trajectory has been grounded in an unwavering commitment to artistic quality, understood as the basis for earning the public’s trust and sustaining a continuous cultural program.

Numerous leading figures of national and international jazz have performed on its stage, including George Adams, Don Pullen, Art Farmer, Jeanne Lee, Lou Bennet, Randy Weston, María del Mar Bonet, Barry Harris, George Cables, Brad Mehldau, Antonio Serrano, Ara Malikian, Wallace Roney, Silvia Pérez Cruz, Ben Sidran, Jorge Pardo, Sam Rivers, Ernie Watts, Jerry González, Andrea Motis, Javier Krahe, Pedro Iturralde, Paquito D’Rivera, Javier Colina, Lucrecia, Joshua Edelman, Jacky Terrasson, Martirio, Jerry González, Willie Jones III, among others. Pianist Chano Domínguez celebrated his 40 years on stage with a daily concert throughout August 2018, recalling the performances given by master pianist Tete Montoliu over five weeks in the summer of 1994. Double bassist Avishai Cohen has stated that Café Central is his favorite place in the world to perform.

In February 1991, the prestigious British magazine The Wire published a list of the best jazz clubs in Europe, ranking Café Central eighth. Since 2002, the renowned American jazz magazine DownBeat has published a list of the 100 (later 150) best places in the world to listen to jazz, in which Café Central has been included; for several editions, it was the only club in Spain to appear on the list. In 2005, the Academy of Music and Sciences awarded the Prize for the Promotion of Music to Café Central in Madrid and to Harlem in Barcelona. In 2016, the British newspaper The Guardian included Café Central in its list of the ten best jazz clubs in Europe. In 2023, the Association of Jazz and Modern Music Musicians awarded Café Central the Prize for the Promotion of Live Music, granted for the first time outside Catalonia.

In addition to its musical activity, Café Central has functioned as a diverse cultural platform, hosting literary gatherings, artistic activities, and numerous album recordings. Its connection to literature has been constant, with the regular presence of writers and the creation of a short story contest whose second book was published in 2025. Since its opening, the venue has also served as a setting for film and television productions, maintaining its identity and cultural relevance over time.