52nd Ljubljana Jazz Festival
We look forward to welcoming you to jazz events also next year.
51st Ljubljana Jazz Festival
A year after its semicentennial jubilee, the 51st Ljubljana Jazz Festival catered for many tastes, offering sundry jazz subgenres and genres, revolving in the domain of jazz and contemporary improvised music. The diversity and richness of the programme was evident already the very first day with three utterly different concerts – first the Moscow Art Trio at the CD Club, playing its characteristic fusion of jazz and Russian folk music. The line-up created an especially ethereal, spiritual ambience, interspersed with superb solos. The star of the evening as well as this year’s festival, Pat Metheny, began his The Songbook Tour in the completely full Križanke theatre. He also played several new pieces, on various guitars and creating diverse effects. In conjunction with the Defonija Festival, half an hour after midnight the last concert of the evening started at the Gromka Klub: a unique association between the socially engaged American electronica artist Bob Ostertag and eccentric English vocalist Phil Minton. They performed two compositions, where Minton improvised with a considerably wide diapason of vocal abilities, while Ostertag processed his music simultaneously or with delay on his self-developed software program. The first evening was variegated and promising. The audiences were thrilled and contented, genuinely enthusiastic about the superbly rendered performances.
The next concert was also performed at Gromka Club within the scope of Defonija, presenting Christine Sehnaoui and Pascal Battus, an improvising duo experimenting with microtonality. This time Battus did not use pure electronica but made sound with rotating devices of his own invention. With different saxophone breathing techniques Sehnaoui created a sonic arch of considerable breadth, in constant dialogue with Battus’ rotating surfaces yielding at times meditative and serene atmosphere, and then again a dynamic and even deafening tension. At Križanke Maribor-based guitarist Samo Šalamon joined forces with currently one of the leading tuba players, Michel Godard. Šalamon played several of his lyrical compositions, reaching the pinnacle of the concert with the last, longer piece, where the synergy of the band and the signature of each of the soloists were fully expressed. Entirely different atmosphere pervaded the concert by saxophonist and clarinettist Louis Sclavis, who played an unusual fusion, based on hard bop in free jazz traditions, featuring intensive and specific solos. The jazz evening at Križanke culminated in the performance of the Latin jazz ambassador Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers. The legendary Cuban pianist played a fairly atypical Cuban jazz, at times finding base in pioneer modal jazz, and then again in utterly (Central) African rhythmic patterns. In his solos, Chucho Valdés drew inspiration from diverse music idioms, while his melancholy Doric renditions synchronised well with the diversified rhythms of the excellent percussion section. After midnight the Festival events continued at the CD Club with the experimental trio Hyperactive Kid from Berlin. The band’s telling name will have revealed that the line-up plays fast, hectic combination of idioms and genres. Especially vivacious was their last composition: the drummer played many sound-inducing devices. Another excellent conclusion of the evening, which in five concerts hinted at the main currents in contemporary jazz.
The first July day of the Festival began with a round table on music and technology, hosted by Miha Zadnikar and participated by Christine Sehnaoui and Bob Ostertag. The saxophonist talked about the relation of her predominantly non-electronic music to digital sound technology. Ostertag also mentioned that in America (especially as regards jazz), where oral tradition prevailed, music recording had a beneficial effect, while European music, based on written tradition, was thereby hindered and conventionalised. At Križanke Get the Blessing from Bristol surprised with its freshness, merging modern rock drumming with modal jazz and adding a tinge of fusion. The trumpet player and the saxophonist often engaged in a duet, while the sound of the trumpet was frequently redoubled or distorted through effects. Next performed the percussionist and songwriter Kip Hanrahan’s Beautiful Scars; the band played Hanrahan’s songs that ranged from pop to funk, throughout imbued with a distinct Latin American dance hue. The concert at the CD Club also put its bet on dance rhythms, achieving it with an entirely different approach – Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band played succulent, organic funk, the band leader, among others also an acknowledged poet, writer and lecturer, has titled the genre voodoo punk. The lyrics displayed an adept combination of sober social engagement and purely light-hearted lasciviousness.
The last day of the festival was marked by extraordinary bass players and pianists: band-leader and double bass player Hélène Labarriere, added moderation to the sound of her quartet, which married perfectly with the unexpected deviations of other band members, who draw inspiration from free jazz of various periods. Next performed Joe Lovano and the Big Band RTV Slovenija with conductor Michael Abene, basing their music on the bebop and cool jazz standards of the 1950s, while the concert was variegated by the solos of the band members interspersed with the solos by the illustrious sax player. Much more intimate was the ambience conjured up by Patricia Barber and her quintet. A representative of vocal jazz, Barber is also an astounding pianist, who played mainstream music based on blues and nightclub music of the 1950s. At the CD Club, the nightclub atmosphere was created by the currently extremely acknowledged Vijay Iyer Trio maintained a subtle, blurred sound throughout, especially in the first half hour exhibiting similarity to Miles Davis’ second quintet. Although their playing aroused a hazy labyrinth of harmonies, giving an impression of airiness and improvisation, the musicians often – without resorting to any non-musical signs – simultaneously accentuated a certain figure, thus revealing that these were finely coded parts, which the band mastered to perfection. Whereas, with their combination of incredible virtuosity and great feel for the internal rhythm of the sound, the “real” improvisations of all three musicians, at times also overlapping, were unique. Namely, Iyer’s trio enchanted the listeners, who cheered the musicians throughout.
On Saturday afternoon we could savour the last concert of the festival, the oldest of its kind in Europe; a complimentary concert was given by Zoc, a young Slovenian improvising band. Although the band claims to play improvised music “in an uncomplicated manner”, we revelled in a felicitous combination of musical genres, centred on modal jazz methods. Unusual was also the line-up of two guitars, drums and a double bass, at times complemented by other instruments. Thus Blaž Celarec replaced his drums with a toy piano, while in that same composition the bass player Žiga Golob played ukulele. At this point the improvisation was rather repetitive and meditative, also owing to guitar player Adi Jakša, who diversified the soundscape by introducing banjitar. Also in other pieces, mostly combined into a longer, colourful medley, the musicians recurrently made use of the power of repetition and suspense. The guitarist Andraž Mazi added to contemplative, reflexive sound by playing several instruments; among others the so-called pedal steel guitar. The audience welcomed the experiment, completely taken by the total structure of the rendition.
Thus concluded another jazz festival, meeting the high standards of selection as well as keeping a fair share of communication with the audiences; it is hard to believe that there are many listeners who were equally enchanted by Metheny, Ostertag, Patricia Barber or Iyer, but there must be even fewer jazz-lovers who wouldn’t have loved at least one of them. And that’s what truly matters.
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