Jazz breaking news: Lee Konitz and Ana Sofrenovic bring fresh sounds to Belgrade Jazz Festival

The festival was launched at the 2,800-seater Sava Centre with two contrasting concerts. Firstly trumpeter Bert Joris with the RTS Big band and then Black Sun featuring Cassandra Wilson. The RTS Big Band – as much an institution in Serbia as the BBC Big band is here, played a selection of music composed and arranged by Joris – including the madcap tune Joris wrote celebrating his childhood hero’s of Star Trek – Warp Factor 9. Black Sun played the same set we had seen the week before in Skopje, here in this massive auditorium it lacked the immediacy it had in that much smaller venue and the disappointing sight of hundreds of fans leaving after only a few numbers did not help. The excellent audio-visual accompaniment to the music was an added bonus but I fear the majority of the audience had come to see a different show entirely.

For the rest of the festival the concerts are based in the centre of Belgrade at the Dom Omladine youth centre – which has two concert halls, exhibitions spaces, cafés and bars. It played host to two shows a day at 7.30pm downstairs in the larger hall and two midnight shows in the slightly smaller upstairs hall. The Serbian fusion band Eyot have developed quite a following in mainland Europe and their tight polyrhythmic groove was the perfect appetiser for a set by Lee Konitz (playing acoustically, pictured above) with pianist Dan Tepfer. Konitz (who had managed to arrive in Belgrade without his sax, playing one borrowed from a music school student) was in excellent form and he and Tepfer played a totally relaxed set, bouncing ideas off each other, singing included when Konitz wanted to expand the melody.

The midnight shows featured a storming set from Gianluca Petrella (trombone) and Giovanni Guidi (piano) – Petrella probably one of the best exponents of the trombone around and Guidi the cornerstone of the kinetic sound. Yuri Honing’s Acoustic Quartet with Wolfert Brederode on piano, ended the evening in splendid fashion – his use of pop songs as the basis for interpretation his trademark, his almost unique sax sound, downward spiralling solos and Joost Lijbaart’s effortless drumming perfect for Brederode’s melancholic piano.

The opening double bill of two Sebian performers at totally opposite ends of the musical world was the offering for Saturday night. Opening the show Fish in Oil, an interesting electric septet playing fusion based grooves, were followed by the totally unique Ana Sofrenovic (pictured above) and her ‘Voices’ project. This is an exploration of vocal sounds (at first she was just the wind and the rustling of the trees) and then songs accompanied by a film projection performance that puts Sofrenovic in the spotlight on the front of the stage. Musicians come and go, but this is her show – an actress as well as singer, she holds the attention with her voice and her almost hypnotic aura. Let’s hope Sofrenovic can bring her one-woman multi-voice show to the UK soon as it’s utterly unique.

The two midnight concerts rounded off the Saturday perfectly. Julia Hülsmann is the quietly rising star of ECM and her new CD with Tom Arthurs is simply superb. Arthurs has grown so much musically since his move to Berlin and this gig with Hülsmann is probably his finest period so far – his playing and writing outstanding –and live he almost steals the show from the pianist, his trumpet playing at times brash and squeaky but then sensitive and melodic – it’s well worth catching them on tour.

The final music of Saturday night came from Nick Bartsch’s Ronin – the lateness of the hour perfect for his hypnotic almost trance like music and minimalist light show. Saxophonist/bass clarinettist Sha a menacing figure on the dark stage and Bartsch (all in black robes as usual) adding to the almost Halloween feeling of the show. The ebb and flow of the music and the slow build to climactic soundscape’s keeping the huge crowd baying for more into the small hours.

Sunday night was interesting as it showcased three pianists in very different settings. Polish piano star Leszek Możdżer opened with a solo set of breathtaking ability and invention – at one point playing a Chopin prelude with his left hand and ‘My Foolish Heart’ with his right to create a brilliant new piece. He is every bit on a par with the Mehldau’s and Taylor’s of the jazz world.

I saw Lars Danielsson’s (pictured below) excellent project Liberetto, last year with Tigran on piano at Jazz a Vienne so it was interesting to hear another young pianist, Israeli Yaron Hermon taking the piano stool. Danielsson‘s material – electro groove with a very lyrical edge and whilst Tigran used boundless energy, Hermon’s approach is more considered; yet nonetheless compelling. His interplay with John Parricelli (guitar) was excellent – Danielsson himself is a very interesting bassist and the complexity of his material never got in the way of some stunning soloing and group interplay.

To cap off a brilliant show Możdżer, who played in a previous incarnation with Danielsson, came back for a couple of duo numbers with the bassist to the delight of the audience. The midnight show was courtesy of another Israeli pianist, Shai Maestro. An altogether more relaxed and traditional approach to the piano trio with long and lyrical passages interspersed with some beautiful improvisation.

Later on at the Jazz Club Cekaonica both Możdżer and Maestro along with drummer Ziv Ravitz (from Maestro’s trio) could be found jamming with local musicians till gone 4am – all three enjoying the chance to have some fun on the road. The festival ended on Monday with a brilliant concert from the Vijay Iyer Trio – the playing was simply superb and Marcus Gilmore on drums just gets better and better. Back at Cekaonica the festival wound down (or up I should say) with an ear shattering set from Danish power trio Bushman’s Revenge – who struck a chord with Iyer who was seen getting the CD after the gig!

Next year the festival reaches its 30th edition – the managing team of Marco Stojanovic, Dragan Ambrozic and Voja Pantic have some great plans for this celebration including the possibility of putting together an ‘All Star’ band, featuring some of the biggest names who have played at the festival since the first show back in 1971. The festival is always over the last weekend in October so make a note in your diaries now – it promises to be something special.

– Tim Dickeson (story and pictures)