Cécile McLorin Salvant, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Émile Parisien and more make for brilliant 40th Belgrade Jazz Festival 2024

Tim Dickeson
Tuesday, November 12, 2024

US and European jazz stars gather for a memorable 40th Edition of the Belgrade Jazz Festival

Cécile McLorin Salvant - All photos by Tim Dickeson

The 40th edition of the Belgrade Jazz Festival celebrated its past evoking memories of its glorious jazz history while continuing to present the best in jazz from across the world.

The festival was held in two locations; the first and last night were at the MTS Dvorana, a large concert hall, with the intervening nights held at the Dom Omladine (youth Centre) which has two intimate venues – The Velika Sala and the smaller and more club like Amerikana.

The opening night featured the Big Band RTS with guest conductor and musical director Alan Broadbent and guest musician’s trombonist Gianluca Petrella and pianist Matija Dedić.

The programme featured music from some of the greats that have featured here over the 40 years including Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk and Charlie Haden (Broadbent was Hayden’s pianist in Quartet West) and also Broadbent’s own compositions including some from his time with the Woody Herman orchestra.

The Big Band RTS is one of the dwindling number of full time Radio Television big bands and in my opinion also one of the best - Broadbent’s arrangements were excellent and the band were a joy to listen to.

Cécile McLorin Salvant followed the Big Band show captivating the audience with her unique take on the varied material she performed - one of the songs a request from someone backstage moments earlier and completely unrehearsed!

Her band of Sullivan Fortner (Piano, Husband), Yasushi Nakamura (Bass), & Kyle Poole (Drums) were sublime throughout. Salvant’s repertoire ranged from the sultry Dianne Reeves song ‘Mista’ to Kurt Weill’s operatic ‘Barbara Song’ (from the Threepenny Opera) delivered in her own theatrical manner gloating to the audience of her marriage to the murderous ‘Mack the Knife’.

The highpoint of her performance came in her version of Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights/Breathing’. Starting with just her voice giving a hint of the lyrics as she explored the first verse before Fortner joined in with the chorus refrain; ‘Heathcliffe it’s me I’m Cathy’, followed on by bass and drums. She ended the piece with ‘Breathing’ taking the In/Out ending of the song to a breath-taking level of intensity and a tumultuous applause from the spellbound audience. This was a brilliant concert from a hugely talented performer - Salvant must be the best female interpreter of songs today.

The Dom Omladine (Youth Centre) provided numerous highlights too. With four shows each evening there was always a wide choice of music to enjoy.

The first two shows featured Anat Cohen’s Quartetinho and Gianluca Petrella’s Cosmic Renaissance who played the same excellent set as I heard at Umbria Jazz in July.

Cohen’s music is a melting pot of influences from Brazilian chora, Argentinian tango, Afro-Cuban, European classical, Israeli folk music and of course jazz. Her music is very much upbeat with driving rhythms and catchy melodies. Playing here with Vitor Gonçalves (Piano, Accordion), Tal Mashiach (Bass) and James Shipp (Drums) she played Egberto Gismonti’s ‘Frevo’, her own song ‘Going Home’ and a lovely version of Monk’s ‘Trinkle Tinkle’ with its iconic melody.

The best of the two later shows was saxophonist Émile Parisien’s Quartet. Featuring Julien Touery (piano), Ivan Gélugne (Bass) and Julien Loutelier (Drums). Parisien (pictured above) is a real live wire when playing live - hopping up and down on his stool or perched on one leg and waving his left arm around like he’s spotted a friend. His music is well composed, infectious and lifts the spirit. Parisien is so enthusiastic and is a joy to watch and hear.

The Dom Omladine featured three shows by American musicians all doing tributes to their jazz heros - all of these now legendary artists played at the first Belgrade Jazz Festival in 1971.

James Carter’s show was a celebration of the music and times of Eddie Lockjaw Davis - Carter was joined by pianist Gerard Gibbs with Satish Robertson (Trumpet), Hilliard Greene (Bass) and Elmar Frey on drums (all pictured above).

Starting with Lockjaw’s ‘Oh Gee’ and then ‘Stardust’ Carter playing blistering honking solo’s which continued at high energy throughout the show. The only drop in tempo came with Carl Fischer’s ballad, ‘We Will Be Together Again’ chosen and played by trumpeter Satish Robertson who up to that point had only had the unenviable task of blowing a few bars following Carter’s mega solos giving Carter the chance to mop his brow.

Jason Moran played a solo piano tribute to Duke Ellington. I have seen Moran many times - the most recent was with Charles Lloyd where his contribution to the show was as equal as Lloyds. Playing here (undoubtedly with his heart on his sleeve) he proved that he is world class - maybe the best pianist around at this time. He started gently with ‘Reflections in D’ followed by ‘Black and Tan Fantasy’ which featured a very dark and disturbing section of hammering in the low register that created a dissonance that eventually gave way to a more reflective version of ‘Melancholia’. By the time he had moved on to ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’ he was really swinging and he also choose to play Kurt Weill’s ‘Barbara Song’ which bore no resemblance to the version of Cécile McLorin Salvant on the opening night but was equally absorbing. He played a beautiful Billy Strayhorn ballad, ‘Lotus Blossoms’ and ended with another by Ellington, ‘Single Petal of a Rose’. It was a wonderful concert and his standing ovation at the end well deserved.

The last of the tribute shows came from Rudresh Mahanthappa who’s last Cd was ‘Hero Trio’ which pays homage to his idols. ‘Red Cross’ by Charlie Parker started the show which led to ‘Overjoyed’ by Stevie Wonder - Mahanthappa plays a similar game to James Carter - spitting out intricate solos carrying the tune and his improvisations along in a flurry of notes. A Frank Zappa-esq ‘Ring of Fire’ lightened the mood as did Kazumi Tokaka’s theme to the video game ‘Animal Crossing’. Keith Jarrett played the first Belgrade Jazz Festival with Miles in 1971 and Mahanthappa’s version of Jarrett’s ‘The Windup’ was a nod to that. He finished with a version of George Michael’s ‘Faith’ played at breakneck speed and with very little reverence to the original, but it was humorous and brilliant all the same.

The Serbian Jazz showcase has been a feature of the festival since 2016 and this year was held at the famous Studio 6 of Radio Belgrade. An invited audience of journalists and media were able to be at the recordings which will be broadcast at a later date. There were six bands over two days - a best of the best, all of whom had played at the festival previously.

There was also a concert in the Dom Omladine; ‘Serbian All Stars; Past, Present And Future’ (pictured above) which featured some of the players from the six bands who played in studio 6. There are some excellent musicians on the scene here - Luka Ignjatović (Alto Sax), Rastko Obradović (Sax), Ivan Radivojević (Trumpet), Peða Milutinović (Drums), Uroš Spasojević (Bass) and Milena Jančuric (Flute) who stand shoulder to shoulder with any of the visiting musicians - the All Stars concert was a resounding success.

The rest of the 40^th anniversary programme was equally strong with fine performances from Saxophonist Daniel Erdmann’s ‘Velvet Revolution’ with Théo Ceccaldi (Violin) and Jim Hart (Vibes) on top form. Austrian band Kompost3, Roderigo Amado and Kris Davis’ Diatom Ribbons featuring Terri Lynne Carrington on drums all lifted the roof in the late night Amerikana venue.

The festival ended as it had started in the MTS Dvorana with a double bill of The Bill Frisell Four and the latin party music of the Buena Vista All Stars with joyous dancing in the aisles - a fitting end to the 40^th edition of this great festival.

Listening List

Cécile McLorin Salvant

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VEoHm2sU14 - ‘Wuthering Heights/Breathing’

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki1yC9Fi_Sc - ‘Over the Rainbow’

Anat Cohen

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftxgU56f4lI - Quartetinho Live

Émile Parisien

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ssbkW5xIrE - ‘Live’

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyyM7mVstWM - ‘Louise’

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT0Rl1wHPxg - ‘JoJo’

James Carter

www.youtube.com/watch?v=upcLUuT7RsE - - ‘Lookin’ at Lock’