Jas Kayser and Soweto Kinch kick it at 40th Südtirol Jazz Festival 2022

This was the 40th anniversary of the festival and the last with visionary artistic director Klaus Widmann at the helm who has now retired. For the last few years, the festival has chosen to explore the music mostly from within Europe. Widmann did not choose the obvious but more the upcoming or more ‘left field’ artists who he wanted to showcase at this excellently diverse event. In his last year in charge this year’s festival was in part a ‘best of’ from this exploration of a wide range of musical talents from around Europe.

There were a quite a few female vocalists at the festival – the variety and styles heard were huge.  Undoubtably one of the highlights was Ruth Goller’s Skylla (above) – a brilliant fusion of light & dark both musically and theatrically.  The band played late in a small club – wearing black clothes and animal masks - Goller (voice, bass), plus vocalists Lauren Kinsella and Alice Grant made an immediate impact. The music however was immediatly at the forefront with Goller’s acerbic and at times aggressive bass playing outstanding – the juxtaposition came from the vocal harmonies which were beautifully sung and very moving. Goller wrote every note, Alice Grant told me afterwards that it has taken two years for her and Kinsella to perform without the music in front of them – which gives you some idea of the complexity of this material.

Another superb vocal set came from an invitation from Klaus Widmann for artists in residence Sanem Kalfa (Voice, Cello, Electronics) and Fuensanta Mendez (Voice, Double Bass). The invitation was to play a concert high in the Dolomites at a small hotel where they could spend a number of days writing music and observing the beauty of nature. The concert was spellbinding in its beauty and simple in its execution, two beautiful voices in total harmony with subtle but magical playing.

Other shows with a different musical vision featured Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa) and Mopcut (above) featuring Audrey Chen – both concerts were performance art on the extreme edge – exhilarating and frightening in equal measure. Lukas König was the drummer of both shows and was outstanding. Julien Desprez the pink nailed ‘guitarist’ in Mopcut is a monster – whacking his guitar with his fist and stamping on his effects pedals while Chen screams – intense stuff indeed!

Soweto Kinch played several sets at the festival – the opening concert his duo with drummer Jas Kayser was excellent as was his show in Merano with vocalist Andreas Schearer and guitarist Kalle Kalima.

The festival makes a point of hosting concerts in beautiful locations – and why not as there are so many in this area.  The concert by Pierre Tereygeol’s ‘Xaman’ band was set deep in a forest – the mix of Tereygeol’s north African influenced vocals and the bands groove-based music in such a beautiful location was an amazing experience.

There were two dance/movement based shows which were outstanding both musically and visually. Pianist Simone Graziano and dancer Claudia Calderano (above) performed a show called ‘Embracing’, was a thing of beauty and intimacy. Calderanos performance was based on an oblong box on stage next to the piano – placed so that the two performers could maintain eye contact throughout the show.  The impression given by Calderano was that the box is incredibly slippery – she slithered, creating poses gracefully on or around it, never letting go. Graziano reacts to her and she reacted to the music – almost as though she was a river and Graziano was the river bed she was rushing over – it was stunning.

The second contemporary dance show was performed by Slovenian cellist and drummer Kristijan Krajnčan and featured four dancers performing his new work called ‘Honey Sparks in the Dark’ this again was a show that you could not take your eyes off.  Music and dance were so well brought together in this show which took place outdoors under one of the numerous mountains that define this area.

This festival was a fitting end to Klaus Widmann’s tenure as artistic director and the team that have worked with him for many years will now take over. Südtirol is a great festival for audience and performers alike and I am sure that will not change. It will be really interesting to see what direction and theme the festival take next year.