Jazz dynamite in the ‘Gateway to the Dolomites’: high-wire sounds inspire at Südtirol Jazz Festival

One of the main objectives of the festival is to showcase the natural beauty of this region by holding concerts high up in the mountains, parks, forests, even a second world war bunker and other towns in the region. The second objective is not only to give musicians the chance to play their own projects but to develop new relationships creating new music with the other musicians who are playing at the festival.

Several of the concerts we saw were a direct consequence of this process notably Oliphantre featuring Italian’s Francesco Diodati (guitar), Stefano Tamborino (drums) and French vocalist Leila Martial. This was a power trio with Diodati’s crunching guitar chords, Tamborino’s driving drumming and Martials’ astonishing vocal gymnastics combining to create an adrenaline fuelled experience. Martial and Diodati had met and played at previous editions of the festival and this collaboration looks set to become a continuing project.

Martial also played on the opening night of the festival with Kid be Kid the Berlin based neo-soul/hip hop/beat box performer. Their first show together was a short but excellent mix of improvised piano and voices that worked exceptionally well.

The scenic concerts this year were spectacular. French trio La Litanie Des Cimes (The Litany of the Peaks) played two concerts - one in a forest and the other at 2,000m near the entrance to one of the highest altitude mines (long closed) in Europe. The music is composed by violinist Clément Janinet, a chamber jazz cocktail befitting both the intimate setting in the trees and the stark majesty of the mountain peaks perfectly.

La Litanie Mountains - Photo by Tim Dickeson

Siegmar Brecher (bass clarinet), Lorenz Raab (trumpet) and Valentin Schuster performed each day whilst on a three-day hike through the mountains. To take part the audience signed up to hike with them. Sleeping in mountain huts the band carried their instruments in their backpacks and set up and played in the most scenic of locations.

Ruth Goller (bass, voice) and Dan Kinzelman (saxes, voice) played at an agritourism property high in the mountains. They were given time and space by the festival to stay here resulting in two long compositions (one from each) influenced in part by their stunning location. The music was stark and beautiful and Gollers’ lyrics were very emotive. The meal that followed the concert was delicious - the produce all grown in the fields outside the venue.

Drummer Sun-Mi Hong featured in several concerts. Hong played with her own Quintet also with Danish guitarist Teis Semey’s band, a trio featuring Lukas Kranzelbinder and Mona Riahi, and in a duet with Scottish trumpeter Alistair Robert Payne.

Drummer Sun-Mi Hong - Photo by Tim Dickeson

You are immediately impressed with the Korean's drumming. Hong has perfect timing - her touch around the drum kit is light but very effective and whatever band we saw her in she was pivotal in the music - Unfortunately I didn’t see the duet show which was in a WW2 bunker deep underground but those that did said it was breath-taking.

At the ‘Base Camp’ venue in the centre of Bolzano there are mainstream concerts every night with experimental and avant-garde music catered for at a late-night club. The highlight of the collaborations for me was undoubtedly the award-winning trio, Nout – Delphine Joussein (flute, electronics), Rafaëlle Rinaudo (harp, electronics) and Blanche Lafuente (drums) with special guest for this show Mats Gustafsson (baritone sax and and flute). With Gustafsson you know exactly what you get – it will be hard, raw and right in your face - but as for Nout I really had little idea - harp and flute don’t sound very threatening after all…

What an astonishing show this was! Straight off harpist Rinaudo launched into sounds that Joe Satriani or Geddy Lee would be proud of – Lafuente on drums was like an octopus with her long hair, arms and sticks a total blur. Meanwhile Joussein and Gustafsson were trading frenetic solos all of which in a moment dropped into a pastoral passage with classical harp and gentle harmonics - which of course didn’t last before the next frenetic explosion took off. There was humour, incredible solos from Joussein, and Rinado with Gustafsson featured playing flute on a beautiful slower paced piece.

The show was chaotic, it was loud and at times all over the place, but it was enthralling, entertaining and like a shot of adrenaline. I enjoyed every second.

This is a brilliant festival for bands and audience alike. The festival team actively create and encourage interaction between a wide range of musicians from all over Europe. This offers the audience music that is not only right at the cutting edge of jazz, but music that is presented to the audience in a unique way using stunning locations.