Joe Lovano with the Marcin Wasilewski Trio power-up Pančevo Jazz Festival

The Pančevo Jazz Festival is run by the Cultural Centre to benefit the people of the city - like all cultural events here the tickets are priced so that everyone can afford to go.  The Cultural Centre is the hub for the arts as well as a meeting point for local people.

While Pančevo is far from the prettiest place in Serbia it does have history, excellent fish restaurants (the rivers Danube and Tamis run through the city) a friendly population and above all a passion for Jazz. This year’s festival featured six main concerts and two foyer concerts over three nights with a wide mix of jazz styles. 

The opening concert featured Daniele Di Bonaventuras’ Band’Union - a beautiful combination of bandoneon, guitar, double bass and drums. The music gentle and melodic - its roots firmly based in Italian folk music. The interplay between Bonaventura and Marcello Peghin (playing a 10-string guitar) was exquisite - each weaving around the melodies exploring harmonies and taking the tunes off in new and surprising directions.

The following band was Simsa Fünf, led by Austrian drummer Sebastian Simsa. The percussionist writes tunes based on life events, each a snapshot of an experience or moment that triggered Simsa’s musical mind: The Brandenburg Gate, A Catalan Town, a Finnish Bridge or a Sleepless Night in Vienna… all providing musical stories. This was quirky cinematic music very well executed - Štepán Flager (sax) and Florian Sighartner (violin) the outstanding soloists.

The second night featured cellist Erik Friedlander with Uri Caine (piano), Mark Helias (bass) and Ches Smith (drums). There were technical issues the moment Friedlander took the stage - his electronics were not working and seemingly weren’t fixed. The set progressed seamlessly without the pedals but apart from some neat work from Caine and Smith it sounded just a little flat.

The following set, while not strictly jazz, was a revelation. Israeli Ofer Mizrahi (pictured above) is unique in many ways. Firstly, he plays a 24-string guitar that he built himself - the design based on an Indian slide guitar that he learnt to play whilst studying Hindustani classical music in Calcutta. Secondly, he draws on a huge musical canvas. Using elements from Indian, Turkish and Balkans ethnic music then a large pinch of jazz and contemporary pop to create his sound. The result of this melting pot is a musical soundscape like no other, he also plays trumpet and sings too.  If McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra was one end of the ‘East meets West’ collision then this is probably the other. Alongside Mizrahi were Leat Sol Sabbah (cello) and David Michaeli (drums) - Sabbah almost upstaging Mizrahi with her astounding playing and improvisation - but ultimately the plaudits must lie with Mizrahi for his ability to create such an unusual and interesting sound.

The last night featured Serbian singer Aleksandra Bijelić with her band plus the Merry Gospel Choir - an excellent mainstream show played to a completely full auditorium.  The stage was then reset for the main event of the evening (and the festival) - the Marcin Wasilewski Trio with Joe Lovano.

Lovano has now played quite extensively with Wasilewski across Europe and the first thought that struck me as they were playing was that this is now ‘a band’ - rather than Joe Lovano ‘sitting in’ or Wasilewski ‘supporting’. The last time I saw them a few years ago that was definitely the case - tonight it’s immediately apparent this is now a proper quartet.

Wasilewski pulls the strings in the band and his soloing was some of the best I’ve heard anywhere. Long incredible passages of improvisation with Slawomir Kurkiewicz (Bass) and Michael Miskiewicz (drums) telepathically right there with him underpinning his changes of mood or direction seamlessly.  During Wasilewski’s solos Lovano kept a low profile behind the drums deep into the music until he sprung into life and delivered his own fiery contributions. Whatever Wasilewski played Lovano equalled it and the duel between them was fantastic to listen to, the pair always feeding off each other, trading ideas and pushing the music to the limit.  Wasilewski’s trio are brilliant and now with Lovano in the band they really have taken the music to a higher level.

The two bands who played in the foyer offered a really nice contrast to the main hall. EABS (Electro-Acoustic beat sessions) from Poland take influences such as Krzysztof Komeda and Sun Ra with lesser-known Polish folk music mixing it with soul, hip-hop and jazz creating exciting high energy music. Kühn Fu V, led by guitarist Christian Kühn use chaotic but exciting time signatures in their exploration of post Zappa jazz/rock and humorous story telling.

Pančevo is a really enjoyable festival in a very relaxed atmosphere, where great music is appreciated and community spirit valued.