John Scofield and Isaiah Collier among Belgrade Jazz Festival highlights

For this 39^th edition artistic director Vojislav Pantić sought out artists who had either just released or were about to release new recordings - giving the festival an excellent cutting-edge feel.

The festival is centred on the Dom Omladine youth centre in the centre of Belgrade with its two stages - the larger Velika sala concert hall and the more club like setting of the Amerikana. The Dom Omladine is a major hub for the arts in Belgrade and is the perfect location for a festival.

Each venue hosts two shows per night with the exception of the closing night where the much larger MTS Dvorana venue was used for the two early evening shows - this year featuring the John Scofield Trio supported by the excellent Stefano Di Battista.

Scofield is touring his latest ‘Uncle John’s Band’ Cd with Vicente Archer (bass) and Bill Stewart (drums). The show had some great moments including his two tributes to Carla Bley ‘Lawns’ & ‘Ida Lupino’ plus his own up-tempo composition ‘Mask’ which was excellent.

The Shows in the Velika sala included Serbian Alto saxophonist Max Kochetov with special guest Fabrizio Bosso, the Gerald Clayton Trio, Leszek Moźdźer & Adam Pierończyk duo, The Oded Tzur Quartet, Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit, the Fabian Rucker 5, The Alba Careta Group and the Dave Douglas Gifts Trio.

There were several outstanding performances on this stage but the one from Oded Tzur was very special.  The Israeli born (New York based) tenor player’s style and sound is unique. Tzur studied for a decade the Hindustani Raga (a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music) with its distinctive microtones and slides. During the concert Tzur spoke to the audience, “I never thought we would be playing at a time like this - our songs are about love. To say nothing is not enough, I’ll let the music speak”.

Tzurs’ quartet featuring Nitai Hershkovits (piano), Petros Klamanis (bass) and Cyrano Almeida (Drums) played music mostly from Tzur’s forthcoming ECM recording ‘My Prophet’. Tzur brings the Raga beauty to his playing delivering a gentle but powerful sound that exudes pure emotion. His sax is so quiet at times it’s like it is breathing its last but phoenix like it returns powerfully combining beautifully with the piano. Hershkovits piano work was outstanding - he underpinned the concert allowing Tzur the maximum impact when he stepped up to play.  The standing ovation at the end of the concert was thoroughly deserved.

Young Catalan trumpeter and vocalist Alba Careta (above right) is a very interesting musician mixing her love of modern jazz with her Catalan folk heritage. The first thing that strikes you about Careta is how joyful she is on stage - her smile never left her during the performance and her exuberance while performing was palpable. Her duet with drummer Josep Cordobés on Lluis Llach’s, ‘Abril 74’ in memory of the Portuguese revolution was spellbinding and her encore of ‘Blackbird’ beautiful.

Austrian saxophonist Fabian Rucker is another interesting musician. The band comprising Philipp Nykrin (piano), Christian Neuschmid (guitar), Andrea Waelti (bass) & Andreas Lettner (drums) are tight and excellent soloists. This was a high-octane feel good set with many contrasting musical styles that ended with the audience cheering for more.

The Dave Douglas ‘Gifts Trio’ is the latest project from the tireless trumpeter. Featuring from the band ‘Son Lux’ the pairing of Rafiq Bhatia (guitar, electronics) and Ian Chang (drums, electronics) who Douglas has worked with individually in the past. The music is ‘inspired’ by the works of Charles Lloyd and in particular Lloyds’ fascination with Billy Strayhorn. The band is brand new and still working things out, ‘Take the A Train’ was maybe a little too obvious but overall, there were some excellent moments. Rafiq Bhat-a is an entire band just on his own - the sounds and effects he produces (with minimal knob twiddling) was astonishing. Waves of atmospheric synthesized guitar with kick-ass drumming from Chang allowed Douglas to float his classy solos. For a work in progress this sounds very promising with a CD in 2024 - Rafiq Bhatia is definitely one to watch.

The late shows at the festival featured the Verneri Pohjola Quartet, The Manuel Hermia Freetet, Hugo Carvalhais, The Hayden Chisholm Quartet, Isaiah Collier and the Chosen Few, Studnitzky X Magro, Laïla Martial & Valentin Ceccaldi, Sylvian Rifflet and the Serbian Showcase.

The Serbian showcase is always something to look forward to. The jazz scene in Serbia is thriving and every year the top three bands as chosen by the festival team get to showcase their talents. This year we heard from Viktor Tumbas (a gifted vocalist), the Miloš Čolovič Trio (contemporary jazz) and the Jovan Milovanović Quartet an excellent guitar led contemporary jazz/rock outfit. 

When you think of ‘Spiritual Jazz’ naturally John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders come to mind - we can now add the name of Isaiah Collier (above) to that list. He isn’t either of the aforementioned and doesn’t pretend to be but his writing, performance and delivery elevates him to the same league. 

Playing with his ‘Chosen Few’ band of Pharoah Sanders former pianist and musical director Benito Gonzalez, Micah Collier (bass) & Michael Shekwoaga Ode (drums). Collier sets out his stall from the first number - a serene tenor solo leading into ‘Lift every voice and Sing’ which segues into a hard-hitting groove with Collier and Gonzalez taking the music up another level. Colliers own compositions are not all thunder and lightning - there is a lot of mellow blues in there as well as carefully constructed melodies - his vocal injections are on point too.

It is hard not to get carried away with Collier and his total understanding of ‘Spiritual’ music.  He is young (25) so who knows what he will be capable of or in which direction the future will take him, but I bet it will be some ride.

Finish trumpeter Verneri Pojhola also made a big impact in the Amerikana with his latest project ‘Monkey Mind’ - the term he gives to the restlessness of his mind. Playing with Jasper Høiby (bass), Olavi Louivuori (drums) and Estonian pianist Kirke Karja who sat in for Kit Downes who plays on the cd.  Pojhola comes from a very musical family so his influences are many and he creatively and effortlessly crosses between classical, jazz, blues, pop and fusion. On ‘Of our Children’ and ‘Space Diamonds’ he has a melodic and almost hymnal style of playing but on ‘Party in the Attic’ (the highlight of the show) he and the band blow a storm into a tremendous climax and then crank it down as the imaginary party fizzles out into a drunken haze.

The final night of the festival in the Amerikana featured a French double bill of Leïla Martial & Valentin Ceccaldi followed by Saxophonist Sylvain Rifflet with his ‘Troubadours’ band.

I have long admired the vocal talents of Leïla Martial. Not only has she an astonishing vocal range but her ‘voice within a voice’ when she beat-boxes and scats creating weird and wonderful sounds that seemingly from nowhere.  The music for this concert is taken from ‘Le Jardin Des Délices’ album which has just come out - and what a delight this concert was!

With only cello and voice (and minimal electronic effects for the vocals) the audience have to really pay attention and during the show you could have heard the veritable ‘pin’ drop. Ceccaldi gets so much soul in his playing - every note whether bowed or plucked a sensual delight and Martial’s vocal delivery flawless  - she lives the songs as she sings giving  them everything in her delivery. Their version of ‘Asturiana’, by Manuel De Falla was just sublime as was ‘Au bois de Saint-Amand’, by the French singer Barbara, one of Martials influences and favourite singers.

This was an excellent festival with a varied, interesting and well balanced line-up. Tickets for the concerts are incredibly cheap and Belgrade is a vibrant city. Next year the festival comes to its 40^th edition and the management team have promised it will be something very special. 

The Belgrade Jazz Festival is held from the Wednesday of the last weekend of October each year.