Oct 30 – 33. Beogradski jazz festival

Donny McCaslin Group

domomladine — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 06:12:09 +0000

When he made his Belgrade Jazz Festival debut in 1990 at Kolarac, saxophonist Donny McCaslin (1966) was just one of the talented students in the Gary Burton quintet. In 2006, on his next performance at the same place, he already played side by side with Dave Douglas. Today, he arrives as the music spirit of David Bowie’s epitaph Blackstar and the creator of Beyond Now, a tribute to Bowie, the winner of the North Sea Jazz Festival Paul Acket Award 2017, and voted the international jazz artist of the year by the Jazz FM Radio poll, where he shared the stage with The Rolling Stones. He is also a three time Grammy nominee.

McCaslin released 12 albums as a leader and collaborated with prominent contemporary jazz figures and bands, including Maria Schneider, Danilo Pérez, Brian Blade, Steps Ahead… For years now he has been an unavoidable name on the DownBeat magazine polls, he was the winner of the magazine’s Critics Poll ‘Rising Star’ category (2008 and 2009). Since 2011 he developed interest in blending electronic, dance music, funk, dub and jazz, something his former “boss” Maria Schneider especially appreciated and that would eventually lead him and the rest of the quartet (Jason Lindner, Tim Lefebvre, Mark Guiliana) straight to David Bowie.

Matija Dedić: “Three sides of jazz” feat. Gene Jackson & Joris Teepe

domomladine — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 06:13:39 +0000

Pianist and composer Matija Dedić (1973) is one of the leading Croatian jazz musicians today. This confirmed not only by the fact that he is a multiple Porin Award winner (the most prestigious music award in Croatia, 2016 he won six, including the Album of the Year award for Matija svira Arsena) but by his impressive discography with international jazz masters, as well as the relentless concert activity (solo, trio, Gabi Novak, Zoran Predin, Tamara Obrovac, Gibonni, Šimun Matišić, Zoran Majstorović…). Since 2009 he released three albums with American rhythm sections, Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard, Vicente Archer and Kendrick Scott, as well as Scott Colley and Antonio Sanchez – something no other active jazz musicians from the ex-YU territory has achieved.
On his third appearance at the Belgrade Jazz Festival, he presents the program from his latest album Dedicated backed up by trio with Joris Teepe (main collaborations: Don Braden, Benny Golson, Rashied Ali, Billy Hart and Randy Brecker) and Gene Jackson (main collaborations: Kevin Eubanks, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Donny McCaslin, Robin Eubanks, John Abercrombie, The Mingus Big Band) a solo program and a duo with his guest Vasil Hažimanov.

Sanja Marković “Ascension”

domomladine — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 06:15:18 +0000

Composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and arranger Sanja Marković was born in Zemun. She lived and worked on the East Coast USA for several years – she composed, taught piano and music theory and gained producing experience with Water Music studio (Rob Grenoble). She obtained her Master’s degree at the Belgrade Music Academy.

She worked for various Belgrade theatres and composed music for the Dah teatar. Along with Nebojša Ignjatović, she worked in the conceptual group Secondhanders. In recent years, she leads the club band Brazilian Jazz Collective, occasionally performs with the RTS Big Band, and took part in the project New Sparks Jazz Orchestra. At the Festival, she will promote her debut album Ascension (Metropolis Jazz). On this record, she superbly sails through various areas, blending classical and contemporary jazz, electronic and pop structures as well as subtle tastes of folklore in an organic music beyond genres. Along with a strong work as a composer, she demonstrates her superior vocal abilities and her precise and powerful and yet warm and seductive alto.

Tapan

domomladine — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 06:18:47 +0000

Duo Tapan čine producenti Nebojša Bogdanović Švabe i Goran Simonoski. Obojica su na beogradskoj klupskoj sceni aktivni od devedesetih godina. Pod imenom Tapan objavili su tri EP-a, ostvarujući zapažen uspeh u svetu. Uživo, u formatu kvarteta sa saksofonistom Džamalom Al Kisvanijem i perkusionistom Feđom Frenklinom grade veze između elektronike, džez improvizacije i pulsa orijentalizma izmičući lakoj kategorizaciji.

Space Tigers

domomladine — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 06:16:44 +0000

Space Tigers is a Berlin based quartet founded by the Croatian saxophonist Grgur Savić and Serbian guitarist Vanja Kevrešan. Both musicians already have a considerable experience in collaboration with bands from the former Yugoslavia and Germany, as well as a number of albums recorded with various bands, and they teach, too – Savić teaches in Berlin, while Kevrešan teaches at the Belgrade Music Academy. Along with the Serbian trumpet player Damir Bačikin (on the Festival he will be substituted by Strahinja Banović, a prominent Belgrade jazz scene player) and the American drummer Jesus Vega, the four sofa-techno-jazz-surfers play music beyond styles, soon to be available their debut album on Unit Records label based in Switzerland.

Their music features an original concept – transformation of existing melodies into several parts of motifs as separate units, as lines or bass parts, then rearranging these fragments into new order or different polyrhythms, bringing the starting-point compositions into the new light. Call it jazz, grunge, funk or electro – it is irrelevant, this is a Berlin art style.