29.th BELGRADE JAZZ FESTIVAL
24th – 28th October 2013
29th Belgrade Jazz Festival, organised and hosted by the Belgrade Youth Centre (Dom omladine Beograda), will present All the Faces of Jazz - the giants of the contemporary jazz scene – from 24th to 28th October 2013. In the most difficult period since the rebirth of the Belgrade Jazz Festival and with only half of the previous budget, we have prepared a great program this year- nothing short of what our loyal audience and the wider public are accustomed to. Despite the crises, the Belgrade Jazz Festival will not only run this year, but also last for one extra day with the tickets remaining at affordable prices.
We have prepared a special ticket package for school and university students for only 100 dinars that would allow them to see even the most attractive of the programs – the opening program in Sava Center (Sava Centar).
Ticket sets for the main program at a special price of 4,500 RSD, as well as single tickets for all the concerts can be bought at the EVENTIM ticket desk located inside the Belgrade Youth Centre.
For the exclusive price of 100 Serbian dinars, the Belgrade Youth Centre has provided school and university students with 100 tickets for the 29th Belgrade Jazz Festival opening ceremony to be held in Sava Center, and additional 20 tickets for all concerts on the main program that will be held in the Main Hall of the Belgrade Youth Centre. This ticket category will only be sold at the EVENTIM ticket desk inside the Belgrade Youth Centre. It is necessary for school and university students to show their student IDs when buying tickets and when entering the concert halls. Every such student will only be allowed to purchase a single ticket per concert at this special price of 100 dinars.
This again confirms that the Belgrade Jazz Festival enjoys the highest acclaim when it comes to the international jazz scene, and that it fulfills its mission of promoting the art of music in our society, as one of the leading international events in the country.
At the ceremonial opening in Sava Centre on October 24th, Belgrade audience will for the first time hear Cassandra Wilson, one of the greatest female artists on the international jazz scene! This leading world vocal jazz diva, winner of two Grammy Awards and numerous awards for singer of the year, with the support of the Embassy of the United States, comes to us with a special program titled Harriet Tubman & Cassandra Wilson present Black Sun, a hit show of this year’s European autumn concert season. The project is inspired by the mission of Harriet Tubman, the legendary African-American activist from the US Civil War times, which displays the fight for African-American rights through today’s social context. This will be the first performance of the famous singer in Belgrade and Serbia. On the same night, the Belgrade Jazz Festival will join the celebration of 65th anniversary of Big Band RTS emphasised by the orchestra’s special guest star, one of the most renowned European trumpeters, composers and arrangers – Bert Joris.
During 29th Belgrade Jazz Festival, the audience will see more than 15 concerts of the most popular jazz artists from the USA, Europe and Serbia. After the ceremonial opening in Sava Center, all other concerts will be held in the halls of the Belgrade Youth Centre.
At the Festival closing on October 28th, we will hear one of the biggest stars of contemporary jazz, a real treat for contemporary jazz fans – Vijay Iyer who will hold a concert with his trio in the Main Hall of the Belgrade Youth Centre. In critics’ opinion, this leading jazz musician of today has in the past year won five Down Beat awards and four JazzTimes awards, collecting awards for Jazz Artist of the Year (open category), Pianist of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year, Jazz Group of the Year. Through the language of jazz, he interprets in his music the heritage of all popular music, with a 21st century sensibility. The third renowned star of this year’s Festival is certainly the legendary saxophonist Lee Konitz, founder of cool jazz (together with Miles Davis and Lennie Tristano) and one the last active heroes of the golden jazz 1950s decade. Konitz will celebrate his 86th birthday this October, thus the concert will be paying homage to the golden jazz era.
This year, Belgrade audience will have a chance to meet many fantastic musicians, foremost those with contemporary European jazz tendencies: the Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson who mixes Scandinavian and Eastern folklore with jazz and classical music. He will perform with pianist Yaron Herman, no stranger toBelgrade audience. The specialty of Nik Bärtsch’s Swiss zen-funk quartet Ronin lies in the variations of repetitive motifs in an ambiance of ritual grooves, mixing jazz funk, classical and Japanese music. Planned to perform is also the new Israeli jazz hero, pianist Shai Maestro, whose music follows the ideas of Avishai Cohen, with whom he held an unforgettable concert at the Ilija M. Kolarac Foundation back in 2007. The young stars of Italian jazz Gianluca Petrella and Giovanni Guidi are coming back to Belgrade after their fantastic concert with Enrico Rava’s quintet in 2010.
The Festival will also include performances of the leading Dutch jazz musician, saxophonist Yuri Honing and the Polish piano master Leszek Możdżer, with a jazzy take on Chopin’s and Komeda’s work. Coming from Portugal, we have Júlio Resende and Maria João with their world premier of new combinations of jazz and fado. The Festival will also host the German pianist Julia Hülsmann, who will be accompanied by the young master of the jazz trumpet – Tom Arthurs from Britain.
Lastly, All the Faces of Jazz will fall nothing short of our very own contributions, namely, a bold original project to be presented by Ana Sofrenović in an avant-garde, yet communicative expression; a collaboration between the Serbian born American Alma Mićić and guitar player Doug Wamble; and the presentation of the most talented Serbian bands in public opinion—Eyot from Niš and Fish in Oil from Belgrade.
Friends of 29th BJF: Erste Banka, SOKOJ and Grand Casino Belgrade.
Sponsors of 29th BJF: City of Belgrade (Secretariat for Culture within the City Administration) and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.
29th BJF is supported by: the Embassy of the United States, the Goethe Institute, the Polish Embassy, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Embassy of Israel, the Embassy of Sweden, Swiss Culture Scapes, Instituto Camoes Portugal and the Embassy of Portugal, Metropol Palace Hotel and MASEL.
