The great freedom, the Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige 2024 explores the European experimental scene
Frank Zappa once said: “Jazz isn’t dead, it just smells funny.” Nearly 70 years later, jazz is more alive than ever. In reality, jazz does not “stink”, but “smells”, from fresh, sour and fruity notes to sweet and captivating ones. Today jazz is characterized by a generation that almost no longer distinguishes between rock, punk, folk, noise, hip-hop, elements of jazz and R&B. The second edition of the Jazzfestival under the artistic direction of Stefan Festini Cucco, Max von Pretz and Roberto Tubaro also follows this dissolution of borders and presents mainly European groups whose music seems to absorb everything that can be heard today, but also what listened to in the past, and who are therefore shaping the future of jazz.
The opening evening which will be held on 28 June at the Ponte Roma district in Bolzano is the expression of a decidedly broad and original programme. In the former Feltrinelli factory (entrance: via Lancia, 1), the Human Magnetic Reception Ensemble, HUMRE for short, assembled for the occasion, will welcome the public with wind and percussion instruments. In the warehouse where the Milanese company had been producing masonite panels since 1938, the Estonian saxophonist Maria Faust will present her project “Mass of Mary” with a wind group and a choir of 16 singers. In the songs, dedicated to victims of domestic violence, the project combines elements of medieval sacred music with jazz, contemporary music with Estonian folk and integrates liturgical texts with text collages. Afterwards, the Valais group Hippo offers music that is both melodic and wild using analogue synthesizers and effects, before the evening continues with Synergy, the night of electronics organized in collaboration with the Hospiz Festival.
European experimental jazz lands in South Tyrol: Until July 7, 41 groups will play in 37 different locations. This year the three festival organizers invited 130 musicians from many countries. From Germany, for example, comes the Malstrom Trio with a mix of jazz, free improvisation and rock elements of the 90s and the Nils Kugelmann Trio, whose debut album “Stormy Beauty” was awarded the German Record Critics’ Award in 2023. Austria is represented by the cult band Shake Stew, the chamber jazz trio HAEZZ and the Sweet Life quartet, led by saxophonist Yvonne Moriel, who effectively enriches jazz and electronica with dub, hip-hop effects , reggae vibes and world music elements.
The percussionist and composer Tilo Weber will be present with various projects, as will the pianist Olga Reznichenko, who will be present in Alto Adige not only with her own trio, but also with the Crutches trio and with the Beatdenkers Polyplay project, which combines rhythmic elements of different musical traditions with futuristic beats and electro-acoustic hybrid sounds. He will also play the keyboards alongside the young saxophonist Fabian Dudek, who his sextet will present their compositions from Day by Day, and will participate in the union between jazz and cinema at the Filmclub in Bolzano. Together with the saxophonist Daniel Erdmann and the drummer Francesca Remigi, he will re-music the silent film Mr. Radio from 1924. The Nancelot group, a quartet of flutes with percussion, will perform at the Parco delle Semirurali in Bolzano, opening up completely new musical perspectives with a rather original.
The eccentric French scene cannot be missed, which will be present at the 2024 edition with a series of interesting groups. The Inui quartet ranges between jazz and electronic trance, while the Nosax Noclar duo with clarinetists Bastian Weger and Julien Stella explores colorful soundscapes , which vary between contemporary jazz, Celtic, Turkish, North African and Armenian music. The Jet Whistle quintet, on the other hand, enters a playing field that extends from Free Jazz to the atonal sound experiments of the composer Pierre Boulez.
While the French cellist Valentin Ceccaldi with his group Bonbon Flamme creates a wild mixture of progressive rock and free jazz with anarchically free collective improvisations, his brother Theo Ceccaldi (viola and violin) will perform with the Velvet Revolution trio and risk an improvised matinee with Tilo Weber at the Casa della Pesa in Bolzano, where the public will be able to enjoy music that cannot be reproduced live but created in the “here and now”. From Northern Europe instead will come the group Y-Otis, led by the Swedish saxophonist Otis Sandsjö, who with the His “liquid jazz” is oriented towards hip-hop and contemporary electronic music. The Icelandic guitarist Sigurdur Rögnvaldsson and his band LÚNA are inspired by the jazz-rock of the early Seventies, while the Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen will perform at Bunker H in Bolzano with the experimental singer Sofia Jernberg, born in Ethiopia and raised both in Vietnam and in Sweden. During this concert, instrumental freedom and free “singing” will open up extraordinary possibilities for the expression of the human voice.
As part of the Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige, not only is quality music presented, but in the course of workshops and artistic residencies, new music is also developed, which is then presented during concerts. At the Stanglerhof in Fiè, the bassist Ruth Goller from Bressanone, now at home in the British jazz scene, will work together with the drummer Daniel Klein from Leipzig and the Trentino vibraphonist Mirko Pedrotti during a residency. For a multi-day residency in Bolzano, the Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige has invited the singer Camilla Battaglia and the pianist Simone Graziano, who together with the Swiss percussionist and artist Julian Sartorius will present the results of their work at the Parco dei Cappuccini in Bolzano.
Many concerts of the festival take place in locations in the province, which are not normally intended for concerts. The “base camp” of the festival this year too will be set up at the Parco dei Cappuccini in Bolzano and attractive locations have been confirmed such as the Novacella Abbey, the Roner distillery in Termeno, the Club Est Ovest in Merano, the Harpf bottle shop in Brunico, the Stanglerhof in Fiè, as well as Casa della Pesa and the parks of the Mondschein and Laurin hotels in Bolzano. Other open-air concerts will be held in the mountains, at the Speikboden in Val Pusteria or at the Poschhaus gallery in Ridanna. Furthermore, the Words trio, formed by trombonist Matteo Paggi, will accompany a three-day jazz excursion that will begin at the Gardenaccia refuge in Val Badia and end at the Juac refuge in Selva di Val Gardena.
New locations this year are the Ottmanngut in Merano, the Corno del Renon, the roof terrace of the unibz campus in Bressanone, the Jocher restaurant on Monte San Vigilio in Lana, the Casa Goethe in Bolzano and the town square in Vipiteno .
Late night concerts will be held again at the Sudwerk of Ca de Bezzi in Bolzano, from the solo of drummer Oli Steidle to the duo Training, which with Ruth Goller adopts the surrealist composition principle of “Cadavre Exquis”. In a night concert at the Bolzano Fair, Goller with her quartet Skylla will discover a sound space between Bulgarian folk and free jazz. Also at the Sudwerk will be held the second edition of Kabarila, a kind of jazz ritual lasting five hours scheduled in the same place for five years and which always sees the same lineup (Lukas Kanzelbinder, Delphine Joussein, Johannes Schleiermacher, Julian Sartorius and the dancers Dante Murillo, Daphna Horenczyk, Jaroslav Ondrus). In addition to music and dance, the audience is an important part of this ritual and is invited to participate by dancing, but can also simply enjoy the performance by listening.
All information and the detailed program on: www.altoadigejazzfestival.com
Photo, from left to right: Councilor for culture of the Municipality of Vipiteno Verena Debiasi, Councilor Philipp Achammer, co-artistic director Roberto Tubaro, president Stefan Festini Cucco, co-artistic director Max von Pretz, Deputy Mayor of Bolzano Stephan Konder and the Councilor of the Municipality of Bolzano Johanna Ramoser
