Ljubljana Jazz Festival

Established in 1960, the international Ljubljana Jazz Festival is the oldest jazz festival in Europe and the central international jazz event in Slovenia. Till now the festival has presented the most eminent world jazz and improvising musicians from Europe, the USA and other parts of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Many open air or interdisciplinary events accompany the festival, including street performances, a film programme centred on documentaries, exhibitions of posters, round tables, exhibitions of jazz photography and art works made by jazz musicians.

The festival is organised by Cankarjev dom, Cultural and Congress Centre and also predominantly takes place in the various concert halls of the centre. The other main venue is the open-air venue open-air Križanke

, as it was before in ex-Yugoslavia

In recent years the Ljubljana Jazz Festival has been cooperating with the Maribor (Lent and Jazz Cerkno Festival, establishing a kind of Slovene triangle of jazz festivities.

History

One of the most majestic concerts at Ljubljana Jazz Festival was given by Sun Ra Archestra in 1982 in the packed Križanke venue in front of a completely "musicated" crowd.

Festival began life in 1960 as the Yugoslavian Jazz Festival. For the first six years it took place in Bled, then in 1967 it moved to Ljubljana to Tivoli Hall and in 1970 finally found its traditional domicile in the attractive outdoor venue of Križanke. Due to organisational problems and controversies about its music and artistic direction in the mid-1980s the festival was moved for two years to the then newly established Cankarjev dom, Cultural and Congress Centre, but Križanke remains as its primary venue. Cankarjev dom became its regular organiser with relatively stable public funding in 1982.

In 1982 the organisation of the Ljubljana Jazz Festival was taken over from the local Jazz Society, its conventional jazz milieu and close-tied connections with the institutionalised RTV Slovenia Big Band, bastion of Slovene jazz traditionalism.

Not without resistance and public polemics the first enlarged programme council which also included younger jazz connoisseurs was the start of musical opening toward new jazz, various forms of improvised music, and new trends associated with or inspired by jazz. This was the turning point of festival orientation till now, an orientation that was followed by appointments of various art directors with different "success", often publicly attacked from various interest groups, "jazz angles" and aesthetic positions.

- Tako je lahko ob vsakoletnem temeljitem pregledu položaja na lokalnih jazzovskih prizoriščih po tedanjih republikah – z obvezno rdečo nitjo, to je z nastopi državnih radijskih orkestrov iz večine tedanjih republiških središč –

- eta 1967, ko je na njem nastopil za tiste čase nenavadno energičen, že čisto rockovski francoski violinist Jean-Luc Ponty

- Leta 1969 v kar dveh zasedbah: Mitsuaki Kano Quartet in Kimiki Kasai & Akira Tanaka, naslednje leto izvrstni Sadao Watanabe Quartet.

- 1972. Takrat pa še zelo pravočasen nastop tria pianista Billa Evansa

- Nastopili so Ram Chandra Mistry iz Indije.

- Za to je poskrbel močan trojni zalogaj že takrat samosvojih Skandinavcev z norveškim duetom Karin Krog in Arild Andersen na čelu ter še eno srečanje z japonsko jazzovsko ustvarjalnostjo v izvedbi kvinteta trobentača Terumasa Hina. Predvsem pa je leto 1973 prineslo Ljubljani prvo srečanje z odprtim zvočnim in angažiranim pomenskim nabojem kakšnega izmed takrat ključnih afroameriških protagonistov. To je bil saksofonist Archie Shepp

- ecm 70s jazz

- Elvin Jones s svojim kvartetom (1975), pa The Jazz Messengers bobnarja Arta Blackeyja in kvartet saksofonista Stana Getza (1976

- Tega leta pa smo na festivalu prvič srečali tudi nekaj afriškega: nastopila je skupina Mombasa, po poreklu iz Kenije.

First four decades of the programme

In half a century the Ljubljana Jazz Festival has presented jazz artists and groups from numerous countries, among them: Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet (DE, 1962), Modern Jazz Quartet (US) & Laurindo Almeida (BR), Krzysztof Komeda Quintet (PL, 1965), Jean-Luc Ponty (FR, 1967), Martial Solal Trio (FR/CH, 1968), Memphis Slim (US, 1968), Kimiki Kasai & Akira Tanaka (JP, 1969), Bill Evans Trio (US/GB, 1972), Archie Shepp Quintet (US, 1973), Yosuke Yamashita Trio (JP, 1974), Odetta (US, 1974), Elvin Jones Quartet (US, 1975), Cecil Taylor Quintet (US, 1976), New Terje Rypdal Group (NL, 1977), Sončna pot (Ljubljana, YU, 1978), Leb i sol (Skopje, YU, 1978), Tone Janša Quartet (YU/CH/AT, 1978), Paul Bley (US, 1979), Airto Moreira Group (BR/US/JP, 1980), Pharoah Sanders Quartet (US, 1981), Steve Lacy & Mal Waldron (US, 1982), Sun Ra Archestra (US, 1982), Irene Schweizer (CH) – Rüdiger Carl (DE, 1982), Lester Bowie Ensemble (US, 1982), Willem Breuker Kollektief (NL, 1983), Keith Tippett – Peter Brötzmann Quartet (GB/DE/DD, 1984), Vienna Art Orchestra (conductor Matthias Rüegg: int., 1985), Anthony Braxton Quartet (US, 1985), Julius Hemphill Jah Band (US, 1985), Dudu Pukwana & Zila (GB/ZA, 1986), McCoy Tyner Trio (US, 1986), The Art Ensemble Of Chicago (US, 1987), Max Roach (US, 1988), Gilberto Gil (BR, 1988), Sergey Kuryokhin's Pop-Mekhanika Ensemble (SU, 1989), Henry Threadgill Sextet (US, 1989), Sony Sharrock Band (US, 1990), Steve Coleman’s Five Elements (US, 1990), Miles Davis (US, 1991), Don Byron Klezmer Orchestra (US, 1994), Ray Barretto & New World Spirit Orchestra (US, 1994), Bill Frisell Group, Defunkt (US, 1996), Tito Puente & His Latin Jazz Ensemble (US, 1997)

The programme after 2000

Muhal Richard Abrams Quartet (US, 2000), Zlatko Kaučič, (SI, 2000), Italian Instabile Orchestra (IT, 2001), David S. Ware Quartet, Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos (US, 2001), Peter Brötzmann "Chicago Tentet" (int., 2002), Femi Anikulapo – Kuti & The Positive Force (NG, 2002), Maya Homburger & Barry Guy (CH/GB, 2003), Jan Garbarek Group (NO, 2003), Ornette Coleman Quartet (US, 2004), Pat Metheny (US, 2004), Abdullah Ibrahim (SA, 2005), David Murray & The Gwo-Ka Masters (US/GP, 2006), Alexander von Schlippenbach & Die Enttäuschung (DE, 2006), Tomasz Stanko Quartet (PL, 2007), Roscoe Mitchell Chicago Quartet (US, 2009), Louis Moholo Viva La Black & Keith Tippett & MinAfric Orchestra (SA/GB/IT, 2009), John Zorn Dreamers (US, 2009), Pat Metheny (2010)

External links

Ljubljana Jazz Festival

Contents

History

First four decades of the programme

The programme after 2000

See also

External links

Operated by

Financed by