The main program of the 32nd Nashville Jazz Festival opened last night, August 13, with performances by guitar virtuosos and big names from the world of jazz music. The evening was marked by the presentation of awards, the Niš audience and the return of the band Incognito.
At the opening of Dopamine
The festival was opened by the band Dopamine from Niš, led by saxophonist and clarinetist Ivo Barčić. Their music combines Balkan and Romani traditions with jazz and contemporary sound, so the beginning of the evening was also a confirmation of one of the constant festival ideas - that a large international scene is built from the local musical base.
Photo: Ana AdamovićMikan Zlatkovic
This was followed by the performance of this year's laureate of Nišville for contribution to jazz music, Mikan Zlatković. The pianist and composer, one of the important musicians of the local jazz scene, performed with his trio. Instead of a strictly planned program in advance, Zlatković left the concert to the moment and improvisation, which is one of the essences of jazz.
"Skopje" by Vlatko Stefanovski
After him, Stohelo Rosenberg, Janis Konstanz and Camille Wolfrom took the stage. Rosenberg. As one of the most famous representatives of gypsy-jazz, this trio brought to the Fortress the sound of European jazz that relies on the tradition of Django Reinhardt, but remained open to contemporary influences.
Photo: Ana AdamovićVlatko Stefanovski
Trio Vlatko Stefanovski, consisting of bass guitarist Ivan Kukić and drummer Jan Stefanovski, brought back the old recognizable sound of the group "Leb i sol" with songs like "Cuvam noć od budnih". The audience enjoyed the traditional guitar performance of the song "Jovano Jovanke", and with the song "Skopje" Vlatko Stefanovski greeted Nišlje until the next meeting and ended his first performance after seven years in Nišville.
incognito
The headliner of the evening was the British group Incognito, which is performing for the third time at the Nashville Jazz Festival, which is why they were presented with a special award last night for the longest collaboration between the festival and a performer. This year, they stepped in instead of The Original Blues Brothers Band, who, due to the cancellation of their European tour, also gave up their performance at this festival.
For Jean-Paul Bloui Monique, frontman and founder of Incognito, the return to Niš is not just another concert. After almost half a century of the band's existence, he still sees "Incognito" not as a classic band, but as a musical family that is constantly changing and growing.
"When I started Incognito 47 years ago, I didn't want a band. A band is like a gang, you fight against others. I wanted a musical family that would grow and accept members from other bands and create a different kind of culture," said Monique before the performance.
Their performance gathered the largest number of people, and they constantly maintained live energy. They ended the evening with the song "One Love" by Bob Marley and "The Wailers", which spoiled the audience even more.
Photo: Ana AdamovićCal band
The first festival evening ended with a performance by Kal band and Zejna Murkić on the occasion of Šaban Bajramović's 90th birthday.
And on the other stages...
In addition to the main stage, Nashville will also have programs on several others this year. On the first evening, concerts on the Open and Museum stages, Balkan Brass and the Hip-hop program took place in parallel.
For the organizers, the beginning of the 32nd edition comes in circumstances in which, as Nišvil director Ivan Blagojević said, the festival survives thanks to the "masochism" of the organizers and their need to, as he stated, "protect culture", given that this year the funds from the Ministry of Culture were absent. Despite this, Nishville gathered a large number of local and foreign musicians again this year, and during the four days of the main program, 22 performers will perform on several stages.
And among them, in the next three nights, Boney M and Amy Winehouse's original band, while the festival will be closed by groups from Niš, including Lavina and Galija.
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