5. - 8. 7.

2023

Diversity From All Over

It is with great pleasure that we announce the programme of the 64th Jazz Festival Ljubljana. The concept of the Council of Europe Park as the festival’s focal point has been reinforced. We continue to pursue an approach that, through manifestations of contemporary music practices in jazz and beyond, serves to build a community – both a music community and one bonded through music. With, as always, some new features. After a lapse of several years, the opening event is returning to the unique setting of Ljubljana’s Križanke theatre. Here, we will welcome a major figure in London’s current music scene, Alfa Mist (making his Slovenian debut), and one of the most strikingly original self-made avant-garde pop artists, Benjamin  Clementine. Ties will again be strengthened across artificially-mapped national borders through collaborations between foreign and national artists – this year vocalist Nina Virant’s VIRA project will include Norwegian drummer Gard Nilssen. This year’s artist-in-residence, percussionist Domen Cizej, will play four concerts in four line-ups while releasing as many as five albums under Clean Feed Records. In collaboration with the .abeceda Institute and presented on the Old Tree Stage, we’re organising five concerts with a spotlight on young local talent. Zlatko Kaučič’s performance and the festival’s traditional photography exhibition (this time presented by Nika Hölcl Praper) both mark the percussionist’s career milestone, as they are dedicated to Kaučič’s 70th birthday and more than 40 years in music.

This year, we are temporarily returning to the legendary venue, with a programme that is oriented towards the future: with artists embodying some of the most exciting elements of the global music scene (in addition to national musicians, artists coming from Austria, France, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, Serbia, Great Britain, the US), using a rich variety of musical idioms in different – more or less classic – contexts. Jazz is more than “jazz”.

Borja Močnik, Bogdan Benigar