Early July in Ljubljana is once again devoted to the celebration of jazz music! The time-honoured, continually running Jazz Festival Ljubljana returns for its sixty-sixth edition. As well as the halls of Cankarjev dom and its adjacent park, the festival’s usual venues include the Križanke Auditorium which provides a most suitable setting for the opening night. This year's focus is consciously directed towards contemporaneity, with a special spotlight on the loud and distinctive voices of female leaders – prominent protagonists of today’s broader jazz community.
Meshell Ndegeocello (US)
Meshell Ndegeocello is a bass player above all else. A bass player who is also a vocalist, a poet, … and as such an important force in shaping the American (pop) musical scene. She is an uncategorizable artist of total assurance and great dexterity who excels at everything from soul, funk, R&B, hip-hop, rock and, of course, jazz. By no means a newcomer to the music scene, Ndegeocello started out on her career in the 1980s, and collaborated with the likes of Herbie Hancock and Madonna in the 1990s. Her latest project, scheduled for our opening event at Ljubljana’s Križanke theatre, No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, is an in-depth tribute to James Baldwin, marking the centennial of the birth of this poetically outspoken critic of systemic racism, author of iconic quotes and a universal guiding light.
Ndegeocello won back-to-back Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Jazz Album (2024–25).
Cécile McLorin Salvant (US/FR)
One of the most distinctive voices of her generation – a singer, storyteller, composer and visual artist – is making her Ljubljana debut! Cécile McLorin Salvant is a vocalist and an eclectic curator tracing connections between blues, theatre, jazz, baroque and folkloric music... She has received three consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album: For One to Love (2015), Dreams and Daggers (2017) and The Window (2018). Her last album is called Mélusine (2023), and her latest project, Ogresse, is a musical fable in the form of a cantata.
aja monet (US)
aja monet is a multidisciplinary artist in the finest sense of the word – a poet, writer, spoken-word virtuosa, cultural worker and activist based in Brooklyn. Her writings address the themes of injustice, persecution, resistance and systemic violence from East New York to Palestine, but also belonging, motherhood and notions of community. At age 19, she was the youngest ever Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam champion.
Her debut album, when the poems do what they do, (recorded in collaboration with a roster of esteemed musicians, most notably Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, and also Samora Pinderhughes, Marcus Gilmore ...) is a mind-altering spoken-word cry, encapsulating the vibrant essence of jazz. “These aren’t poems for poets, but poems for everyone.” Last year, it was nominated for a Grammy Best Spoken Word Poetry Album.
Tarbaby feat. David Murray (US)
An exclusive coming together between a doyen of avant-garde jazz, saxophonist David Murray, and one of our era’s foremost post-bop trios, Tarbaby.
When it comes to the sheer breath of this man’s creative output and his longevity on the jazz scene, Murray is practically without equal. A brilliant composer and a totally unique improviser, Murray is also a founding member of the groundbreaking World Saxophone Quartet, and has released over 160 albums in his own right over the last five decades. His most recent – Francesca (2024) – was chosen as No. 2 Best Jazz Album of 2024 by The New York Times. It was Tarbaby who topped this chart with You Think This America, an album of impeccable delivery and unrelenting creativity.
Early Bird festival tickets
66 tickets at EUR 66
All concerts, all venues, all days
