10. – 13. July 2024
www.ljubljanajazz.si
Ljubljana Jazz Festival, round sixty-five!
More important than its credentials as one of Europe’s oldest jazz festivals is the fact that JFL is credited with being the longest continually running jazz festival. Continuity. The reasons for this are manifold and have changed over the years – from the initial enthusiasm to infrastructural backing, unflinching perseverance, tenacity, ingenuity and great expertise in concert promotion to social stability and solidarity. Faced with the recent global crises, the latter two are humanity’s ongoing concerns. While not providing the answer, jazz is more than a genre or a scene – it is a force geared towards (and for the most part succeeding in) uniting, building and not dividing, a force that discovers, teaches and disseminates, that does not promote reactionary ignorance but rather struggles against it. Invariably, over and over again.
To underpin this mission, the 65th Jazz Festival Ljubljana is going big – from paying homage to the roots to embracing distinctly contemporary expressions – again with the CD Park as the festival’s main hub and the Križanke open-air theatre as a unique opening night settings.
Chief Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott)
Terence Blanchard feat. The E-Collective with Atom String Quartet
10 July 2024, Križanke
Starting at Križanke with a visit from New Orleans, the cradle of jazz and the hometown of the jazz greats Terence Blanchard and Chief Adjuah, formerly Christian Scott. Protagonists of different generations and trumpeters deeply rooted in tradition, whose paths intertwined at some point , but have otherwise pursued different creative careers. Blanchard has scored the music for majority of Spike Lee’s films and is the first African-American composer whose opera has been staged at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
After having expanded his understanding of jazz into so called stretch music form and innovating his own musical instruments, Chief Adjuah’s latest release is a throwback to the origins: the music of his ancestors. Two powerful creative forces conveying the African-American experience – both past and present.
John Scofield / Dave Holland Duo
11 July 2024, Gallus Hall
A partnership between two of the most respected names in the last half century’s highest echelons of jazz. Double bassist Dave Holland and guitarist John Scofield have each made their mark as undisputed masters of their instruments and performers who have defined (and crossed!) many a chapter of the genre. Their joint tour features the two artists’ original compositions with the indispensable sprinkle of jazz standards. Without a doubt unique, compelling, and convincing encounter and a profound musical dialogue of two superb musical minds; Expect virtuosity and depth.
