Kunsthaus NEXUS, Otto Gruber-Halle, CONGRESS Saalfelden
After the introductory avant-garde program on Thursday and Friday of the 45th Jazz Festival in Saalfelden, we were ready for another full dose of contemporary jazz, experimental music, and free improvisation. However, the very intense program required occasional breaks. From mid-morning until midnight, we managed to see these often unseen and unheard performances:
Andreas Schaerer & Leo Genovese „At The Beat Of All Cause“, Kunsthaus NEXUS
Andreas Schaerer – voice, is truly unique, whether he is smacking his lips, sketching, reciting, whining, or exhibiting himself in some other way. He is a true vocal magician. Leo Genovese – piano, is a phenomenal improviser and responded brilliantly to Andreas, and together they led a full-fledged musical dialogue. Andreas imitated a trumpet for a moment, then a trombone, as if nothing was a problem and there were no limits. It’s a good thing we finally got ourselves to this morning concert and didn’t let fatigue and laziness win out after yesterday’s intense day. At one point, I began to get the impression that the performance had fallen apart, but Andreas pulled out a great beat box and Leo first used electronics and then even a soprano saxophone, and they reliably got it going again. And at the end, we were treated to a very funny story about socks, but you can watch that in the video…
Brennan / Terwijn / Lillinger, Kunsthaus NEXUS
Patricia Brennan – vibraphone, Jort Terwijn – double bass, Christian Lillinger – drums played together for the first time ever, so you could say it was a kind of (one-off?) festival all-star project, from which I had high expectations, especially after Patricia’s performance with her own band yesterday and thanks to my previous acquaintance with Christian. They jumped right in without hesitation, and watching Christian is a feast for the eyes; he is perhaps the most aesthetic drummer I know. The performance flowed smoothly, but I was unable to jump in and float along with the artists.
BEZAU BEATZ Orchestra of Good Hope, CONGRESS Saalfelden
Leo Genovese – piano, Luís Vicente – trumpet, João Pedro Brandão – saxophone, bass pedal, Camila Nebbia – saxophone, Sofia Salvo – baritone saxophone, Lucien Dubuis – bass clarinet, Demian Cabaud – double bass, Pedro Melo Alves – drums, Alfred Vogel – drums. Based on the lineup above, it was quite clear that this was going to be a wild ride. Before the concert began, the presenter mentioned the touching story of Alfred’s illness (I already described it in my report from his previous concert), and then the free jazz frenzy could begin. Trips into frequencies that were sometimes ear-splitting, complete madness, with everyone playing over everyone else… Well, this is one way to celebrate life, but I really couldn’t take it!
Laura Jurd – „Rites & Revelations“, CONGRESS Saalfelden
Reassured by the view of the beautiful mountains towering above Saalfelden, I set out to absorb more musical experiences, hoping that these would not give me a headache. Fortunately, this was completely different, and the ensemble of Ultan O’Brien (violin), Tara Cunningham (guitar), Ruth Goller (double bass), Corrie Dick (drums) and Laura Jurd (trumpet) drew on Scottish folklore and presented very melodic compositions, which were a complete balm for the soul after the previous experience. It’s great that the festival program was interspersed like this and that the organizers didn’t try to “torture” us with just free jazz and total avant-garde. Somewhere in there, I may have even felt the spirit of Bill Frisell… The melodiousness and beauty of the compositions were appropriately broken into pieces, which added spice to the performance, especially when you knew that you would return to that beauty again. Laura presented songs from her new album, Rites & Revelations, which will be released in October, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also really liked the properly intense version of Armstrong’s St. James Infirmary. For me, it was a great discovery and the highlight of the day.
Teis Semey „EN MASSE!“, CONGRESS Saalfelden
Teis with another of his projects at the festival. This time he promoted the album En Masse with Teis Semey on guitar, José Soares on alto saxophone, Jesse Schilderink on tenor saxophone, Jort Terwijn on double bass, and Sun-Mi Hong on drums. The band exuded rock and punk energy, hitting the ground running from the very first note, and above all, it was extremely enjoyable. Heavy riffs, rhythmically interesting compositions, and unison brass added urgency to the music. It was a very enjoyable performance, which was unexpectedly melodic and accessible, which was actually no bad thing! Teis told us about how we could improve the world and explained that he had founded a magazine in which he interviews artists, but from a social perspective. He was a likeable guy and I enjoyed his music at the festival.
أحمد [Ahmed], CONGRESS Saalfelden
Pat Thomas – piano, Seymour Wright – alto saxophone, Joel Grip – double bass, Antonin Gerbal – drums. The rhythm section rolled forward from the first note, the piano and saxophone sometimes in unison and sometimes separately, creating a hypnotic whole, and even the staging and lighting of the stage gave them a mysterious air, underscoring the trance-like experience they were trying to evoke. From trance, they took it to a proper freestyle, and nothing could stop the runaway steam train. And that was precisely the problem. It worked for the first 20 minutes, but when I realized it was going to be the same thing over and over again, I began to feel somewhat beaten down by the monotony of the performance’s intensity. It would definitely have benefited from some dynamics. Crushing us constantly with the same intensity like this, the initial wow effect soon wore off. After fifty minutes of this monolith, somewhat surprisingly for me, there was a significant roar and celebratory ovation from most of the audience.
Tomoki Sanders, CONGRESS Saalfelden
Tomoki Sanders – tenor saxophone and soprano saxophone, Ian Finkelstein – keyboards, Mwanzi Harriott – guitar, Christian Napoleon – drums. High-energy modern jazz, at least that was my impression at the beginning of the performance, when the quartet presented the first two original compositions by Tomoki from his upcoming debut album. This was followed by Geri Allen’s ballad Unconditional Love. Tomoki ran to the keyboards to play synth bass, and I still felt like I was enjoying the concert. The Masterplan Never Ends was dedicated to Tomoki’s father, who confided to us that he still mourns his death. When he saw him play for the last time in a wheelchair at a festival in the UK, it was like watching a god. And it was in this song that the performance began to turn into typical American pathos, with Tomoki shouting out the names of the musicians and, above all, trying to get the audience to sing along. It was much better when he played than when he performed these over-the-top acts. They played for 45 minutes, and that was just right if it had ended there… But they came back, and Tomoki confirmed his undeniable talent when he sat down at the drums. After this short trio interlude, however, the drummer returned and Tomoki began to get the audience out of their seats and tried to start a final dance disco. Unfortunately, I found this embarrassing, even though he was actually adorable. Somehow, this performance didn’t fit into the festival program for me.
