Articles by Martin Longley
Moers Festival Interviews: Virginia Genta
by Martin Longley
There is a tradition in the small German city of Moers, although its aims are far from traditional in orientation. Unless we consider the already sixty-year history (at least) of jazz-derived free improvisation. The Moers Festival has run since 1972, originally bent on exploring the vitality of free jazz, and still resolved towards that direction today, although now acknowledging the input of rock, folkloric, electronic and moderne new music elements. Since 2008, the city of Moers has ...
read moreJazzkaar Interviews: Mingo Rajandi
by Martin Longley
The Estonian composer and acoustic bassist Mingo Rajandi has created a body of work that includes jazz, free improvisation, moderne art music and scores for theatrical productions. She moved to Brussels nearly four years ago, but still retains resilient links to her old Tallinn scene, with its regular roster of musicians who arrive from varied stylistic quarters. Rajandi is regularly invited by the Jazzkaar festival to write brand new conceptual pieces each year, taking a key place in its programme. ...
read moreBelgrade Jazz Festival 2023
by Martin Longley
Dom Omladine / MTS Dvorana Belgrade, SerbiaOctober 24-29, 2023 Following the financial turbulence of 2022's Belgrade Jazz Festival, this year's edition, the 39th, resounded with a sturdier sureness, getting back to a confident momentum. Its programme was as reliably impressive as ever, particularly in the quality of its international bookings. We could even suggest that perhaps the indigenous Serbian performer ratio was a touch lower than usual, maybe even requiring a boost next year.
read moreJazz Juniors 2023
by Martin Longley
Cricoteka Kraków, Poland October 12-15, 2023 Your scribe views his regular documentation of the annual Jazz Juniors competition-and-festival as an opportunity to insert a few rogue words once the heavy doors of official judgement have swung shut. Never a sitting judge, he wields his bloodied quill after the event, sometimes supporting the graven results, at others mourning that the prizes didn't get distributed differently. It's all subjective jazz evaluation. Even the jurors tussle. ...
read moreOstrava Days 2023
by Martin Longley
Klub Parník, Plato, Triple Hall Karolina, etc. Ostrava, Czech Republic August 28-September 2, 2023 Ostrava Days happens once every two years, mostly dedicated to the well-being of new music, composed for varying sizes of ensembles, right up to a fully-bloated orchestra. Sometimes, though, works will be penned for mere solo performers. It has always had extended ears for jazz, improvisation and electronic musics, as well as rock'n'roll being an increasingly strong influence on moderne ...
read moreWOMAD 2023
by Martin Longley
WOMAD Charlton Park, Malmesbury England July 27-30 2023 What shall we do, if the first bands play at 1pm each day, at this, the UK's oldest and greatest global music festival? Why, we shall Taste The World, investigating a cookery demonstration performance that begins daily at noon! Artists are invited to display their regional culinary skills, a process which can vary between hands-on expertise and advised team-work. They also get to ...
read moreGent Jazz 2023
by Martin Longley
Gent Jazz Festival Gent, Belgium July 9-15, 2023 It looked dire in 2022. The Gent Jazz festival, a two-decade integral element in the cultural life of this wondrous Belgian city, was declared bankrupt, along with Jazz Middelheim in Antwerp, which had an even more august history. Amazingly, it's still here in 2023, just as strong artistically, and looking like it just pulled in larger crowds than usual. The Flemish booking agency Greenhouse Talent stepped ...
read moreJazz Export Days 2023
by Martin Longley
Jazz Export Days Jazz Sous Les Pommiers Coutances, France May 15-17, 2023 Jazz Export Days was a music biz event inserted into an actual public festival, the long-running (42 years!) and highly-regarded Jazz Sous Les Pommiers, in Coutances, a small town in the north-west Normandy region. It's organised by the relatively new CNM (Centre National De La Musique), which sprouted just before the first lockdown gates crashed down. The concept is to globally ...
read moreJazzkaar 2023
by Martin Longley
Jazzkaar Tallinn, Estonia April 23-30, 2023 Jazzkaar has now lost two days, this exceptional Estonian festival running at eight rather than ten, but still remaining epic when compared to most others. The opening Sunday might have only featured a single concert, but as the fresh week progressed, the scale incrementally increased, hitting four shows by Wednesday, and six by the weekend. Tallinn, this wondrous UNESCO City Of Music provides a highly evocative surround for the 34th ...
read moreJazzkaar Interviews: Kirke Karja
by Martin Longley
Estonian pianist Kirke Karja has regularly appeared at the Jazzkaar festival in Tallinn, customarily performing in surprising settings, always delivering a fresh band combination, or a new set of music, or altering ratios between improvisation and composition, acoustic or electric palettes. During the last two years she has a.) been discovered by the rest of the European jazz circuit and b.) formed a touring trio with a stable line-up. This band also features the French bassist Etienne Renard and the ...
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