Ljubljana Jazz Festival 1960–2009 In the Archives and in Living Memory Rehearsal/jam session at the 2nd Bled Jazz Festival that took place between 8 and 11 June 1961. (National Museum of Contemporary History, photo: Edi Šelhaus, 1961) The golden jubilee of the Bled and Ljubljana In 1959, during the Pop Song Festival in Opatija, jazz festivals takes me back under a large fir where we played in backup bands, jazzmen tree in the Ljubljana Tivoli Park. It was there gathered at the city cafe and decided to launch that in May or the beginning of June 1945 Bo- the first jazz festival following year, in 1960. jan Adamič was auditioning and enlisting The proposal was supported by the Yugoslav members of a dance band in the making. RTV, the Ljubljana Jazz Musicians’ Association, We especially took pleasure in the sheet music the Light Music Artists’ Association Zagreb by the American big bands, i.e. compositions and Serbian Jazz Musicians’ Association. by Goodman, Ellington, Miller, Artie Shaw, the When asked to organise the festival, the Tourist Dorsey Brothers and Count Basie, brought by Association Bled gladly accepted. Bled offered Mario Rijavec as courtesy of the American Yugoslav jazz musicians a wonderful setting Library in Belgrade. and sundry opportunities for socialising. Predominantly international, in 1966 the festival In the beginning of November we were invited was held in Bled for the last time. to Belgrade, where we were supposed to per- form in two concerts. We were accompanied by In 1967 the festival was transferred to Ljublja- Soviet singer Tatiana Okuniewska, who sang na. For the sake of the audiences. But the Hala Russian chansons and war songs. (…) At the Tivoli in Ljubljana was poorly attended. Being end, we played Beat by Boogie by the legendary transferred to Križanke open-air theatre, on trumpeter Harry James, featuring a prolonged the initiative of Aleksander Skale and the Jazz and effective trumpet solo. The audience went Association, the festival regained its reputati- mad. They chanted Harry James, Harry James... on and attracted copious music lovers. During the night, it backfired: Adamič and Novak were summoned to report to the What did the Festival’s first decade bring? Self- Communist Party Central Committee. (...) -confidence, which was of momentous impor- Bojan was sent to Albania to teach the piano tance. Let me substantiate the abovesaid by and we were through with jazz for a few years. citing a Zagreb musicologist Nenad Turkalj, Yugoslavian music connoisseur, who after the Subsequently, the battle against jazz was fought first festival in Bled wrote: “More than in any by professor of philosophy, Boris Ziherl, other artistic practice, jazz musicians draw in- President of the Commission for the Ideology spiration from the interaction with other like- and Education of the SZDL Presidency and minded musicians, since a flesh-and-blood Commission of Ideology of the Slovenian League communication between artists at festivals, of Communists’ Central Committee. What’s concerts and jam sessions simply cannot be ironic is that his brother Miloš, who died as replaced with listening to records...” a partisan, was one of the most important musicians of Adamič’s wartime orchestra. Urban Koder, PhD. The First Ten Years Ati Soss (RTV Ljubljana Dance Orchestra) rehearsing. Marjana Deržaj and the Ljubljana Jazz Ensemble (with trumpeter Urban Koder and tenor saxophone player Dušan Veble), Yugoslav Jazz Festival with international participation, Bled, 6-9 June 1963. the 1st Yugoslav Jazz Festival, Bled, Kazina Hall, 15-18 Sept 1960. (National Museum of Contemporary History, photo: Marjan Ciglič) (National Museum of Contemporary History, photo: Edi Šelhaus, 1960) With the onset of free jazz in the Seventies, slowly, but with subtle energy there emerged many jazz lovers and connoisseurs recognised the unique “Nordic” soundscapes, so uncha- it as a new sonic opportunity. The innovative racteristic of the American jazz. and impassioned style practised by Ornette Coleman, characterised by broken rhythms, In 1976, the Ljubljana Jazz Festival cooperated atonal harmonies, and improvised melody, with the European Broadcasting Union EBU, was overtly inspiring, while Cecil Taylor with and under its auspices as many as nine, his avant-garde music, an organic fusion of mostly North European, ensembles appeared. the highly advanced harmonic structures of classical music and free improvisation, evoked In 1978, the Ljubljana Jazz Festival was special an enthusiastic response from the more for me, as I wasn’t only a spectator but as knowledgeable jazz audiences. member of Sončna pot (Sunny Road) also one of the featured artists. This appearance helped During this period, Slovenian jazz music lovers the band receive numerous invitations to had the rare opportunity to listen to such music perform and also make a record. firsthand, and the Ljubljana jazz festival, also steering this course, had annually been meeting Running for five days, the festival’s programme new, higher expectations. was overambitious, and even scheduled to conclude at 11.30pm, which made many artists As with most previous Ljubljana jazz festivals, finish off their gig beforehand for fear of being the Seventies did not bring any explicit change cut short by power disconnection. in programme. The festival regularly featured all three most important Yugoslav big bands In 1979, the Ljubljana Jazz Festival celebrated – Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade – as well as its 20th anniversary. It again wisely downsized some smaller Yugoslav ensembles. to manageable four days and three to mostly four bands or performers per night. More In 1973, Ljubljana first offered a better insight homogenous, its concept was fairly progre- into Scandinavian jazz, which instilled this ssive. genre with elegant spatial sonority, and a styli- stically looser formal composition, from which A scene from the 4th Yugoslav Jazz Festival with international participation), Bled, 6-9 June 1963. (National Museum of Contemporary History, photo: Marjan Ciglič, 1963) Lado Jakša Sunny Road 1970–80 Jože Privšek (National Museum of Contemporary History, photo: Tomaž Skale, 1976) At the beginning of the 1970s, the Ljubljana boards were set up, and first programme se- International jazz festival had already experien- lectors engaged. ced a successful first decade. Its programme had been more or less established resounded A real, radical breakthrough in programming continually also outside Yugoslavia. came about in 1982. Apart from blues, gospel, Dixieland, a capella For the first time in the history of the festival singing and other precious jazz traditions, one night was dedicated to a single artist; it featured jazz by Eastern Europeans from nevertheless the Križanke venue had never the friendly Socialist countries as well as its been thus elated; filled with audiences, emoti- “capitalist” neighbours. The rare but treasu- ons, rapture, and unforgettable music. red American appearances, brought over to The milestone concert was well received. Slovenia by various friends in terms of packets Perhaps also because the younger concert- of humanitarian aid, were combined with con- goers were thirsty for new, different things. certs by Austrian, Italian and German artists. Although they nicely fitted the mainstream In 1983 two new things were introduced. The policy adopted by the festival’s programme, accompanying programme, which featured a the East Europeans would astound with their musical workshop, and the so-called “punk progressive sound. jazz” assailing the sacred stage of Križanke. What was especially noteworthy about the Who knows, perhaps also because of the “de- Ljubljana festival was the already mentioned secrated” Križanke, but also for other reasons, rich picking of the East European artists and organisation of the festival was assumed by consequentially the rare opportunity of first- Cankarjev dom the following year. It was the -hand interaction between artists from the Orwellian year, the move was not welcomed East and the West. gladly, and the programme resumed the pre- Subsequently, this concept proved rather vious years’ concept, although being some- unconvincing and the wideness of its range what relented owing to the previous year’s more or less fictitious and unexploited. To protests. put it blandly: it was put to use only bit by bit, compromisingly and belatedly. Thus, the After the festival in 1984 there began a gradual Festival entered jazz history as late as... in the break-up of the festival’s programme team. beginning of the 1980s. But the jazz festival’s programme was still To illustrate these findings one has to make an compelling, variegated and featured artists of overview of its programme. various nationalities. In 1980s the Ljubljana jazz festival still featured In 1986 the programme concept remained a rather inconstant concept. almost unchanged, with other performers Contemporary versions of jazz or jazz blended only. It still embraced some European artists, with other music genres became a noticeable, a few natives, and a good measure of well- but too faint a mainstay at the Križanke open- known although increasingly less radical Ame- -air theatre, which was designed by the famed ricans. Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik. It was only that the programme was selected too compro- It was then that it happened. The thing some misingly, with not enough attention devoted people justifiably warned us about. The enthu- to groundbreaking artists. The selection was siasm for America brought about the uncalled- limited by a certain judgement, based on the -for limiting of the programme’s orientation. arbitrary belief what jazz actually was. In 1987 the festival invited only the Americans. Although most excellent, even stellar, and fea- Zoran Pistotnik The conflict between the “old” and the “young” turing diverse genres, the programme was no- jazzmen was in the air, manifesting itself netheless unadventurous, entirely predictable. in the critical reviews of jazz events and con- Something was lacking, the unknown, the un- Setting and Transcending troversies flared up in the media. Almost for- discovered, and the audacious.