Cricoteka
Krak��w, 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. In 2023, the winning act of this 47th edition was the one that this scribe would have shuffled to the bottom of the pack. But there were several others who pleased him in their placings.

Krak��w's riverside Cricoteka arts venue and exhibition space has become this four-dayer's most regular venue in recent times. There is good reason for this, as its theatre is welcomingly intimate, blessed with an organic atmosphere, and technically well-equipped. It now looks like Jazz Juniors has found its stable home. As ever, six entrants were allotted short sets of around twenty minutes each, but sometimes feeling like less. The opening night has recently become devoted to the competition, leaving the following three days to the non-competing international visiting acts, or the established Polish artists, with a pair of sets each evening. The Thursday parade of six entrants can still feel lengthy, given the changeovers, even though these instrumental switcheroos are quite efficient, soundchecks having been conducted earlier, and gear often wheeled intact onto the stage. Often, and paradoxically, there's a feeling that thirty minutes might be more appropriate, especially given that these are jazz, and not pop bands.

The opening combo was Hilarious Disasters, who should perhaps consider a name-change. Their central figure is pianist