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Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2025

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Courtesy Matthias Heschl

By Vincenzo Roggero
August 29, 2025
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Jazzfestival Saalfelden
Various venues
Land Salzburg, Austria
August 21-24, 2025

One hundred and ninety artists from twenty-six countries, nearly thirty thousand attendees, eight different venues, more than sixty concerts, and a record number of tickets sold. These are just numbers, but they confirm how the Saalfelden Jazz Festival—now in its forty-fifth edition—draws audiences from across Europe, remains deeply rooted in its territory, and channels resources and energy thanks to the active participation of the entire community.

Since its early editions, the festival's artistic programming has been a reliable litmus test of the state of jazz and its many offshoots, with numerous high points (many), a steady stream of world premieres, and the occasional inevitable misstep. This year's program—consistent with recent editions—didn't look sensational on paper, but it definitely offered a very solid mix of marquee events and potential surprises. Here's our view, in deliberately scattered order.

One of the festival's most anticipated events did not disappoint, ranking among its absolute peaks. Weird of Mouth—

Mette Rasmussen

saxophone, alto

" data-original-title="" title="">Mette Rasmussen on saxophone,

Craig Taborn

piano
b.1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Craig Taborn on piano,

Ches Smith

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Ches Smith on drums—electrified the audience with a single extended piece that pushed sonic exploration to its limits. They played with intensity, veering between furious whirlwinds and miraculous rhythmic-timbral balances. Taborn and Smith wove daring structures, soloists and accompanists at once, laying down a shifting terrain for Rasmussen's eruptive power, marked by dynamic control, a stunning sound, and boundless inventiveness. The canons of free music and improvisation at their most exalted.

Patricia Brennan

vibraphone

" data-original-title="" title="">Patricia Brennan appeared with two very different ensembles. The first was the luxury septet behind her much-praised Breaking Stretch. What we heard was highly organized music, rooted in a compositional language shaped by the leader's dual heritage (Mexico and New York), and placing greater emphasis on structured performance over improvisation. The frontline of

Jon Irabagon

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Jon Irabagon,

Mark Shim

saxophone, tenor
b.1973

" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Shim, and

Adam O'Farrill

trumpet
b.1994

" data-original-title="" title="">Adam O'Farrill left one curious about how much further their voices could have been explored. Brennan focused primarily on musical direction and crafting an overall soundscape, within which bassist

Kim Cass

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Kim Cass shone brilliantly. The trio with Dutch bassist

Jort Terwijn

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Jort Terwijn and drummer

Christian Lillinger

drums
b.1984

" data-original-title="" title="">Christian Lillinger confirmed Brennan's ability to move comfortably across different contexts, and her soloing stood out in a mix of rhythmic exuberance and timbral precision, skewed lines and melodic turns.

Exit Knarr is the latest project of volcanic Norwegian bassist

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten

bass
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Ingebrigt H?ker Flaten, a sextet committed to free improvisation while borrowing from hard rock, heavy metal, and more. The results were ultimately not especially original, save for the leader's usual eruptive drive.

Laura Jurd

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Laura Jurd, the much-acclaimed British trumpeter and composer, and a flagship artist of Edition Records, brought her newest band, Rites & Revelations, to the festival's mainstage. Thanks in part to Irish violinist

Ultan O Brien

violin

" data-original-title="" title="">Ultan O Brien, the music leaned toward jazz-folk, with Jurd's own Scottish roots also coming through. Popular themes and jazz improvisation, played with taste and elegance, shaped a set that was light yet never frivolous. A brooding, grainy, almost apocalyptic crescendo on

Ornette Coleman

saxophone, alto
1930 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" alone made the concert unforgettable.

With Danish-born guitarist

Teis Semey

guitar
b.1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Teis Semey we may have encountered the festival's surprise. He delivered an explosive set at the Gruberhalle, a repurposed industrial space popular with younger crowds, fronting a sextet that featured

Jim Black

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Jim Black on drums and

Adam O’Farrill

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Adam O’Farrill on trumpet. The following day, he confirmed his talent on the mainstage. His blend of jazz, indie rock, killer riffs, and lightning improvisations brimmed with energy, fresh ideas, organization, and imaginative leadership. His guitar work—both solo and accompanying—was at times brilliant, while the horns meshed superbly: the exuberant alto of

José Soares

saxophone, alto

" data-original-title="" title="">José Soares and the cool restraint of tenor

Jesse Schilderink

saxophone

" data-original-title="" title="">Jesse Schilderink, buoyed by the powerful drumming of

Sun Mi Hong

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Sun Mi Hong.

The Korean-born drummer returned at the helm of the Bida Orchestra, a sextet of leading figures from Europe's improvising scene. Yet despite the ensemble's caliber, the project felt uneven. An opening section of whispery textures and fleeting harmonizations was swept aside by a blistering solo from bassist

John Edwards

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">John Edwards, which lit the fuse. From there, the music gained shape and direction, with sharper dynamics and a furious, beautiful alto voice from Mette Rasmussen.

And then came the concert that defined the festival's forty-fifth edition. Love it or hate it, skeptic or enthusiast, this was an absolute one-off. [

Ahmed

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Ahmed], a band comprised of

Pat Thomas

piano
b.1960

" data-original-title="" title="">Pat Thomas on piano,

Seymour Wright

saxophone, alto

" data-original-title="" title="">Seymour Wright on alto saxophone,

Joel Grip

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Joel Grip on bass,

Antonin Gerbal

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Antonin Gerbal on drums (from the Cafe Oto orbit)—performed a single piece: "African Bossa Nova" by

Ahmed Abdul-Malik

bass
1927 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Ahmed Abdul-Malik. One uninterrupted hour: radical, obsessive, unsettling, fierce, uncompromising, monolithic. The music unfolded through minute variations and imperceptible yet relentless shifts, driven by the perpetual churn of bass and drums, the furious clusters of piano, and the implacable, rasping alto sax, hypnotic in its serial repetitions. Music without a net or barriers, but with razor-sharp intent: free yet steeped in the lineage of African-American music, refracted into another dimension—stunning and thought-provoking.

Argentinian pianist

Leo Genovese

keyboards
b.1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Leo Genovese was the festival's "everywhere" musician, appearing in no fewer than four performances—though none truly memorable. Both the Eyes to the Sun Trio with

Camila Nebbia

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Camila Nebbia on saxophone and

Alfred Vogel

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Alfred Vogel on drums, and the expanded Bezau Beatz Orchestra of Good Hope, presented a dated strain of free improvisation, with little in the way of unexpected turns or particularly engaging developments. His duo with vocalist

Andreas Schaerer

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Andreas Schaerer and his trio with Finnish guitarist

Kalle Kalima

guitar
b.1973

" data-original-title="" title="">Kalle Kalima never rose above a calligraphic exercise.

The trio Hiit, featuring

Simone Quatrana

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Simone Quatrana on piano,

Andrea Grossi

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Andrea Grossi on bass, and

Pedro Melo Alves

drums
b.1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Pedro Melo Alves on drums played a measured set, marked by careful attention to detail, balancing density and space, and drawing on more than one root from twentieth-century music.

The performance by

Tomoki Sanders

saxophone
b.1994

" data-original-title="" title="">Tomoki Sanders, son of the great Pharoah, was all about fun and theatrical flair. Charismatic in engaging the audience, he mixed fusion sonorities, pyrotechnic solos, and danceable riffs. It's a heavy legacy and his artistic path is still evolving.

Less convincing than expected was the quartet Ancient to the Future with

Ava Mendoza

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Ava Mendoza on guitar,

Hamid Drake

drums
b.1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Hamid Drake on drums,

Xhosa Cole

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Xhosa Cole on saxophone and flute, and

Majid Bekkas

lute

" data-original-title="" title="">Majid Bekkas on gimbri. The clear reference to

Art Ensemble Of Chicago

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Ensemble Of Chicago aesthetics remained largely nominal: the music revolved around the interplay between an electrified gimbri and avant-guitar, veering between rock and noise, with Drake's customary exuberance and Cole's fragile presence on sax. The result was an in-between hybrid, struggling to take off, save for occasional solos by Mendoza.

The festival's closing slot went to

The Bad Plus

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.2000

" data-original-title="" title="">The Bad Plus with

Craig Taborn

piano
b.1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Craig Taborn and

Chris Potter

saxophone, tenor
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Chris Potter. A finale of great class and great music—the repertoire of the American quartet of

Keith Jarrett

piano
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Keith Jarrett is itself a guarantee, but the four musicians on stage brought much more: superb interplay, extraordinary sensitivity, creative respect for the material, and fresh ideas in their solo flights. Their rendition of "Silence" was worth remembering.

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