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Südtirol Jazz Festival 2024

Courtesy Tim Dickeson
This festival is primarily known for three things: its long history; the beauty of its settings for music; its mission as a showcase for experimental European jazz.
Various Sites
Bolzano, Italy
June 28-July 7, 2024
The Südtirol Jazz Festival started in 1982. Despite the fact that its lineups rarely include big-name artists, this annual event is neither small nor unambitious. Whereas most jazz festivals are located in one town and sometimes in one venue, Südtirol spreads itself far beyond its base in Bolzano, Italy. There are concerts all across the South Tyrol region. And while many festivals run for only a few days, Südtirol goes for ten. It is primarily known for three things: its long history; the beauty of its settings for music; its mission as a showcase for experimental European jazz.
The northernmost province of Italy contains some of the most spectacular vistas on earth. Wherever you are in this part of the world, the simple act of looking up often takes your breath away. Steep mountains tower all around you. The human eye can perceive more shades of green than any other color. This evolutionary trait is especially useful here. The mountains are many variants of green: jade, teal, lime, olive. The geometrical terraced vineyards are emerald. The non-geometrical stands of trees are, of course, forest green.
The 2024 edition of the festival presented 50 concerts by 41 bands in 37 venues. Südtirol's allegiance to the European scene is genuine. Very few musicians from outside Europe appeared. The commitment to experimentation is also real, and takes many forms. There are not many jazz festivals where you are more likely to hear something you have never heard before. "Jazz" is in the festival's name, and it is the most appropriate term for the program's dominant overarching genre. But "jazz" here makes room for punk, noise, rock, R&B, folk, blues, classical and world music. "The blurring of boundaries" is a phrase that has become a cliché in jazz criticism. At Südtirol they mean it.
It is also an event where the music's relationship to its physical environment is both intimate and interactive. Over the years, concerts have taken place in meadows at 6000 feet in the Dolomites, on moonlit ledges in stone quarries, and in clearings deep in the woods. There is a fondness for locations that were never intended for music, such as barns, warehouses and remote alpine "refugios" (mountain huts).
An example of a surprising choice for a concert setting was Bunker H. Early in the festival,

Sofia Jernberg
vocals
Mette Rasmussen
saxophone, altoA very different place to put music was Parkhotel Holzner, on the Renon plateau, 4000 feet above Bolzano. You got there by cable car, from which the views, as you ascended, were transcendent. On a sun-splashed morning, pianist
Olga Reznichenko
pianoLorenz Heigenhuber
bass, acousticMaximilian Stadtfeld
drumsThis report is based on a visit to the last seven days of the festival. Concerts began at 11 a.m. and ended long after midnight. The performances by Jernberg/Rasmussen and the
Olga Reznichenko
pianoAn excellent opportunity to compare two separate attitudes toward avant-garde jazz was provided by two septets who played on successive nights in Parco Cappuccini, a park in Bolzano. One band (called Day by Day) was led by 28-year-old German alto saxophonist

Fabian Dudek
saxophone

Martin Eberle
trumpetJohannes Schleiermacher
saxophoneYvonne Moriel
saxophone
Felix Hauptmann
piano
Ornette Coleman
saxophone, alto1930 - 2015
Südtirol always sets up some residencies. This year bassist/vocalist

Ruth Goller
bassMirko Pedrotti
vibraphoneThere was an 11 a.m. concert almost every day. Because there were also late concerts every night, some festival attendees, including your present correspondent, were known to point out that 11 a.m. is a brutally early hour at a jazz festival. But even the most sleep-deprived had to admit that some of the most fascinating music took place in the morning. In addition to Olga Reznichenko's concert at Parkhotel Holzner and the Jernberg/Rasmussen performance in Bunker H, there was a warmly received set in Roner Distillery by theremin artist " data-original-title="" title="">Pamelia Stickney and guitarist " data-original-title="" title="">Peter Rom. The quietly yearning cries of the theremin are among the most haunting sounds in music. Stickney (one of the few Americans on the program) is a virtuoso of this odd instrument that is played without physically touching it. Rom's warm chords were background for Stickney's soft keenings. The distillery contained a hospitable space for music, with gigantic oak barrels double-stacked around the walls.
Also at 11 a.m. were two rewarding chamber ensembles. They played in small spaces high up in the mountains. Both groups were trios with a bass and two horns. Fumagalli, from Switzerland, appeared in a museum that had been a silver mine. HAEZZ (two Austrians and a Czech) performed in a barn with the audience sitting on hay bales. The trumpet player with HAEZZ is Martin Eberle, who appeared later that day with Shake Stew. He is another artist with range. With Shake Stew, he helped whip the crowd in Parco Cappuccini into a frenzy. With HAEZZ, his lyric grace recalled Chet Baker. HAEZZ was a concise, air-tight ensemble that rendered rapt, hymn-like, dead-slow songsin a barn. They were one of the delights of the week. Fumagalli was more extroverted. At times they made a bass, a trombone and an alto saxophone sound like an orchestra.
Another band that merits mention is a quartet that calls itself ?KSE, which is Danish for "axe." They were a gathering of diverse talents that did not always cohere but that produced some singular moments.

Petter Eldh
bassb.1983
Savannah Harris
drums
Val Jeanty
electronicsThere were a few bands that disappointed. One was Lúna, a quartet with three Finns led by guitarist

Sigurdur Rögnvaldsson
guitar, electricb.1980
Nils Kugelmann
bass, acousticBut what was most notable about the 2024 edition of Südtirol was that a festival built on newer names, that dared to expose its audience to so many new experiences, that challenged assumptions about what jazz is, had so many more hits than misses. In 2023, a new troika had taken over artistic direction of the festival. They are Max von Pretz, Stefan Festini Cucco and Roberto Tubaro. For many years, these three had worked directly under Klaus Widmann, a physician by day in Bolzano. Widmann is a legendary figure who was the festival's artistic director from 2000 through 2022. He was known for his fearless musical sensibility and his gift for finding emerging jazz talent. He liked to assemble interesting young players into bands that had never played together before. It was the musical equivalent of combining volatile chemicals and throwing in a match. The new administration of co-artistic directors has retained the festival's daredevil ethos. But von Pretz, Cucco and Tubaro seem less inclined to assemble jazz laboratories. Most of the groups that appeared in 2024 had spent some time together. They were further along in the collective creative process. Their adventures often yielded new art.
The Südtirol festival is a place where you can get glimpses of where jazz, the most unpredictable of art forms, is going.
Tags
Live Review
Thomas Conrad
Italy
Bolzano
Sonia Jernberg
Mette Rasmussen
Olga Reznichenko
Loren Heigenhuber
Max Stadtfeld
Olga Reznichenko Trio
Day by Day
Fabian Dudek
Shake Stew
Lukas Kranzelbinder
Martin Eberle
Johannes Schleiermacher
Yvonne Moriel
Felix Hauptmann
Ornette Coleman
Ruth Goller
Mirko Pedrotti
Daniel Klein
Pamelia Stickney
Peter Rom
Fumagalli
HAEZZ
?KSE
Petter Eldh
Savannah Harris
Val Jeanty
Luna
Sigurdur R?gnvaldsson
Nils Kugelmann Trio
Sudtirol Jazz Festival 2024
Sudtirol Jazz Festival
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