Jazz Bez 2009

The IX International Festival “Jazz Bez 2009” found its finish on Sunday, 13 December. Accordingly, it’s time to  sum up its achievements.

So, the Festival occurred to be not so much jazz-fest as all-around-jazz one.  The vast majority of its participants hazarded on the verge of different styles gravitating either to ethno, or to free jazz or  to  wold music or even penetrating into electronic dead  thickets. Only a few bands adhered to one precise genre and in all cases it was funk. All the other felt to be too cramp within the mainstream’s bounds, so they’ve managed to distend the notion of jazz to the desired sound.

All in all, the musicians represented at that Festival could be divided into two groups. The first one includes the so called “genre” bands, their music can be distinguished in one word -  the “New Bone” & bi-bop,  “Ad Libitum”, “Igor Zakus & Z-band”, “Hot Potato Project” & funk, the “Witnesses of Fusion” & jazz-rock. Like Ukrainian yoghurts their performances were of different  quality & gusto. 

May be the best were the Russian “Witnesses of Fusion” & Egyptian “Hot Potato Project”  (as in music as in its performance). The Russians amused the audience with their vibraphone, due to it their energetic and melodious music has attained some unexpected Christmas motifs.

The Egyptians met the challenge with the congas-bit and ethnic motifs skillfully interwoven in the fabric of  funk music + just magnificent  bass party. Thanks to them we can  imagine the quality of other groups – fosterlings of the Cairo Jazz Club.

And our native band “Ad Libitum”  (those are the fosterlings of the “JazzClub.L’viv”) presented their new program on Monday. Despite the fact the Club is only one year old it’s really evidently  that  it assisted the young musicians to cognize many professional secrets. The fact the group currently can not boast of  some special  originality, I hope, in the nearest future will be “corrected” as even mow  it’s ready to enter the independent life.

Sorry, but  Igor Zakus with his  Z-band haven’t manage to bring me any aesthetic pleasure as their performance was far from enthusiasm and   the sound was quite near some ordinariness.

The same concerns the group New Bone: too rough music they produced, loud & artless. Though both the groups consist of professionals. Well, no luck that time. It’s pity but not so terribly. As all other projects (majority) “had luck” and  those ones exploited the verges of different genres.

The first to be mentioned is Mariana  Sadovska  & German trio Borderland, they launched the Festival. So, it was an excellent & unsurpassed  Mariana with her  acute  ethnic vocals, with her Indian harmony & with her stormy pianist  masterly adjusting his piano meanwhile  Mariana narrating the pre-histories of her songs.

Well, and now let’s go ahead in chronological seriatim. Saturday  -  the “Shockolad + PL” accompanied by the septet of musicians from the  municipal orchestra “Leopolis”. The new composition was just one - "Sesame" arranged in collaboration with the L’viv  composer Bogdana Frolyak. But all other compositions presented the new arrangements for orchestra. Their  performance was very professional (no wonder, the  Conservatoire is alma mater for almost all musicians ). But the improvisation parts of the concert seemed to be too prolonged, they led the audience so far away from the original folk melody that it was even somewhat strange to hear it again. 

Next day the audience had the opportunity to enjoy the diametrically “opposed “projects. The “Jagodzinski Trio”  performed their piano jazz arrangements  of Chopin music accompanied by the percussion & contrabass and it was the most academic of all academical   jazz-es  and its appointment could be the only one place -  the Philharmonic. 

The Polish trio was followed by the free-jazz band “Avtokar” : Sanders-Trzaska-Zimpel-Tokar  & their atonal and sonorous music. They performed only two but very “tailed” compositions and one more little improvisation encore.

They seemed trying to shock the relaxed by Jagodzinski audience moderately. Unlike the most of free-jazz concerts held recently in L’viv, their  music was, at least, rhythmic. Due to the acoustics of the Philharmonic Hall, all the instruments (but contrabass) played without amplification. Their music was surprisingly narrative: it seemed that Tshaska & his  saxophone was telling  some story  and  Zimpel  was illustrating that story with some audio special effects. Those who could compare that concert and the performance of  Tokar & Zimpelem within the “Tyzhden/Week of Contemporary Art-09”  were convinced that   even the 1/3 of the musicians’ possibilities of music techniques was not applied. And that’s a good indication: the musicians united  to send  some  musical message but not to boast of  their technique.

Monday & Tuesday (the 4th & 5th day of the Festival)  ware  held in a club format or to be more precise, in the art-café “Kvartyra 35”.

On Monday – the performance of already mentioned above group “Ad Libitum”. And on Tuesday -  the project "Bez Spogadiv"  created purposely  for the Festival Jazz Bez -09 & based on the known  L’viv band  “MT-3” and joined   by  Olexander Maksymiv, a guitarist of Ukrainian origin, currently living in the Netherlands.

On Wednesday two interesting groups  from Russia &  Belarus, rateably -  the “Happy55” &  “GURZUF” had their performances in the Philharmonic The first one presented their authors  compositions for piano flavored with jazz  & accompanied by drums and bass.  These works are quite adapted to the programs of musical colleges.

The second group (accordion & drums) tried their best to  demonstrated all the potentialities of an accordion. Both groups were marvelous, but if the “Happy55” is the group “designed” only for concert halls, the “GURZUF”  is a perfect personage of open-air concerts  with tents and bonfires.  Any premises ate too small for their sound.


“Doneda-Yaremchuk-Blondy-Nakatani”, the most international project of “Jazz Bez-09” ( their national scope has covered the countries from Japan through Ukraine to France) was  held on Thursday in Zankovetska Theatre. It should me admitted that in the course of the whole concert they played only a few notes, all other time the musicians were producing not quite those sounds their instruments were “destinated” for. Just contemporary & sonorous culture. The performance was started with the sniffing of wind instruments, that was followed by a brief struggle between the saxophone & clarinet to be illustrated by the dissected piano and then they returned to the light half-breathes and knockings and (welcome!) again sharp shrieks of the brass. The whole concert was like that. The listeners’ nerves were alternately either tensed to the utmost or released.

Then  Moscow  jazz-rockers “Witnesses of Fusion” took the baton. They enjoyed the audience primarily with its instrumental cast. The solo & bass guitars and drums were joined by the vibraphone. Its soft and pure metallic tone contributed some festive atmosphere to their music. .. And the last one was an exquisite jazz-rock corresponding to all canons of the genre: it was far to be boring, it was driving, melodic (sometimes even approaching pop)  and perfectly performed . Their music was such like popular playlets  with the theme and its development, light, song-like, with soft & cosy  timbres


Friday (the 8th day of the Festival)   for the start presented the Polish band EMPE-3 (a pair of brass, contrabass and percussion).
No doubt, such like cast of instruments can’t but dictatorially influence any music. So, the musicians had no chance to avoid the dialogue between the wind instruments. Besides, those  instruments  were relayed  in every new composition -  baritone & tenor or  tenor sax & clarinet, all possible  combinations.
The musicians were very "economic" while using notes, they preferred the circling of a few sounds to convey all the necessary expression. Thus they’ve managed to compress the sound “space” to such an extend that the debauch of sax improvisations made an impression of a real release, of a feeling “at last!”. Their music is a sort of crossword for ethno-music-critics , it’s a perfect brain-teaser to be solved while long winter evenings (guess the origin of this or that element). No, it couldn’t be asserted that they were not in harmony  with the  ethnic compositions (ethno and jazz ware “located” in  different compositions).Nevertheless it was strange,  as if you were present at two different concerts.

That day was closed by rather inert performance of Igor Zakus , undoubtedly the best Ukrainian  jazz bassist & Z-Band. They presented the “2 years old” program and that one was performed with an appreciable weariness of the way & thoughts about the future concert-tour.

Saturday evening was presented by three groups: French “Thuillier Trio”, Polish-American pilot project “Auguscik-Kinior-Makaruk Trio” and the Egyptian playboys “Hot Potato Project”.

“Thuillier Trio» band is an extraordinary one primarily due to its cast - tuba, trombone & drums. Usually the selection of instruments dictates the sounding of a group and «Thuillier Trio» testifies to that assertion to the utmost. The vast majority of bands their baas-parties assign to a bass guitar or (rarely) to a contrabass . Our situation they were “replaced” by the tuba and accordingly the trombone  had to play the  solo-role. Still it’s not the assortment of instrument that  provides for the main effect  but the “operations”  the musicians  do with them.

The most important thing is that  their compositions are highly-degree diverse nevertheless it concerns the mood or the reverences towards one or another genres - from classic swing to free jazz.
The Trio is distinguished with their very gentle attitude to the instruments  & the  ears of the audience. Sometimes they seemed to be afraid of sharp puffs in order not to produce too acute sound. Due to that fact as well as  to the  minimum of instruments their music  is  surprisingly “atmospheric”  (no guarantee it's perspicuous for the audience,  so as the last one is to be very sensory).
The Trio “encored” the popular (very popular) Ukrainian song “Red Ruth”+ two its improvisations & exploded the audience. L’viv  patriotism – for ever!

They were followed by the project “Auguscik-Kinior-Makaruk Trio “, such like Polish  "Massive Attack" consisting of  Grazyna Augusci k (vocals), Dariuzh Makaruk (electronics )& Wlodzimierz Kinior (multi-instumentalist & acoustic).
That Ttrio is also hardly to be located within any genre frameworks as their music contributes for  jazz, world music and experimental electronics. So,  jazz  is represented by the saxophone & vocals,  world music -  by vocals and percussion  and electronic instruments provide for  a solid backing for all the mentioned or  transform  the original sound into something unrecognizable.  Some association – it looks (sounds) like Bjork (the period of her album "Telegram") in collaboration   with Peter Gabriel and Katya Zavoloka (bright representative of the new generation of Ukrainian  contemporary electronics).

The Saturday evening approached its finish accompanied by the funk rhythms of the Egyptian “Hot Potato Project”

The Festival “Jazz Bez -09” came to its end on Sunday evening and was presented by the  Danish-Polish band “Off-Quartet”  and Lithuanian “Mint Digital”

The Off-Quartet   (guitar, trombone, contrabass and percussion ) performed contemporary. The group was distinguished with its quite unique (at that Festival)  jazz guitar and just fantastic drum solos.
 Their zest is the implementation of the guitar as a solo rather than harmonic instrument  carrying on an equal dialog with the trombone.

The guests from the Lithuanian the Mint Digital were the Fest- finishers & they  presented not only an experimental mixture of pop, jazz and electronics but their own Vj as well and the last one  accompanied the whole performance. To be honest, despite his professionalism & titular-cargo the video-performance hasn’t impressed me greatly.  Vj played down with  the computer aesthetics of the  early 90's,  sometimes he disharmonized with the music and the transitions between scenes were too  rough. On the other hand, it was the only Festival group trying to entertain the audience with a visual show.  Unless the free-jazzmen resembled  them.

As a result it should be admitted that  Jazz Bez -09 occurred to be more interesting than its predecessor due to the quantity of  presented all-around-jazz  experiments. Some mainstream projects sounded like a pleasant dissolvent of the intellectually rich Festival  but still they haven’t  defined  its general trend.

By the way, Jazz Bez  seemed to be successful and  it has managed to educate L’viv audience to be quite persnickety & open  for novelties. The most of the objectively top-quality projects were appropriately perceived and valued. And only the  free-jazz performances  were “loosing”  its audience  while the concerts But! The number of non-apprehenders was  smaller in comparison with the previous year.  On the other hand,  a few characterless  performances that took place (indeed)  also got an adequate response –“filtering” of the concert halls.

Well, “Dzyga” has assumed its educational  liabilities & it complies with them worthily. And that fact deserves at least our respect, doesn’t it?