21 – 24 September 2017Cankarjev dom – LjubljanaSLOVENIA

Programme Committee of the European Jazz Conference 2017:

Ahmet Ulug (Pozitif, Akbank Jazz Festival; Istanbul), Edin Zubčević (Jazz Fest Sarajevo), Martyna Markowska (JazzArt Festival Katowice), Nadin Deventer (Berlin Festspiele – Jazzfest Berlin), Wim Wabbes (Handelsbeurs, Ghent) Bogdan Benigar (Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana).

The European Jazz Conference is the most important annual meeting of professionals from the jazz sector in Europe, in particular of presenters, managers, agents and national/regional organisations.The Conference is composed of inspiring keynote speeches, high-level discussion groups and workshops, networking sessions for professionals, cultural visits and in the evenings a showcase programme of the best new artists from the host country, this year Slovenia.

EARLY BIRD RATE: 120 € (until 31 May 2017)Full rate: 150 € (after that date)

Register at: www.europejazz.net

In February 1917, while an unruly group of young white musicians was recording in New York City, under the unconvinced gaze of the Victor management, the music that would be published as the first record with the word “jazz” on the label, another group of musicians, African-Americans from Harlem, were fighting in Europe’s muddy trenches in a war so bloody and tragic that to justify it they called it “the war to end all wars”. They were the 369th Infantry, also known as the "Hellfighters” and their band was led by Lt. James Reese Europe. Their concerts in Versailles disrupted the rigid diplomatic code, and their victorious parade across all the length of Manhattan was a historical first, like Europe’s concert in Carnegie Hall.

Unfortunately not only was that war not the last, but in a mere 20 years there would be another war across Europe’. After that, the ideal of an unified Europe kept war outside the heart of the Old World, even when it raged on its borders.

In February 1917, while an unruly group of young white musicians was recording in New York City, under the unconvinced gaze of the Victor management, the music that would be published as the first record with the word “jazz” on the label, another group of musicians, African-Americans from Harlem, were fighting in Europe’s muddy trenches in a war so bloody and tragic that to justify it they called it “the war to end all wars”. They were the 369th Infantry, also known as the "Hellfighters” and their band was led by Lt. James Reese Europe. Their concerts in Versailles disrupted the rigid diplomatic code, and their victorious parade across all the length of Manhattan was a historical first, like Europe’s concert in Carnegie Hall.

Unfortunately not only was that war not the last, but in a mere 20 years there would be another war across Europe. After that, the ideal of an unified Europe kept war outside the heart of the Old World, even when it raged on its borders.

In these 100 years jazz changed with the times and managed surprisingly not only to survive, but even to thrive and develop. It provided a stage for the oppressed and the disenfranchised. The bright smile of Louis Armstrong, the scintillating pyrotechnics of Ella Fitzgerald, the brooding humour of Miles Davis, the sensuality of Josephine Baker and the visionary music of Django Reinhardt spoke to the hearts of the world way beyond their words. And when Dizzy Gillespie or Benny Goodman toured in the name of “jazz diplomacy” it was always a tug-of-war between the message they wanted to convey, the will of officials to control them, and what the audience expected.

Jazz at its best has been a pain in the ass, a subversive music, turning upside down not only the world of entertainment but the bureaucracies and the dictators that found it in the most unexpected places. It has been for generations of listeners and musicians a path to the discovery of new musical worlds, an inspiration to break the accepted rules, to welcome the unexpected not only in sound, but also in text, poetry, image, film.

Hovering on the borders of the Empire, jazz allowed itself to be filled with new contents, making those borders more porous, dancing over the walls while weakening their foundations. It brought together people from different walks of life, different class, ethnic, national backgrounds.

After 100 years jazz has to reinvent itself yet again to face new and different challenges. More digitally united and interconnected, the world is becoming more divided with walls and barbed wire. The resulting pent-up energies, rage, and inequalities cannot be contained under the smooth veneer of soothing music, but must be released and expressed to allow celebration. That is the space that we – promoters, operators, writers, all the agents in the field – need to create, in order to allow jazz to be as it always has been, a place of understanding where contradictions come out in the open and are reinterpreted by current, urgent art. No better place than Ljubljana, with its past, present and future, to reflect on who we are, why we are together, and where we want to go.

Francesco MartinelliAuthor, Jazz Historian, Siena Jazz Archive Director

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ONLY FOR EJN MEMBERS

Opening and welcome of EJN Members, EJN Award 2017 celebration

OVERVIEW OF PAST ACTIVITIES, INTRODUCTION OF EJN WORK PLAN 20172021

Coffee break

FORMAL EJN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

OPEN TO EVERYBODY

OPENING GALA CONCERTBojan Z & Goran Bojčevski QuartetRabih Abou-Khalil Trio

EVENTS HAPPENING AROUND THE CITY

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OPENING CEREMONY, WELCOME ADDRESSES

KEYNOTE SPEECHRabih Abou-Khalil

PLENARY DEBATESabine Grenard, Mehdi Marechal, N’toko,Rabih Abou-KhalilModerator: Francesco Martinelli

Lunch

Presentation of the book“The Shared History of European Jazz”Francesco Martinelli and Alyn Shipton

SPECIAL CONCERTTo Pianos - Kaja Draksler/Eve Risser

6 parallel discussion groupsAround the city of Ljubljana – creative walksThe walk will stop at Ljubljana Market / “Open kitchen” event

Dinner at Cankarjev dom

SLOVENIA SHOWCASE FESTIVAL

Maja Osojnik ZSAMMDrago IvanušaArtbeaters Bowrain  

CD CLUB

OTHER CLUB TBA

CD CLUB

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KEYNOTE SPEECHBojan Zulfikarpašić

5 parallel working groupsOn sharing expertise between professionals (e.g. cultural management, communication, audience development, fundraising, etc...)

Lunch

Group photo

KEYNOTE SPEECHRokia Traoré

6 PARALLEL NETWORKING SESSIONSBy typology of organisations (e.g. summer/winter festivals, clubs, national organisations, etc...)

Dinner at Cankarjev dom

SLOVENIA SHOWCASE FESTIVAL

Feminized.Science.Deniers (Lumpert/Risser/Hočevar)Kristijan Krajnčan: DrummingCellistTeo Collori & Momento Cigano

Sightseeing cultural tour around the city of Ljubljana

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Born in Lebanon, Rabih Abu-Khalil grew up in the cosmopolitan Beirut of the sixties and seventies. He began studying the oud at the age of four. The Lebanese war prompted the young musician to leave his country in 1978. He settled in Munich where he received a classical training at the conservatory.

Rejecting any artistic compromise, Abou-Khalil very early decided to produce his own music. He has been involved in every stage of the creation, from the recording to the graphic design of his record sleeves, a

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

RabihAbou-Khalil

trademark dating back to 1982, the year of his first album Compositions & Improvisation. He worked and recorded with many international renowned musicians, including Charlie Mariano, Glen Moore, Glen Velez, Ramesh Shotham, Sonny Fortune, Steve Swallow and Kenny Wheeler.

In his musical universe, he integrated forms previously reserved to classical music: he composed pieces for string quartet and wrote for orchestras such as the Ensemble Modern and the BBC Concert Orchestra. He also wrote several soundtracks, including “Nathan der Weise”, a German silent movie dating back to 1922.After a long and fruitful collaboration with the German label Enja records, with several flagship albums such as Blue Camel (1992) and Arabian Waltz (1996), the latter recorded with the Balanescu Quartet, Rabih joined for his 20th album one of the house labels of Harmonia Mundi, World Village.

Rokia Traoré is a Victoires de la Musique award-winning singer, songwriter and artist, one of the leading voices in Malian music today. The daughter of a jazz-loving diplomat, she travelled widely in her youth, visiting countries such as Algeria, Saudi Arabia, France and Belgium and being exposed to a wide variety of influences. She moved back to Mali in 2009 after living in Europe for several years.

In addition to six studio albums (last one is “Né So” from 2016), she has been involved in various multimedia pieces, including an

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

RokiaTraoré

African-take on Shakespere’s Othello, and was part the 2015 Cannes Film Festival jury.In 2009 she established Fondation Passerelle, a Bamako-based school that trains young musicians outside the girot system, encouraging professional careers. In 2014 her work with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, took her to Goudoubo camp in Burkina Faso, host to some 10,000 Malian refugees, who fled the conflict in the country’s north. “The crisis is a forgotten one. I came to hear their stories. I came to ask for peace. The rest of humanity cannot allow this to carry on”.Her new project, “Dream Mandé – Djata”, a musical monologue based on parts of the story of the mandingo epic, will be presented at the Festival d’Avignon in July 2017.

ph: © Danny Willems

Multiple award-winning pianist Bojan Z (for Zulfikarpašić) was born in former Yugoslavia in 1968. Starting classical piano lessons at the age of 5, he found himself in the Belgrade rock scene as a youngster, obtained a scholarship at the age of 18 to study jazz with Clare Fischer in the US, to be awarded ‘Best Young Jazz Musician of Yugoslavia’ a few years later. At the age of 20 he left his hometown and settled in Paris, where he established himself as an inevitable element of the French jazz scene. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

BojanZ

More than two decades later, he has an impressive record to his name. Apart from being a much sought-after sideman, collaborating with outstanding names like Henri Texier, Michel Portal and Julien Lourau,  Z has made eight albums under his own name. Six of them were released on Label Bleu, covering a wide range of styles and formations. The first three, two quartets and his multi-ethnical project Koreni, resulted in Z’s status as the pioneer who brought Balkan influences into jazz. They were followed by his successful first solo album Solobsession and two trio albums on which he collaborated with contemporary jazz greats from the American scene. His later works have been released on Emarcy/Universal, among which his acclaimed and award winning second piano solo album entitled Soul Shelter, released in February 2012.

SloveniaShowcase

Festival

ZSAMM: MAJA OSOJNIK & PATRICK WURZWALLNER play LET THEM GROW

Maja Osojnik, vocals, live sampling, dj-cd player and other lo-fi electronics; Patrick Wurzwallner, drums; Christina Bauer, sound engineering

“An anthroposophical striptease of the soul, between dystopian chansons, primordial mantras, and musique concrète.” On her first solo production Maja Osojnik combines with unparalleled nimbleness her seeking penchant for song schemes, experimental and new music as well as improvisation. LET THEM GROW is the product of a retreat, an introspection, a re-alignment. Osojnik asks about the self, asks whether it is possible—beyond the fundamental impossibility—to be understood. She asks about the things people do when they love others and about the things they suppress. What does it mean to live an emancipated life today?

Contact: Maja Osojnik | maja.osojnik@gmx.net

2 2F R I D A Y CD CLUB

2 2F R I D A Y CD CLUB

DRAGO IVANUŠA: LA BÊTE HUMAINE

Drago Ivanuša, piano solo

Drago Ivanuša’s project La Bête humaine / The Human Beast(leaning on the 1937 Jean Renoir’s film), brings musical view of thetimes we live in, the position of the individual in a world full of tension,so similar to those times when La Bête humaine was made. The programme contains compositions with improvised parts, energetic,full of harmonic textures and polyrhythms. Ivanuša’s music is expressive, eclectic and unpredictable. He makes good use of his experience in theatre and film, which gives his music a strong, exact dramaturgy and exciting content.

Contact: Drago Ivanuša | drago.ivanusa@gmail.com

ph: ©

Mat

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BOWRAIN

Tine Grgurevič aka Bowrain, piano, keyboards;Mario Babojelić, guitar; Robert Nitschke, drums

Bowrain a.k.a. pianist Tine Grgurevič, who is blazing new trails on Slovenian jazz scene and has made an international name for himself, will feature compositions from the upcoming album. “BOWRAIN a.k.a. Tine Grgurevič makes electronic music from a genre-less perspective, touching upon traditions of modern classical and jazz, without ever really settling in any sound. Writing for dance pieces and playing jazz piano along to loops of pop-Marxist legend Slavoj Žižek philosophising on ideology, BOWRAIN isn’t afraid to experiment.” Subbacultcha, Amsterdam

Contact: Bowrain | tinemusic@gmail.com

2 2F R I D A Y OTHER CLUB TBA

ARTBEATERS

Peter Ugrin, violin; Marko Čepak, guitar; Aleš Ogrin, piano; Ilj Pušnik, bass; Janez Gabrič, drums

The story of Artbeaters began in 2011, when Peter Ugrin (violin) returned from his studies in New York. Their latest release Life Compass On! is based on the uniqueness and diversity of compositions which are meaningfully merged through mutual relationship. Their new music is inspired by the style of a large musical piece i.e. suite, therefore the actual content of the compositions has the same privilege as improvisation.

Contact: Peter Ugrin | ugrin.peter@gmail.com

2 2F R I D A Y CD CLUB

ph: © Benjamin Kovač

FEMINIZED.SCIENCE.DENIERS(IGOR LUMPERT/EVE RISSER/DRE HOČEVAR)

Igor Lumpert, saxophone; Eve Risser, piano; Dré Hočevar, drums

Feminized.Science.Deniers is new collaborative sphere initiated by the two Slovenian artists: Igor Lumpert and Dré Hočevar along with the French pianist, composer, and improviser Eve Risser. They set out to create and perform exciting new original music, contextualized within the spectrum of the musical, artistic, philosophical and scientific traditions, along with the related contemporary narratives, corresponding to our personal lives and imaginative meaning-making. As composers and performers, they aim to chart new artistic territories and bring to life new symbolic systems and mediums of social change and transformation. 

Contact: Dré Hočevar | dre@drehocevar.com

2 3S A T U R D A Y CD CLUB

KRISTIJAN KRAJNČAN: DRUMMINGCELLIST

Kristijan Krajnčan, cello, drums

Drummer, cellist and composer Kristijan Krajnčan, one of Slovenia’s most prolific and incisive young artists who has built up an enviable international reputation, is presenting his new solo project and promoting his latest release, DrummingCellist. Distilling contemporary jazz, classical, film music and other genres into complete sounding storytelling, DrummingCellist presents an exciting, fresh, daring, colourful and out of the ordinary approach. This is music that moves fiercely and gracefully across borders, beyond average, beyond the usual, beyond standard confinements, exploring possibilities of two paramount instruments with a pure and complete artistic vision of sonic discovery.

Contact: Kristijan Krajnčan | kristijan.kr@gmail.com

2 3S A T U R D A Y CD CLUB

ph: © Urška Lukovnjak

TEO COLLORI & MOMENTO CIGANO

Teo Collori, guitar; Matija Krečič, violin; Matej Kužel, clarinet;Jan Gregorka, double bass; Metod Banko, guitar

Teo Collori & Momento Cigano play an exquisite cocktail of gypsy swing and dance-floor music. In this project the retro style is vibrantly re-imagined, enhanced by fresh original compositions evoking the vintage mood of salons, cigars, Charleston and patent-leather shoes. Momento Cigano are all academy-trained musicians famed also for being the backup band for Slovenian pop king Magnifico. In 2015, their first record, Hot Club Piran, was Album of the Year on the Muzikobala music portal, and in 2016 the band broke into the fastidious US market, releasing an album on the illustrious Lowtemp label.

Contact: Teo Collori | teocolori@gmail.com

2 3S A T U R D A Y CD CLUB

ph: © Tanja Likeb

OPENING GALA CONCERTLinhart Hall, Thursday, September 21st at 19.30

First part:Bojan Z & Goran Bojčevski ProjectBojan Z, piano; Goran Bojčevski, clarinet, reeds; Tomaž Marčič, accordion; Tadej Kampl, bass;Nino Mureškič, percussion; Žiga Kožar, drums

A special collaboration of Serbian - born Franch - based pianist (also key speaker at EJC Ljubljana), who established himself as one of key figures in European Jazz Scene, with Macedonian - born Slovenia - based clarinet and reed player whose recent works range from classical compositions for orchestras to his pro-acclaimed versatile music for his own quintet while being one of best clarinet soloists in the region.

Part two:Rabih Abou–Khalil TrioLine up TBA

One of leading composers and improvisers on oud will premiere his new album.

SPECIAL EVENTŠtih Hall, Friday, September 22nd at 15.30

To Pianos: Kaja Draksler & Eve RisserSpecial concert of the Ljubljana Jazz Series album release by Clean Feed. This joint project was destined to be. After the two compelling artists released their solo piano albums on Clean Feed, and have navigated further terrain in diverse regular and ad hoc contexts, the idea emerged to bring the two thrilling young pianists together. The JFL commission surprised neither the musicians nor the public. Eager to do something special and new, the musicians leaped at the opportunity with wholehearted dedication.

ph: © Nada Žgank

Cankarjev dom (CD) is Slovenia`s largest cultural and congress centre. It presents, produces, co-produces, organises and provides cultural and artistic, congress and other events, state commemorations, exhibitions and festivals. In devising its programme, CD strives towards enriching the quality of lives, forming, fostering and asserting the cultural and wider national identity and educating the young people in culture and the arts.

With an expert team of professional congress organisers it implements ideas from all over the country and the world, and attracts the attention of organisers and participants in international congresses, symposia and seminars.

CD is visited by half a million people each year and annually hosts over 2000 events.

Since 1982, Cankarjev dom has been producing Jazz Festival Ljubljana, founded in 1960. Bogdan Benigar (CD) and Pedro Costa (Clean Feed) have been the JFL programme selectors since 2011. JFL has established a long-term relation with the Clean Feed by creating the Ljubljana Jazz Series as part of the label’s releases. All recordings are made during the festival and include numerous emerging artists from Slovenia and abroad.

www.cd-cc.siwww.ljubljanajazz.si

Europe Jazz Network (EJN) is a Europe-wide association of producers, presenters and supporting organisations who specialise in creative music, contemporary jazz and improvised music created from a distinctly European perspective. Its membership currently comprises 115 organisations (including festivals, clubs and concert venues, independent promoters and national organisations) from 34 European countries.

EJN exists to support the identity and diversity of jazz in Europe and to broaden awareness of this vital area of music as a cultural and educational force. It aims to increase exchange of knowledge and experience between professionals of the jazz sector and to initiate and encourage the

development of international exchanges, special projects and collaborations between producers and artists both within and outside of Europe.

EJN believes that creative music contributes to social and emotional growth and economic prosperity, and is a positive force for harmony and understanding between people from the diversity of cultures inherent in the European family. It is an invaluable channel for the process of inter-cultural dialogue, communication and collaboration.

www.europejazz.net

www.europejazz.net

21 – 24 September 2017Cankarjev dom – LjubljanaSLOVENIA