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26 Sep 2015
Follow the white rabbit, a lecture by Bogdan Benigar, director of the Ljubljana Jazz Festival, at the European Jazz Conference
International Ljubljana Jazz Festival is one of the oldest jazz festivals in Europe. In the year 2009 it was celebrating its 50th anniversary. It is the central international jazz event in Slovenia, as it was before in ex-Yugoslavia.
Festival began life in 1960 as Yugoslavian Jazz Festival. For the first six years it took place in Bled, then in 1967 it moved to Ljubljana to Tivoli Hall and in 1970 finally found its traditional domicile in the attractive outdoor venue of Križanke. Due to organisational problems and controversies about its music and artistic direction in the mid-80s the festival was moved for two years to then newly established Cankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre, but Križanke stands as its prime venue. Cankarjev dom became its regular organiser with relative stable public funding in 1982.
In 1982 the organisation of Ljubljana Jazz Festival was taken over from the local Jazz Society, its conventional jazz milieu and close-tied connections with institutionalised Big Band RTV Ljubljana, bastion of Slovene jazz traditionalism. Not without resistance and public polemics the first enlarged programme council which also included younger jazz connoisseurs was the start of musical opening toward new jazz, various forms of improvised music, new trends associated or inspired with jazz. This was the turning point of festival orientation till now, an orientation that was followed by appointments of various art directors with different 'success', often publicly attacked from various interest groupings, 'jazz angles' and aesthetic positions.
Till now the festival presents the most eminent world jazz and improvising musicians from Europe, USA and other parts of Americas, Africa, Asia and Australia. Many open air or interdisciplinary events accompany the festival, including street performances, film programme centred on film documentaries, exhibitions of posters, round tables, jazz photography and art exhibitions of works made by jazz musicians. In recent years Ljubljana Jazz Festival co-operates more closely with Maribor (Lent and Izzven) Jazz Festivals and Jazz Cerkno Festival, establishing kind of Slovene triangle of jazz festivities.
In half of century Ljubljana Jazz Festival has presented jazz artists and groups from numerous countries, among them: Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet (D, 1962), Modern Jazz Quartet (USA) & Laurindo Almeida (Brazil), Krzysztof Komeda Quintet (PL, 1965), Jean-Luc Ponty (F, 1967), Martial Solal Trio (F, CH, 1968), Memphis Slim (USA, 1968), Kimiki Kasai & Akira Tanaka (Japan, 1969), Bill Evans Trio (USA, GB, 1972), Archie Shepp Quintet (USA, 1973), Yosuke Yamashita Trio (Jap, 1974), Odetta (USA, 1974), Elvin Jones Quartet (USA, 1975), Cecil Taylor Quintet (USA, 1976), New Terje Rypdal Group (N, 1977), Sončna pot (Ljubljana, YU, 1978), Leb i sol (Skopje, YU, 1978), Tone Janša Quartet (YU, CH, A, 1978), Paul Bley (USA, 1979), Airto Moreira Group (Brazil, USA, Jap, 1980), Pharoah Sanders Quartet (USA, 1981), Steve Lacy & Mal Waldron (USA, 1982), Sun Ra Arkestra (USA, 1982), Irene Schweizer (CH) – Rüdiger Carl (D, 1982), Lester Bowie Ensemble (USA, 1982), Willem Breuker Kollektief (NL, 1983), Keith Tippett – Peter Brötzmann Quartet (GB, D, DDR, 1984), Vienna Art Orchestra (conductor Matthias Rüegg: int., 1985), Anthony Braxton Quartet (USA, 1985), Julius Hemphill Jah Band (USA, 1985), Dudu Pukwana & Zila (GB, South Africa, 1986), McCoy Tyner Trio (USA, 1986), The Art Ensemble Of Chicago (USA, 1987), Max Roach (USA, 1988), Gilberto Gil (Brazil, 1988), Sergey Kuryokhin's Pop-Mekhanika Ensemble (USSR, 1989), Henry Threadgill Sextet (USA, 1989), Sony Sharrock Band (USA, 1990), Steve Coleman’s Five Elements (USA, 1990), Miles Davis (USA, 1991), Don Byron Klezmer Orchestra (USA, 1994), Ray Barretto & New World Spirit Orchestra (USA, 1994), Bill Frisell Group, Defunkt (USA, 1996), Tito Puente & His Latin Jazz Ensemble (USA, 1997), Muhal Richard Abrams Quartet (USA, 2000), Zlatko Kaučič (Slo, 2000), Italian Instabile Orchestra (I, 2001), David S. Ware Quartet, Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos (USA, 2001), Peter Brötzmann "Chicago Tentet" (int., 2002), Femi Anikulapo - Kuti & The Positive Force (Nigeria, 2002), Maya Homburger & Barry Guy (Sui, GB, 2003), Jan Garbarek Group (N, 2003), Ornette Coleman Quartet (USA, 2004), Pat Metheny (USA, 2004), Abdullah Ibrahim (SA, 2005), David Murray & The Gwo-Ka Masters (USA, Guadeloupe, 2006), Alexander von Schlippenbach & Die Enttäuschung (D, 2006), Tomasz Stanko Quartet (PL, 2007), Roscoe Mitchell Chicago Quartet (USA, 2009), Louis Moholo Viva La Black & Keith Tippett & MinAfric Orchestra (SA, GB, I, 2009), John Zorn Dreamers (USA, 2009).
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