Balkan Jazz
Printed From: JazzMusicArchives.com
Category: Jazz Music Lounges
Forum Name: Jazz Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
Forum Description: Discuss specific jazz artists/bands and their members or a specific sub-genre
URL: http://www.JazzMusicArchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1180
Printed Date: 28 Apr 2024 at 11:53pm
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Topic: Balkan Jazz
Posted By: Dick Heath
Subject: Balkan Jazz
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2011 at 8:18am
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A long surf on the web in July found me a French blog that provides information on the broadest choice of new jazz (often with You Tube links) - but some bands listed fall outside even my liberal definitions of jazz.....
Two women musicians that have caught my ear, making me track down albums are Bajka and the Elina Duni Quartet. Bajka's album In Wonderland is vocal jazz - in fact her distinctive voice had me thinking here might be a new Blossom Dearie but then the website had a list of tags here include trip hop (really?). Elini Duni (piano and vocals) with Lume Lume sounds more traditional wrt both her choice of music (mostly East European folk and traditional tunes, I believe) and her approach to playing/arranging this as a (non-electric) piano lead quartet. My favorite and one that produced quite some positive responses after playing on my radio show, was her interpretation of Nick Drake's Riverman. Nice to hear more piano trios or quartets are tackling Drake's songbook.
I know little of East European jazz, so some input from JMA members who live further east into Europe than me, would be appreciated. For instance is "Balkan Jazz" - also used as a tag - meaningful as a separate sub-genre here?
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Replies:
Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2011 at 8:24am
I expect as person who lived some years around Balkans (and was interested in music/jazz) I know quite a lot about the subject. It's great Dick you opened that theme, I'll try to post here what I know about it, and I hope there will be more fans of Balkan jazz around sharing their knowledge 
First of all, Balkan tunes and rhythms are quite fashionable all around Europe during last two decades, and lot of music with a bit more professional arrangements (or not straight-ahead pop structure) often is labelled as Balkan jazz,what it isn't. Comparing with Western or Nordic Europe, Balkans have not so deep and wide jazz traditions, but for sure they have jazz history. BTW with help of our collaborators/members we have here on JMA extremely complete collection of Romanian jazz. My personal knowledge is related more with ex-Yugoslavian music though. Your mentioned Elina Duni is one of very rare Albanian jazz vocalist (living in Switzerland and playing with Swiss musicians, but having some Balkan roots in her music). Bajka has a very Balkan/Slavic nick-name (what means "fairy tail" on many Slavic languages, but if I truly remember she is Indian or North African artist, not European at all. Speaking about separate sub-genre, I thin Balkan jazz is generally part of world fusion, or some musicians just play traditional post-bop,etc. Possibly most specific streams are Balkan -fusion (Balkan tunes and rhythms,which are quite unique - a bit similar to Klezmer or Middle East folklore mixed with rock energy and instrumentation) and Balkan folk-jazz ( mix of ethnic music with hard bop or post bop. Possibly the best example of modern Balkan fusion is Balkan all-stars band Balkan Horses : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMp08bY7IxQ" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMp08bY7IxQ
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Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2011 at 10:01am
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Surprisingly maybe, but for me as a Romanian "Balkan jazz" doesn't bring to mind anything as strong as when hearing "Eastern European jazz". There has been a very long tradition of mixing "classical" music and later jazz with traditional folk in Poland, Romania, Hungary and if I'm not wrong Russia too. Also, the people from around the Black Sea were important in this movement too (especially Armenians, Georgians and Azerbaidjani people, who brought also a connection with the music of the Caucasian area). However these people were often involved in the phenomenon not as residents of their countries of origin but as immigrants; for example, one of the key figures of this scene is Harry Tavitian, a Romanian of Armenian ethnicity. Heading down towards the Balkans now, what do we have? The two most important musical traditions are in the South, the Greek and Turkish ones. I don't know any Greek or Turkish ethno-jazz, possibly because in the 20th century these cultures created very strong pop genres with traditional influences. For example, in Greece there was in the first half of the 20th century a style called "rebetika", which was a bit similar to the French chanson. But then, instead of going towards vocal jazz like chanson, it went towards a very strong pop formula with traditional arrangements. It was interesting maybe in the 60s/70s, but now with modern synthetic production it sounds awful IMO. Similarly, there's a very strong Turkish pop with traditional themes and motifs, and I don't know of any flirts with jazz from this direction. Going a bit more North, there's the central area of the Balkans, based around the mountains, with Macedonia, Serbia, the aromanians (or the "vlachs"), whose music is related to that of Romania/Hungary, but I don't know any ethno-jazz from here, I expect to learn more from Slava. I always suspected that the music from here is less compatible with modern "art" music (classical or jazz) because it's more brass-based (unlike that of Hungary and Romania, which is more stings-based). And finally, also in this area there's the Bulgarian music, which I only know for the Asian (!) heritage and sound it has and their attempts to preserve the purity of folk and especially vocal music. Not sure if I'd classify Romanian ethno-jazz as Balkan jazz, I guess it depeneds on whether I'll find any similarities with the proper Balkan jazz that will be posted here (I can't listen now to Slava's example, unfortunately). |
Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2011 at 3:10am
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I think first of all we need to separate two tags - "jazz from Balkans" and "Balkan jazz" . First jazz musicians from Balkans who become well-known around the world,as rule were born in Balkans but left the region still in young years and grow up as artists abroad. They usually saved some (folk) Balkan elements in their music for all their life though. Good examples could be Montenegrin Larry Vuckovich (living in States from early 50s) and Bosnia-born Dusko Goykovich (living in Canada and Germany from 50s) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8YsOSsLMXM" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8YsOSsLMXM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb5f6HaRSEs&feature=related" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb5f6HaRSEs&feature=related Balkan-based jazz musicians generation comes mostly from 70s (usually as jazz fusion/world fusion bands). I know only a very few names coming from Romania or Bulgaria from that period (Lyubomir Denev is the best Bulgarian fusion pianist I know), but there were much better situation in former Yugoslavia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPCMbLEZfwY" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPCMbLEZfwY Macedonian Leb I Sol ("Bread And Salt") were really huge star in 70s combining rock energy with (ethno) fusion elements: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6jAlLcsiHU&feature=related" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6jAlLcsiHU&feature=related Unfortunately 80s were influenced by same synth-pop sound as in rest of Europe,not many jazz artists/bands survived. And later (early 90s) Yugoslavian civil wars and anti-communist dictatorships revolutions in Eastern Balkans weren't best time and place for any jazz at all.From late 90s Balkans are returning back to normal life (very slowly to be honest), as a result there are few Jazz/jazz-related musicians active now, but really just a few  Anyway there are some artists which could be really interesting for fans of world fusion mostly. Former Leb I Sol guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski is possibly leading artist of nowadays Balkan fusion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgUI5b2Wmjw&feature=related" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgUI5b2Wmjw&feature=related
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Posted By: John Heckler
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2011 at 1:07pm
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A few musthears from Serbia Milos Krstic - Rebopin serbian folk dances (Milos Krstic p / Carl Caspersen b / Marcus Baylar d/ Tom Kenned b) Afro-Balkanske skice / AFRO-BALKAN SKETCHES (Stjepko Gut, Reggie Johnson, Alvin Queen...) Lala Kovacev - BALKAN IMPRESSIONS |
Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2011 at 2:13pm
| Never heard two others, but know this Lala Kovačev's album - BTW one more Serbian jazz musician,living abroad from mid 60s I think... His solo works are released only in Yugoslavia and there are few of them only, but as sideman he played with fusion violinist Mihal Urbaniak on two or three albums from mid 70s, and with Alan Skidmore as well. |
Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2011 at 4:57am
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Slovenian Fusion band Lolita have all their discography downloadable http://www.ljudmila.org/lolita/mp3/" rel="nofollow - here . The first track I checked was "Alka" from their most recent album, it has quite a strong Balkan flavour. Good stuff, recommended. |
Posted By: idlero
Date Posted: 06 Jan 2012 at 12:55pm
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Dejan Terzic's( Serb drummer born in Banja Luka and living in Germany) Underground Project explores folkloristic melodies and rhythms from the Balkans
------------- I think the problem with a lot of the fusion music is that it's extremely predictable, it's a rock rhythm and the solos all play the same stuff and they play it over and over again ... Ken Burns |
Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: 15 Sep 2012 at 6:31am
Albanian vocalist Elina Duni debut on ECM! Supporting EU/US tour announced:
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Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: 01 Nov 2012 at 5:27pm
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Finally I got new Elina Duni's album , her ECM debut. I really like it even if it's not what I expected. No jazz vocals here - to say truth Elina was never reall jazz vocalist, but here she sings modern songs based on true Balkan folklore,supported by ascetic sounds of jazz band. All album is not much a jazz record, even not a jazz fusion in traditional sense. Songs lyrics has sense even you don't understand Albanian - voice,intonations and music tell enough. Evereyone familiar with modern Balkan music knows how strange and dramatic last some decades were. After some decades of restrictions and even ban on jazz (especially on E.Balkans), wars and revolutions turned the history of music to another critical point - wish of profit. More than two decades there are no control on music anymore, but air around all regia is heavily polluted by very low quality plasticky pop or turbo-folk (in former Yugoslavia) - the music you don't need to be a musician to produce and very easy accessible for younger generation. It brings money - any other music, especially such non-commercial as jazz, almost doesn't exist. Elina Duni's albums are extremely rare return to roots, and search on modern reading of folklore from the position of classicaly trained professional musiican. This album is easy accessible as her two previous were, and it's tasteful - no compromises are done to make it best-seller, at least at Balkan market. To be honest I think Duni's music customers are mostly Western music fans,but I have a hope such releases step by step will form some new listeners in her homeland as well.
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Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: 26 Jan 2013 at 3:56am
Netherlands-based Bulgarian pianist Dimitar Bodurov third album combines European jazz with Balkan folklore. At his best, Dimitar finds interesting solutions playing quite conservative post bop and almost authentic folk without mixing them in one. Still big part of the album is far not so inspired and interesting listen here: http://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/dimitar-bodurov--mp3.aspx?id=2688" rel="nofollow - http://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/dimitar-bodurov--mp3.aspx?id=2688
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Posted By: idlero
Date Posted: 26 Jan 2013 at 4:39am
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Nicolas Simion - Balkan Jazz is a good example of jazz inspired by Balkan folklore 
------------- I think the problem with a lot of the fusion music is that it's extremely predictable, it's a rock rhythm and the solos all play the same stuff and they play it over and over again ... Ken Burns |
Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: 08 Apr 2013 at 1:11pm
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Elina Duni Quartet plays around Europe again: 2013 Apr 08 Stans Stanser Musiktage Switzerland 2013 Apr 13 Caen Conservatoire France 2013 Apr 19 Jena Volksbad Germany 2013 Apr 27 Bremen Jazzahead Germany 2013 May 16 Lausanne Jazz at the "Polytechnique", Rolex Learning Center Switzerland 2013 Jun 08 Werther Henningshof, "Wege durch das Land" Germany 2013 Jun 09 Werther Henningshof, "Wege durch das Land" Germany 2013 Jun 27 Dortmund Domicil, Klangvokal Festival Germany 2013 Jun 30 Moutier Festival Stand d'Eté Switzerland 2013 Jul 09 Wien Porgy and Bess Austria 2013 Jul 14 Bruxelles Brosella Folk Jazz Festival Belgium 2013 Jul 17 Trentino Il suoni delle Dolomiti Italy 2013 Jul 21 Paimpol Estivales de Beauport France 2013 Jul 26 Lyon Nuits de Fourvière France 2013 Aug 01 Ystad Jazzfestival, Mariakyrkan Sweden 2013 Aug 17 Wuppertal Klangart Festival Germany 2013 Oct 10 Salzburg Jazz & The City Austria 2013 Nov 12 Basel Bird`s Eye, Klangwelten Switzerland 2013 Nov 13 Basel Bird`s Eye, Klangwelten Switzerland 2013 Nov 14 Strasbourg Jazzdor France 2013 Nov 15 Val d'Oise Jazz au fil de l'Oise France 2013 Nov 16 Glarus Kunsthaus Switzerland 2013 Nov 29 Bastia Théatre Municipal France |
Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: 23 Jan 2015 at 4:05pm
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Posted By: Frederic_Alderon
Date Posted: 13 Nov 2018 at 4:59pm
| Nicolas Simion is pretty good, also Johnny Raducanu and Kolektif maybe... |