Gala Kamo Jazz, thirty second version
(Timișoara, Romania. 23-24 September 2023. Competition round-up by Oliver Weindling)

For too a few years it has been too straightforward for us within the far west of Europe to undervalue the jazz scene in Romania. Beneath communism, jazz bubbled considerably underground, however it has now been blossoming, each when it comes to musicians and audiences. Timisoara within the west of the nation is not any exception. There are three annual festivals within the metropolis in addition to one in Garana close by in early July.

Timisoara has been helped this 12 months by the town’s standing as European Capital of Tradition. It’s a cultural melting pot as proven by the structure and historical past: a part of the Banat area, with nonetheless robust Romanian and Hungarian communities in addition to, prior to now, Jewish, German, Roma and Austrian. It has at all times been very inventive. Certainly it was the birthplace of the sculptor Brancusi, and Bartok was born simply down the street.

Nevertheless, for lots of the finest musicians beneath Communism earlier than 1989 the one technique to develop was to ‘escape’ to the west. A number of of those ‘exiles’ had been celebrated over the weekend, in addition to reflections of the current scene and its worldwide connections. And, even when the pageant targeting music not from the area, it by no means appeared distant.

The Gala de Blues Jazz Kamo is the second oldest jazz pageant in Romania and has been going for 30 years. Because the demise of Kamo, the founder, in 2010, it has been run by bassist Jonny Bota, a flexible multi-instrumentalist, who additionally runs the jazz course on the college.

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Kamo was a member of the Bega Blues Band, one of many stalwarts of the pageant, with Jonny Bota himself on bass and one other ‘exile’ Ioan Radu Minda, now resident in Vienna, on drums. The band has been round for 40 years (i.e. from the Communist period). Effectively anchored by the rhythm part, they’d us bobbing round in our seats. If we had not been within the formal environment of the Banat Philharmonic Corridor, we will surely have been dancing. Toni Kuhn is one other of the older inspirations of jazz in Timisoara, who was performing right here on keyboards.

Drummer Eugen Gondi has been residing in Amsterdam since 1986. He performed in a trio with Lucas Sugingar on guitar and Hilmar Backer on bass. It was a set oriented in direction of ECM repertoire, with tunes equivalent to ‘James’ by Pat Metheny, and in addition just a few originals. Although it had a bit extra edge than would possibly generally be anticipated from ECM artists!

Vali Farcas is one other who left Romania within the 80s to pursue a profession with out the authorities respiratory down his neck. He’s now primarily based in Bavaria. His set was a kind of “rock fuzz” vibe however carried out with the proficiency of a classical participant. So, we had been wholly mesmerised by his method and the number of sounds that he’s in a position to produce. An intense and rewarding 40 minutes, with as a lot to understand as many units over an hour lengthy by others.

Jonny Bota appeared once more, together with Ioan Minda on drums, within the quartet of Mike Krstic. Krstic is a pianist from Belgrade – and a father determine of the music there – with the rhythm part augmented by Mika, Mike’s son, primarily on guitar. Belgrade is nearer than Bucharest, being simply over a few hours away. So, it was truly a comparatively ‘native’ band! Extra of an adept trendy jazz quartet, enjoying just a few originals but in addition requirements equivalent to Bye Bye Blackbird. Mika additionally performed a few tunes on piano himself, exhibiting his versatility and personal virtuosity.

The pageant wasn’t solely focussing on legacy, nonetheless. It opened with RC and the Melody Makers, led by Razvan Cojanu on bass with an Italian/Venezuelan band of two saxophones, bass and piano. A good vary of fine high quality modern jazz to get the pageant going.

However maybe the spotlight – and certainly the prime motivation for me to be there – was the ultimate group on the second evening. An prolonged model of Bruno Heinen’s band The W – Heidi Vogel, Andrea di Biase and Gene Calderazzo – enhanced by James Kitchman on guitar and a string quartet for the final couple of tunes. It’s maybe applicable for Bruno to come back to Timisoara, as his trio preparations of Bartok of current years attest. Sinuous wordless vocals by Heidi Vogel built-in effectively with the guitar of Kitchman and the piano of Heinen. The totally different components wove collectively to create a luxurious silken rope.

However we had been then fortunate sufficient to have the band enhanced by a string quartet, led by London-based Sasha Bota. Initially performing as a basis on which the remainder of the band might construct from, by the top Bota himself launched into a few extraordinary solos, with maybe hints of the robust people custom of the area. He himself manages to make the most of a powerful classical method, which appeared to permit him to be comparatively unconstrained.

It’s thrilling to know that there’s such an urge for food for top of the range jazz in Romania. I’ve been listening to good reviews of different festivals, in Bucharest, Sibiu and Bran. So, to search out new areas to listen to jazz, and to misquote Horace Greeley, perhaps the very best recommendation is to “Go East, younger man”.

LINK: Gala Kamo Jazz on Fb

The W performs the Vortex on 14 November, as a part of the EFG London Jazz Competition