Belgrade's Festival Offers Trip to Planet Jazz

Under the slogan 'Planet Jazz', the 32nd Belgrade Jazz Festival explores the theme of the globalisation of jazz, featuring artists from Latin America, Scandinavia and everywhere in between.

It kicks off on October 26 and runs until October 30 at various venues across Belgrade, including Sava Centre and Dom Omladine.

Festival programme manager Dragan Ambrozic told media that this year's festival will confirm that jazz has become more globalised than ever.

"The main message is that jazz is played with a good quality everywhere," Ambrozic said.

"This year the main programme's accent will be put on musicians from the Latin countries who bring new emotions... while the Scandinavian artists will perform the midnight programme," he added.

Belgrade City Manager Goran Vesic said that the Festival's budget is €200,000 and that the city expects to sell some 10,000 tickets. The costing represents a significant increase from last year's budget of €120,000.

During the five-day event, 21 artists from 17 countries will play, beginning with the Vlada Maricic Quartet featuring Brian Lynch at Dom Omladine on October 26 at 7.30pm.

Among the other artists on the bill are the Alfredo Rodriges Trio (Cuba/USA/Brazil), the Tineke Postma Quartet (Netherlands), the Sunna Gunnlaugs Trio (Iceland), the Avishai Cohen Trio (Israel), the Tord Gustavsen Quartet (Norway) and many others.

The Belgrade Jazz Festival was first held in 1971, when the audience was entertained by a supergroup called The Giants of Jazz featuring Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Sonny Stitt (saxophone), Kai Winding (trombone), Thelonious Monk (piano), Al McKibbon (bass) and Art Blakey (drums).

It continued until 1990, then after a lengthy hiatus,...