Ljubljana 2019

The Ljubljana jazz festival is coming up with its 60th edition. We already knew from last year that we would get two days of music with John Zorn for the opening, and we just recently found out that we will be ending it with Snarky Puppy.
For people not in the know – nothing special. For those familiar – a feast.
In a couple of words – John Zorn opens, two nights in a row. Snarky Puppy closes. And along the way we have Mammal Hands and Nubya Garcia! No dot necessary here.
It doesn’t matter how many encounters one has with John Zorn in their lifetime, you will keep being surprised. And here, the surprise of the season – Zorn is gifting one of his show to the audience in Ljubljana – meaning free entry. After so many meetings with this special human, nothing ever surprises us.
Now a little bit about Snarky Puppy – because of the line-up, this “orchestra” is quite hard to get together; that’s why each one of their gatherings on one stage causes joy and hysterics in everyone (a good example is their November concert in Utrecht – already sold out). In addition to that, Snarky Puppy came out with a new album this March and it’s as eclectic as their travels around the world. An incredibly emotional and masterful dive into today’s colourful world.
If we have to be honest, the incredibly bright and avantgarde programme for the Ljubljana jazz festival is all happening because of the audience. Because if there’s no demand from the audience, that wouldn’t happen. And that is a big contribution from the people that made sure this kind of music gets heard in this part of the globe.
Thanks to their bravery and the fact they make no compromises, such things happen in this part of Europe. In our humble opinion – the best line up for a jazz festival for the current season. Of course, we are still to see what happens in Sarajevo.
There will always be the people that don’t listen to live music and would say that Snarky Puppy’s music is influenced by Chick Corea amongst others. We don’t belong to that group of people. We are present and we are listening.
Our aim is not to try and tell the readers what to think – we aim for lightness. And to keep thing in the spirit of lightness, we’re just going to say this – if you have the time and the will come to Ljubljana between June 18 th and 22 nd and you will not regret it.
Because, for real, until you see for yourself, you can’t know the world has a whole different side to it.
Today we listen to Snarky Puppy’s live show from Jakarta, and it’s explosive! And for all the know it all’s, they can search for parallels, but we’re just listening to the music of Snarky Puppy from Brooklyn! And the world keeps going round and round!
Who says nomads can only be found in our lands.
April 2019
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