Leibnitz, celebrating its 13th jazz festival, nestles in the wine-growing region of southern Styria, about 30km south of Graz, and just a stone’s throw from the Slovenian border. The artistic director, Otmar Klammer, brings over 30 years of experience in jazz promotion, as he is also running the Stockwerk club in Graz, a city with one of the longest-standing jazz courses in Europe. He is on the hunt for interesting bands which fit well together, and bring diversity and coherence to the programme. For example, he had discovered the Scottish duo Norman & Corrie when they had performed a showcase at Jazzahead.
The concerts all had a positivity which showed in the trust of the audience and organisers. The first night consisted of two duos, playing in an ancient wine cellar of a castle overlooking the town. The brick vaults and wooden barrels contributed to a wonderful natural acoustic and ambience. NoSax NoClar has two French musicians, Bastien Weeger and Julien Stella, who switched between clarinet and saxophone. Interweaving together in quite short intense pieces, at times contrapuntal, at others sounding Balkan and Armenian. We had an hour’s musical journey across the centuries and different cultures, which passed in a trice. Excellent use of extended techniques, such as playing bass clarinet without a mouthpiece and sounding like a flute, and incredible empathy in the way that they could suddenly know exactly the right moment to play in unison.
The second band was Norman & Corrie from Scotland, with Norman Willmore (on saxophones and even organ pedals) and Corrie Dick (on drums) digging deep into the music of the Shetlands, from where Norman comes. They have done a lot of research into the traditional music of the islands, and it came through. They communicated with us in the audience with such enthusiasm and energy, including great tongue-in-cheek stories giving background. So we had tunes re-creating the metal bashing of the local blacksmith’s forge, or local dances. Corrie’s drumming almost felt melodic in how he was able to interact with Norman. It perfectly complemented NoSax NoClar for that night.
The second night consisted of three bands, each with individuality and all equally memorable. Austrian bassist Gina Schwarz’s octet, Multiphonics8, was built around clarinets, even including a contra-alto clarinet and C melody clarinet (both played by Steffen Schorn) and a flute, with a full rhythm section. Much of the music was inspired by Nick Drake, but that wasn’t always obvious – just the sentiments. The clarinet “choir” made for a deep emotional sound, reflecting the woodiness and sonority of the instrument. It was a great start to the evening in the Hugo Wolf Saal of the local arts centre.
Then we had cellist Tomeka Reid’s quartet, which includes Mary Halvorson on guitar, Jason Roebke on bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums. I had been fortunate to hear them at the Vortex a few days before. Now further into their tour, they showed a great balance of melody, groove with space for freer improvisation. There was a wonderful sonic interaction of the guitar and cello. It’s a very “democratic” band, with all musicians given the chance to shine, including substantial opportunity for Roebke to play bowed bass.
Finally that night, in a nearby converted cinema, we had a late night gig by the band Spinifex, led by Dutch saxophonist Tobias Klein, which is now celebrating its 20th anniversary with an album next month, Maxximus. They have a balance of tight horn interaction and free improvisation and openness. We certainly didn’t have the chance to doze off. Although very different in the attitude – a very in-the-face style reminiscent to the “era” of Acoustic Ladyland – they reminded me, in approach to the music, of the musical father figure band for the Dutch contemporary scene, ICP Orchestra, which has a similar way of balancing freedom and tightness. Great soloing from the likes of trumpeter Bart Maris and tenor saxophonist John Dikeman. It meant that I could walk back up the hill to my hotel sated by the wonderful music.
The final night was again a triple bill. First, one of the young shooting stars of Austrian jazz, drummer Max Plattner, leading a trio which included Fabian Rucker, whom we know in London from Namby Pamby Boy. He is the father figure of the band. And in a way the strength of his playing “up top” allows Plattner and his bassist Marco Stagni a lot of freedom. They very much seem to be reinventing the music for 2025.
Latin Grammy-winning Cuban pianist Ivan ‘Melon’ Lewis leads a traditional jazz trio, more in the mould of the Cuban trios of the likes of Gonzalo Rubalcaba. They showed blistering technique, rhythmic complexity sounding simple and great melodies which just give an often implicit hint of the Cuban heritage. The interaction was mesmerising.
Finally we had the latest project of Louis Sclavis, “India”. He lets all the band members loose at different times but has an incredible band leader control and he still has a memorable bass clarinet capability. He has created a band where all are charismatic performers and soloists, be it Benjamin Moussay on piano, Olivier Laisney on trumpet and the rhythm section of Sarah Murcia and drummer Christophe Lavergne. Most of the time based on impressions of India, just occasionally one feels that there is a line taken from raga.
