“Die ganze Stadt ist Bühne,” (The whole city is a stage) proclaimed Max Reinhardt, theatre director and co-founder of the world-famous Salzburg Festival in the 1920s. A century later, this still feels very much the case, with music resonating from its baroque squares, cobbled alleyways and the banks of the Salzach where buskers gather. And it’s hardly a secret that Salzburg has a huge amount to offer music lovers – whether Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music is your bag…or Mozart and opera.
Among its many festival offerings is Jazz & The City, a four-day extravaganza celebrating ‘jazz, global groove and electronic music’. Organised by Altstadt Salzburg (the Old City Association), it’s been an annual fixture in Salzburg’s cultural calendar for 25 years and this year it hosted around 60 concerts with 120 artists performing in 20 different locations. What makes the event stand out is not just the calibre of the programming or the variety of venues, but the fact that admission is completely free and it operates on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
My first encounter with the festival didn’t exactly go as planned. I headed to one of the Hidden Tracks events, described in the programme as a guided walk to an undisclosed location where there would be a musical collaboration. Being a curious soul, I was intrigued but sadly hadn’t appreciated the importance of ‘Pünktlichkeit’, so nearly missed the whole thing. Arriving late at the meeting spot, I noticed a throng of people heading off with a guide. Thankfully some 15 minutes later I found myself sat in St Johannes am Imberg church staring at the altar with no sign of a stage or musicians, wondering what exactly was I doing. Eventually rasping strings being scraped and struck, along with the more familiar resonance of an organ revealed that two musicians – pianist/organist Jordina Millà and kanun (zither) player Sofia Labropoulou – were hidden away underneath the rafters. It was an extremely special, albeit too brief, collaboration that left one with the feeling that you had been let in on a wonderful secret.
As I left, I was given some sound advice that served me well for the rest of the weekend: “Don’t expect anything and experience everything!” In fact, the various Hidden Tracks events were some of my highlights of the festival, including one at the city’s oldest gymnasium where two contemporary dancers performed some extraordinary aerial acrobatics accompanied by three members of the Linz-based jazz quartet Schmack. The concept was the ingenious idea of former Jazz & The City’s artistic director Tina Heine and is now expertly curated by Dorit Ehlers. Thankfully this year’s new programming team, co-ordinated by Markus Deisenberger, had the good sense to recognise Hidden Tracks’ winning formula and keep it within the programme.
Photo Jo Frost
When I catch up with Deisenberger, he tells me that he was keen to broaden the programme, to make it more crossover so that now techno and DJs are included.
One of the best aspects of a small city festival is the proximity of the venues, making it really easy to hop between them. The largest stage was an open-air one in Residenzplatz where international headline acts such as Ben LaMar Gay and his ensemble entranced a modest-sized but enthusiastic crowd with their wildly shamanic-like set. LaMar Gay’s stage presence was magnetic, especially when he and his band each took up a pair of handbells, ferociously swinging them to create a magical sound that echoed around the square.
Just next door was the Carabinieri Hall, an elegant state room once used by Salzburg’s Prince Archbishop. This historic venue played host to Hilde, an all-female quartet of cello, violin, trombone and vocals who gave an understated but much appreciated performance of music from their forthcoming album.
Just down the road the Kollegienkirche, an immense baroque church, hosted a series of performances entitled ‘The Art of Solo.’ Among them were guitarist Zsófia Boros, keyboard player Georg Vogel and aforementioned kanun player Labropoulou who began her set with a mesmerising adaptation of a prayer by Hildegard von Bingen. The church’s acoustics turned Labropoulou’s kanun into a suspended, meditative force, highlighting her ability to balance experimentalism with traditional Eastern Mediterranean sounds.
Among the more conventional venues were Salzburg’s famed jazz club Jazzit, the tiny cellar bar of the Blaue Gans (the city’s oldest guesthouse), where late-night improv sessions took place and Szene, a black box-like space where the Israeli double bass player Adam Ben Ezra played with percussionist Michael Olivera. Ben Ezra has a huge following on social media so I was intrigued to check him out, but his heavy use of electronic effects left me underwhelmed.
A particular favourite venue was the famous Marionettentheater. Topping the bill here were Frelonia featuring the grandfather of the improv scene, guitarist Fred Frith, alongside saxophonist Lotte Anker and Núria Andorrà on percussion – or rather one big kettle drum, with an assortment of sticks, shakers, pine cones, bowls, pebbles and coins. The trio’s barrage of sound clearly wasn’t to everyone’s tastes, but the die-hard fans who remained were treated to a thrilling set from three pioneering creators of sound.
Saturday night’s headline act at the Theatre was the James Brandon Lewis Quartet. Recently named as Downbeat magazine’s Artist of the Year, saxophonist Brandon Lewis’s unassuming yet commanding presence onstage left a lasting impression. Alternating between explosive solos and whisper-like phrases, he equally seemed content to step aside and let his band (Chad Taylor on drums, Brad Jones on bass and Aruán Ortiz on piano) excel which they did on regular intervals. Their performance was a masterclass in musicianship without any theatrics or effects, yet full of power and emotion.
One of the closing acts on the Sunday was by Austrian stars pianist David Helbock and bassist/cellist Julia Hofer. Helbock had also opened the festival earlier in the week with his trio Random/Control, but this was a very different, more intimate affair, featuring music from his recently released album with Hofer, Faces of Night (on ACT). Hofer shifts between cello, electric and fretless bass with supreme ease and Helbock is an incredibly playful and inventive pianist who uses all manner of percussive techniques. The pair have a delightful rapport onstage and their concert was a joyful conclusion to the weekend.
Leaving Salzburg, I couldn’t help but feel a little envious of its residents who (literally) have free access to such a remarkable festival every year. For anyone who loves music in all its forms, Jazz & the City is a real gem.
Jo Frost was the guest of Salzburg Altstadt.
