«Saulkrasti Jazz 2022» as a state of musicians’ souls

From American students and soul music with hip-hop to big band and chamber orchestra

In mid-July, amongst other jazz music events, a very special one took centerstage — the «Saulkrasti Jazz» festival, which both Latvian citizens and tourists love. This year the festival took place for the 24th time; the small Soulkrasti town has hosted artists from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Spain, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the USA. As the artistic director of the festival, Tālis Gžibovskis, said in his interview with Anete Ašmane-Vilsone, education has always been a vital part of the event, but, unfortunately, this year has become an exception, and there was no week-long workshop camp; still, there is hope to return to the previous model and «Saulkrasti Jazz» will once again be able to educate youngsters.

«It is an immense joy to see the sake people that used to be teenagers and have spent their summers here studying are now a part of a generation that has become professional musicians that are in their thirties now; the same people are able to move Latvian jazz further in its development, and I feel proud to be one of the contributors to that. Likewise, I feel happy for those vocalists and instrumentalists that have gone abroad to explore the world of music; some of them came back and became this spine of our jazzy way of thinking; it is very significant,» said Tālis Gžibovskis during a Latvijas Radio 3 «Klasika» broadcast. So now our «JAZZin.lv» team has decided to travel to Saulkrasti and explore what the festival can offer us this summer!

This year the festival took up three full days — while the big concerts took up Saulkrasti open-air stage, there were also other performances in such places as Saules square, «Zvejniekciems» culture house; Pabaži stage also hosted various concerts, such as of «Smooth Band» and Diāna Pīrāgs, Mareks Logins quintet, Nebraska University student’s jazz combo (USA), «Sapņu komanda» Dixieland and students of Riga Dome Choir School. The first big concert of the first day was, in fact, the finals of the Baltic Drummer’s league — a competition where drummers under the age of 25 compete for the Grand Prix. This year the finalists were Harmo-Ron Kallaste (EE), Jonas Šulskis (LT), Tit Jukšta (LT), Jānis Kristaps Sokolovs (LV), and Reinis Baltiņš (LV). The Grand Prix went to Kristaps Jānis Sokolovs from Riga Dome Choir School; the show then continued with a performance from Lauris Amantovs quartet featuring Rūta Dūduma-Ķirse and then from «Adam Wendt Acoustic Band» (PL) featuring Laura Kupa (ES).

The second-day concert started with a performance by singer and pianist from Slovenia, Uros Peric Perry, who took the stage together with «Mirage Jazz Orchestra». At the very beginning of the concert, it was announced that Uros holds the world record in the number of shows — tributes to Ray Charles (more than 350), and this concert wasn’t an exception. However, the artist also performed his own compositions composed in the best traditions of jazz music. Urose’s stage presence was unequivocal and convincing while playing the grand piano (which suited the grand Saulkrasti open-air stage perfectly) and also singing in a strong and charming voice. Instrumental tunes by «Mirage Jazz Orchestra» also brought joy to the listeners’ ears, although one could notice that altogether the collaboration was lacking some interplay that you get only when you are in perfect sync with one another. It is understandable in the conditions when the only chance to rehearse might be in the concert morning, but there were cases when that wasn’t an obstacle to overcome. Unfortunately, this time we missed the drive and solidity such interplay brings. And it might also seem that special guests from the «Karameles» vocal trio from Kuldīga could be an exciting addition to the same concert, but a knowledgeable audience did see it as another piece of a puzzle that didn’t really fit and sometimes reminded of a vinyl that was played at a slightly wrong speed. Towards the end of the concert, the interplay became a little more pronounced and natural; Indriķis Veitners performed a wonderful solo, there were absolutely no doubts about the professional qualities of the guest artist, but it has to be said that «Mirage Jazz Orchestra» together with Uros lacked the energy and the drive.

The show was continued by a performance by a funk/soul music ensemble, «The Next Movement», from Switzerland. Musicians took the stage to the sounds of a pre-recorded playback chanting «Saulkrasti» on a loop, and every listener enjoyed such attention, but the moment musicians started playing, the effects they chose to use in their music reminded of a band known by millions of people — «Daft Punk», which already didn’t match the announced «next movement» that the band has in their name. Even though the musicians come from Switzerland, all three had spent a good amount of time in the US: drummer J. J. Flueck grew up in the States and participated in various international projects; the bass guitarist Pascal «P» Kaeser had graduated from Berklee and shared the stage with such musicians as Antonio Sanchez (Pat Metheny), Tony Escapa (Ricky Martin) and Keith Harris («Black Eyed Peas»); a guitarist Sam Siegenthaler has often performed on various continents, also on the NothAmerical. At the beginning of the concert, both festival «fathers» Raimonds Kalniņš and Tālis Gžibovskis sat in the first rows and listened very attentively, but after a short while jou=ined the crowd with their smiles and rhythmical claps because of the rhythm that sounded on the stage was impossible to ignore.

During the concert, all three instrumentalists not only played their instruments but also sang a mix of funk, soul, R’n’B, and hip-hop, arrangements of world music hits and a whole bunch of original compositions, and the energy coming from the audience seemed to fuel the musicians up even more. The audience, in turn, only increased the enthusiasm while dancing and singing along with the artists on stage, sometimes even creating a crowd in front of the stage. The musicians had invited children to join them on stage while creating some enticing groovy rhythms and singing non-complicated lyrics, with the texts walking a fine line between something intimate, life enjoyment, and some well-known swear words. Towards the end of the performance, the musicians asked the audience to sing along to some more complicated phrases both rhythmically and phonetically, which confused the audience slightly, but another thing that was also baffling was the constant playback that sounded along the music throughout the whole concert, which is a step away from the freedom of jazz music. Nevertheless, it seems that the listeners left the second day of «Saulkrasti Jazz» with a smile and still dancing.

The third day at Saulkrasti’s open-air stage started with a performance from guests from the USA. The students of Nebraska University had performed a set that was prepared especially for this European trip. Musicians have managed to play some concerts in our neighboring country of Lithuania. Their teachers — saxophonist Darren Pettit and trombonist Pete Madsen, had joined their students for a couple of compositions. Nebraskans were also joined by students from the Latvian Academy of Music’s jazz department. The compositions written by the students sounded very convincing. This was the seventh and the last concert during their trip, which in turn means that Soulkrasti got to enjoy a very close-knit team with the program that was already mature, well-prepared, and confidently played; every musician felt comfortable on stage and in the music, and the audience could clearly feel the effect of that. The musical language used in the compositions brought a special kind of joy — musicians weren’t afraid to use different colors in the harmonies, rhythms, and styles. The saxophonist frequently played not only his instrument but also its electronic version, «EWI» (electronic wind instrument) which gave the opportunity to use a more wide timbral range and brought even more attention to the musician and the music this combo played.

A warm summer evening continued with a performance from Kaunas Big band featuring Laura Budreckytė on vocals. The program performed was a tribute to the art of an amazing American singer Ella Fitzgerald. The Big band can be characterized as one with a sharp, strong, and tight sound from every instrument group. The brass shouts typical for big band music were played precisely and with high dynamic intensity, and the rhythm section functioned as a stable spine that held everything together perfectly. The ability of the singer to keep up with the big band’s intensity is commendable; she managed to stay at the forefront of the music and play her part to the dot. Budreckytė did a fantastic job with her main roles — she managed to forward the musical message the music holds and also to communicate with the listeners and create this connection that just has to be present between musicians and the audience. Compared to other musicians, the performance of a vocalist has to have a lot of attention dedicated to small details because those little touches are the glue to the impression of the whole ensemble. The concept itself — the dedication to Ella Fitzgerald — already provokes the listeners, and makes them think of the music in terms of comparisons, so probably that is the reason why part of the listeners didn’t get what there were expecting, because «there wasn’t an iota of Ella in this performance» [authors quote of someone in the audience]. But if the listeners remember and accept the fact that there will never be another Ella, then Laura’s performance becomes something entirely different. When you label your concert «A tribute to some big artist», you have to understand that you will only be able to demonstrate only the sources of inspiration that have created the personality of some artist. The attempts to copy and replicate certain artists, to be as close to their style as possible, will most probably end in failure, and the listeners will have expectations that will not be fulfilled.

The final act of the grand concert was a performance of a Spanish saxophonist, Kiko Berenguer’s quartet, with a Vidzeme chamber orchestra conducted by Andris Beismanis. While the technical crew rearranged the stage, the hosts of the evening asked the audience for some patience since this was the biggest ensemble the stage of the festival had seen in the three days. I have to stress that a bit of waiting was worth it. The chamber orchestra, with its string, wind, and rhythm instrument section, interacted perfectly with the quartet, creating a sound that was full of energy and simply alive. The musical material composed for the orchestra was written in such a way that gave the musicians the freedom jazz musicians required to express themselves. All the colors the orchestra created were a perfect compliment to the music. There wasn’t a second when the audience got the impression that one of the others was vying for attention; no one tried to move another from the spotlight. It was a true pleasure to observe the musicians from the quartet, especially the bass guitarist Mikel Alvarez and Juan De Pilar on flamenco guitar. The musicians’ soul and body language were in such a tight bond with the music itself that it couldn’t go unnoticed. Even though the construct of compositions and the stylistics were approximately the same (theme followed by improvisation), musicians managed to keep the listener’s attention on them perfectly. Despite the late hour of the night, the full tribunes demanded several encores.