On October 13, Vilnius Jazz, the only contemporary jazz and improvisational music festival in Lithuania, returns to the capital. For four days, the most original improvisers from the United Kingdom will share their latest creative ideas with the audience in the Old Vilnius Theater (former Lithuanian Russian Drama Theatre). JAV, France, Switzerland, Ukraine and Lithuania.
The festival will be opened by one of the most distinctive voices of modern jazz - British jazz pianist, organist, composer and bandleader Alexander Hawkins with his trio featuring double bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis.
During the decade of its existence, this ensemble managed to leave a bright mark on modern jazz. In 2018, he started actively collaborating with American modern jazz icon saxophonist Anthony Braxton and toured Europe as part of his quartet, and recorded these performances in a 13-album set. A. Hawkins' trio also forms the core of the famous English saxophonist John Surman's quartet.
Critics compare the sensitivity of these musicians to mutual impulses to the fluidity of mercury. Their music skillfully combines rationality and spontaneity.
A. Hawkins expresses himself in extremely diverse capacities, combining a unique manner of composing and free improvisation, surprising the jazz world with a unique playing technique. He plays in ensembles from duets to large groups, he also appears solo, composes and arranges music for well-known groups.
Interestingly, the musician studied law and criminology at Cambridge, but was able to develop an astonishing playing technique and earn a reputation as one of the UK's most innovative pianists and composers through his creativity and fleeting imagination. He deliberately abandoned academic jazz studies to play what he likes and how he likes.
The musician has performed and worked in the recording studio with a whole constellation of contemporary improvisational leaders of various generations, including Evan Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, Marshall Allen, Han Bennink, Hamid Drake, Rob Mazurek, Taylor Ho Bynum, Shabaka Hutchings, Michael Formanek, Nicole Mitchell, Matana Roberts, Esperanza Spalding, Jonny Greenwood, Angelika Niescier. He is also known for his appearances in the bands of legendary South African drummer Louis Mohol-Mohol.
In 2015, we heard A. Hawkins on the "Vilnius Jazz" stage together with the Italian saxophonist Roberto Ottavianoo performing a program dedicated to the American saxophone legend Steve Lacy, and in 2018 he presented a project inspired by a traditional Ethiopian song with the Swedish vocalist Sofia Jernberg. An interesting acquaintance with this pianist's trio awaits.
The second part of the evening is intriguing a concert promises the project that brought together the brightest representatives of jazz and improvisational music from the Temporary Capital and the port city. Its participants - the musicians of the avant-garde trio "Ažuoliniai berželiai" and the Klaipėda Jazz Orchestra - share more than one interesting work.
Formed in the temporary capital, the trio of multi-instrumentalists Arno Mikalkėnas, Tomas Razmaus and Simon Kaupinis, which has no analogues in the country, is alien to the formulas of traditional music creation. These musicians are connected by a long-term partnership, they know each other's individual traits very well. The group actively performs concerts in Lithuania and abroad. The music of "Oak Birches" is recorded in five albums.
The Klaipėda Jazz Orchestra was assembled in 2013 from the best jazz musicians of the Western region - professionals and students, current and former residents of Klaipėda - by its current leader, saxophonist Kęstutis Sova. The collective became a true jazz ambassador of Western Lithuania.
He represents the port city in various international jazz festivals and projects, and regularly organizes educational programs for Klaipėda's young performers. The orchestra has performed with many famous foreign musicians, including Jojo Mayer, Vern Spevak, David Katz, Spanish Francisco Angel Latino, Ukrainian Anastasia Bukina, Grammy nominee from the USA Nicole Zuraitis, Italian guitarist Allesandro Florio.
The project will testify that geographical boundaries are no longer important for jazz in the country - not only in the capital, musicians take up advanced ideas, interesting processes also take place outside of it.
At the concert, the jazz luminaries of Central and Western Lithuania will present the 2020 vinyl record and CD formats "Ėuolinių berželių" and Klaipėda Jazz Orchestra's album "Bon Bon Paris".
