Saturday, May 30, 2009

Workshops

One of the things happening at the Shkodra Jazz are the workshops with the music students of the local high school of arts. The lessons take place at a class on the second floor of this Preke Jakova High School, which tends to be jam-packed with teenagers and a handful of their teachers, listening to explanations of the new musical genres by artists attending the festival.

I heard, for example, that Brazilian pianist Roberto Hasbun had explained the slow and low volume bossa nova with the fact that it was developed in poor areas packed with houses with very thin walls. Any time musicians wanted to get loud, the neighbors would complain. Hence, the bossa nova.

I attended the one held yesterday by Javier Galiana and Spice Barberechos, a band that played later in the evening at Shkodra’s main concert hall, the Migjeni Theater. This was the typical classroom filled in with hormone high teenagers. Professors would sit in front of the musicians. The second and third row of chairs were filled in with students who seemed to be interested in what went around, while the last two rows were with mostly boys interesting in making some noise.

Galiana, who explained the flamenco rhythm, and how he fuses flamenco into jazz, also induced the children to do the las palmas, the constant clapping that is used to maintain the beat during flamenco singing. Even the singing, of Carlos Denias Moreno, provoked some laughter in the back row – this is an atypical way of singing in this part of the world – but the two tunes that the band played were good and caught the attention of the teenagers.

 

There was some hilarity. While Galiana, who is a pianist and composer, was trying to explain one specific rhythm and how it was fused with blues, one professor of the school, of the name Rafael Shabani, jumped up from where he was sitting on the first row, and turned to students, as if he wanted to explain to them what the Spanish musician was saying. But he was off the mark, he was saying something like “Music is constant processing and refining of material,” and he was jittery. I thought he was trying to make an impression. Some students on the back said, Bravo, just for fun. It looked a bit like the unsexy part of the Italian sexy comedies of the 70s.

 

 

 

Correction, Dimitroula Mou Iassou, is indeed titled Dimitroula Mou, and sang by Haris Alexiou.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Dimitroula Mou Iassou

A bis at tonight’s concert at Piazza by Nico di Batista and Sokol Prekalori was a tune that Albanians of a certain age are very familiar with. It is a Greek folk song, Dimitroula Mou Iassou.

The history of it is that sometime in the early 80s, several Greek bands had come to Albania. Until then, communist Albania and Greece were in a state of war. Some of it was a legal leftover from the second World War, when Albania, part of Fascist Italy, legally attacked Greece during the Italian Greek war of 1940. But what had aggravated the relations between the two was that during the civil war between Communist and monarchist forces of Greece in 1949, Albania sided with the Greek communists and it also gave them shelter in the country.

Thirty years later, there was a rapprochement, hence those few Greek bands coming to Albania. One of them sang Dimitroula Mou Iassou (Dimitroula, approach me), and this became popular with the Albanians back then.

Sokol Prekalori was familiar with the tune, and Nico di Batista played accompaniment, to continuous applauses.

Tonight’s concert amassed most followers at the Piazza, where about fifty people huddled sitting while the seats at the bars were filled. “The festival has invigorated the Piazza,” says Mentor Bushati, a bartender. “In a normal evening, this street stands mostly empty.” Indeed, it was full of people, and not only the hundreds of strollers who do the evening walk in, walk out routine.

The repertoire was rich, Piazzolla, Al di Meola, the Balkans tune of Dimitroula, and other tunes that continued for about 80 minutes.

We got lucky, the rain, which started at 5.30 pm, had abated fifteen minutes later, and stopped at about 6. The concert started late, at about 7.15, but it went on well, and luckily, there was no rain.

Summer storm

It seems a summer storm has set in just in time for the afternoon concert.

Duket stuhi

Duket se sa ka filluar stuhia.

Late evening concert

At 10 p.m., at the Millennium cinema of the city, pianist Daniele Tione and trumpet player Alberto Mandarini will have the late evening concert.

Koncerti i nates, tek kinema Millennium

Ne darke, tek kafeneja e Kinemase Millennium, pianisti Daniele Tione dhe trombetisti Alberto Mandarini, ne ora 10.

Kitare e pare dhe akompanjiment ne te njejten kohe

Kitaristi Niko di Batista, i cili luajti mbreme tek Piazza Park prane Kafes se Madhe, dhe do luaje dhe sot pasdite ne Pjace, ka nje kitare elektrike te bere vete me nje regjistrues te brendshem, gje qe e ndihmon te perballoje shume role gjate koncertit.
Per shembull, ai luan nje akord akompanjimenti per nje pjese, te cilen e regjistron kitara, dhe ia ushqen amplifikatorit ndersa Batista me pas merret me pjesen e kitares se pare ne te njejten muzike.
Di Battista eshte aktiv ne skenen muzikore te Italise se veriut, por gjithashtu luan muzike kur, te themi, kengetari gospel nga Los Anxhelesi Solomon Burke (autori i Everybody needs somebody) vjen te luaje ne Evrope.
Florian Jakaj, organizatori i festivalit Shkodra jazz dhe mik i tij, thote se Di Battista duket te jete i pari njeri te kete bere nje shpikje te tille per kitaren. Te tere e imituan me pas kete teknike.
Di Battista dhe violinisti shkodran me banim ne Venecia Sokol Prekalori do luajne pjese te repertorit te Dream Trio, perfshire dhe nje version me violine te Libertangos se Astor Piacoles.

First guitar and accompaniment at the same time

Guitar Player Nico Di Battista, who performed last night at Piazza Park bar, and will be also putting a show in late afternoon at Shkodra’s Piazza street, has a self-made guitar equipped with an in-built recorder to enable him to have multiple roles while playing.

He would, say, play the accompaniment accord when starting playing a tune, which the guitar records, and it feeds it to the boom box itself afterwards, while di Battista engages in playing first guitar.

Di Battista is active in northern Italian scene, but he would also play music when, say, LA-based gospel singer Solomon Burke (of the “Everybody needs somebody” fame) comes to Europe, and hires European musicians to play for him.

Di Battista seems to be the first to have invented such a guitar, says Florian Jakaj, who is organizing Shkodra Jazz Fest, and is friends with him. Others have imitated such a technique afterwards.

Di Battista, and Venice-based violinist Sokol Prekalori will play at Piazza the tunes of the Dream Trio, including a violin version of Piazzolla’s Libertango.

Drummer and Painter/Baterist dhe bojaxhi

Gigi Biolcati, a drummer who has been to Shkodra Jazz fests every year, is a painter three weeks of a month, while the fourth, goes to play jazz all over Europe.

“Germans are the best listeners of jazz,” says Biolcati, he says about the latter aspect. Of the first, he says he had learned painting buildings from his father, and enjoys it.

When he is asked what kind of music does he play, he says he plays jazz, and the others retort, “You play cold jazz, or hot jazz?”

Cold jazz can, apparently be the intellectualized jazz made from the last quarter of last century to this one, while the ‘hot jazz’ carries the familiar rhythms of be-bop and the standards, one can guess.

 

Gigi Biolcati, nje perkusionist qe ka qene ne Shkodra Jazz cdo vit, eshte bojaxhi tre jave te muajit, dhe javen e katert shkon per te luajtur ne te gjitha skenat e Evropes.

“Gjermanet jane publiku me i mire,” thote. Ndersa zanatin e bojaxhiut e ka mesuar nga i ati, dhe i pelqen.

Kur e pyesin c’muzike luan, thote se luan xhaz, dhe pastaj i thone, “xhaz te ftohte, apo te nxehte?”

Ne fakt xhaz i ftohte mund te quhet ai qe u luajt cerekun e dyte te shekullit te njezete e deri tani, me intelektual dhe i ndikuar nga kompozicioni kontemporan, ndersa mund te mendohet qe ‘hot jazz’ duhet te kete ritmet familiare te be-bopit, dhe te standarteve jazz.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The main street in Shkodra is bustling

Apparently, there will be two shows this late afternoon here, the concert of Hasbun and Papa, and, on the other corner of the Kole Idromeno Street, there will be a folk festival with music from Albania and Kosovo.
Tonight, at 10.30, the Dream Trio, where Rrok Jakaj, the originator of the festival, used to play, is performing at Piazza Park, the outdoor cafe across the street from Kafja e Madhe, the Grand Cafe.

Dy shfaqje sot, njera pas tjetres, ne rrugen Kole Idromeno, i pari eshte koncerti i Hasbunit dhe Papa-s, dhe pas tij nje festival folklorik me muzikante nga Shqiperia dhe Kosova.
Sonte, ne ora 10.30, Dream Trio, grupi tek i cili luajti personi qe dha idene e festivalit, Rrok Jakaj, do luaje ne kafenene Piazza Park.

Mayoral support?

The staff met the mayor of Shkoder today, and he thanked the team for putting up the activity. He also pledged increased support for next year. Crossing fingers!

Mayoral support?

Papa and Hasbun performance

Roberto Hasbun and Simon Papa took an audience of about 50 for a trip into the Brazilian experience in their concert at the Idromeno restaurant near the center of Shkoder last night, with about a dozen songs that covered from the experience of the military dictatorship in that country in the 70s, to the seduction of beautiful women and leftovers from those, to the religious, Catholic element, and, of course, football.

 

This was a good intro into the repertoire the duo will sing at the Kole Idromeno Street tonight at seven.

 

Hasbun, a guitar player who sings as well as plays the occasional drum, and Papa, a vocalist who has her own drums, kicked off with tunes from Papa’s recent album.

Both are active in northern Italy but also in a wider western European scene.

 

For two tunes towards the end of the program, they invited first Gigi Bioncati, and then Sokol Prekalori, a local violinist into what then turned to be more of a jamming. One song was called Terra, and involved reflections on the continuity of the earth. Bioncati can maintain rhythm of music on anything, give him a concrete slab and he can beat it to African drum rhythm. Prekalori as well, had his own soft violin tunes sneak in, and for those four playing for the first time with each other, the performance was quite enjoyable, though the violin and guitar interplay lost its way for some moments.

 

Not much comprehension or empathy went along with the audience, despite the good vocals and music. This was due to language barriers, and the fact that Albanians can be beaten only by uninterested Americans as far as their understanding of Latin America. But when the duo began the two last songs of the regular program, a religious tune, Ole Maria, or Maria, Watch, and the other on a football match between Brazil and Uruguay which Brazil won in the last minute, they clicked on the name of the composer. He was a composer from Southeast Brasil whose name was Lenini, and that rang a bell for the Albanians, who lived under a Communist dictatorship until eighteen years ago.

 

Among the audience, there were some who chatted, some local entrepreneurs with the odd Italian entrepreneur thrown in, but also some young local musicians who have followed the festival from day one, and from what I hear, from day one.

 

That table of entrepreneurs was very convivial, applauses laud and fast after a soft tune, but quieter after the final rush with more rhythmic music. When the musicians asked for some quiet to experience a soft love song, Luisa, they happily clinked and clanked their glasses and spoons on places with each other. Anyway, this does not have to be a piece on class warfare.

 

The local musicians sitting on the other table seemed to suck every tune in, and when the bis was done, they asked for a tris.

 

Hasbrun, who had performed with Gigi earlier that afternoon as well, cut it politely short: “For that,” he said, “we have to ask the trade union for permission.” The midnight had already passed.

Blogu i festivalit filloi

Me ne fund filluam blogun e festivalit. Na u deshen disa dite, derisa u familiarizuam me logjistiken e qytetit (Internet wireless, kryesisht).
Na vizitoni kete jave per te rejat.

Setting up the blog on the festival

It took us a while to build a blog on the event, mostly trying to figure out the logistics here. We managed to get areas with wireless internet in the town, after all. These first postings are made at this bar Fontana, just at the beginning of the newly restored pedestrian street where we had two of the concerts and are expecting to have some more.
Check for updates.
Shkodra Jazz festival 5-th Edition

25/05
18.30 – RRUGA MUZE KOL IDROMENO SHKODRA SOUDS CORNER RAIFFEISEN BANK, SPECIAL GUEST
__________________________________________________

26/05
10.30 – SHKOLLA E MUZIKES PROHELVETIA MASTERCLASS
18.30 – RRUGA MUZE KOL IDROMENO SHKODRA SOUDS CORNER RAIFFEISEN BANK, SPECIAL GUEST
22.00 - LOKALET PARTNER JAZZ TIME ROBERTO TAUFIC HASBUN & SIMON PAPA IDROMENO
__________________________________________________

27/05
10.30 – SHKOLLA E MUZIKES PROHELVETIA MASTERCLASS
18.00 – RRUGA MUZE KOL IDROMENO SHKODRA SOUDS CORNER RAIFFEISEN BANK, SPECIAL GUEST 
22.30 - LOKALET PARTNER JAZZ TIME THE DREAM TRIO PIAZZA PARK
__________________________________________________

28/05
10.30 – SHKOLLA E MUZIKES PROHELVETIA MASTERCLASS
18.00 – RRUGA MUZE KOL IDROMENO SHKODRA SOUDS CORNER RAIFFEISEN BANK, SPECIAL GUEST
22.30 - LOKALET PARTNER JAZZ TIME JAM SESSION MILLENNIUM
__________________________________________________


29/05
10.30 – SHKOLLA E MUZIKES PROHELVETIA MASTERCLASS
18.00 – RRUGA MUZE KOL IDROMENO SHKODRA SOUDS CORNER RAIFFEISEN BANK, SPECIAL GUEST
20.00 - TEATRI MIGJENI JAVIER GALIANA & SPICE BERBERECHOS
22.30 - LOKALET PARTNER JAZZ TIME JAM SESSION CHICAGO
__________________________________________________


30/05
10.30 – SHKOLLA E MUZIKES PROHELVETIA MASTERCLASS
18.00 – RRUGA MUZE KOL IDROMENO SHKODRA SOUDS CORNER RAIFFEISEN BANK, SPECIAL GUEST
20.00 - TEATRI MIGJENIROBERTO BISHA ALBERTO MANDARINI QUARTET SPECIAL GUEST DIEGO BOROTTI
22.30 - LOKALET PARTNER JAZZ TIME JAM SESSION TRADITA