A jazz concert or a beach party? The opening evening at the NOI Techpark in Bolzano's industrial zone combined both. While the Brainteaser Orchestra filled the piazza in front of the water tower with music, visitors listened to the complex sounds of the Dutch band. They relaxed on sun loungers or enjoyed the summery atmosphere by the water basin in front of the transformer house of the former aluminum plant. Admission was free - typical of the South Tyrol Jazz Festival Alto Adige, which always comes up with surprising and experimental sounds. People of all ages enthusiastically took up the offer - a popularity that ran through all the concerts of the festival, which was directed by Stefan Festini Cucco, Max von Pretz and Robert Tubaro.
At the South Tyrol Jazz Festival Alto Adige, the motto "Anything goes" applies not only to the music, but also to the special locations where almost 60 events take place. This openness and love of experimentation has long since attracted not only a diverse local audience, but also numerous international guests. Nevertheless, neither the venues nor the line-ups are chosen at random. Each concert unfolds its own charm through the interplay of music and location as well as the enthusiasm with which music is played here beyond stylistic boundaries. This special feature makes the 43rd edition of the South Tyrol Jazz Festival Alto Adige a bold and inspiring fixture in the summer cultural landscape - far beyond the region. This is what music journalist and jazz author Ralf Dombrowski writes on the uk.jazznews website.
Nature becomes a stage, infrastructure becomes a backdrop, water and forests become resonance chambers: visitors to the sound installation Floating Through Sound experienced improvised soundscapes on the Vigljoch. Guitarist Reinier Baas played in the climate tunnel in Prettau, saxophonists Camilla Nebbia and Dan Kinzelman immersed themselves in an underground water space in Bunker H in Bolzano and in the sunlit Franzensfeste, the band Purple Muscle Car made everything military disappear with a powerful sound. The JazzZeitung describes their style as Viennese electronic underground with striking synthesizer sounds, complex broken drum rhythms and an energetic brass section, led by a virtuoso saxophone. This music can be downright overwhelming, embodying the passionate spirit of a tireless European scene - even in places where Imperial and Royal soldiers once patrolled.
The Sonic Reactions series was a successful innovation this year. Here, two musicians from different bands came together for the first time to play improvised concerts - for example in a record store, an art gallery, a yoga studio, a café or a bookshop. As a result, many passers-by came across jazz sounds by chance while strolling through the city. It was precisely these unexpected musical encounters that gave many of the festival's concerts their special charm.
Flutist Delphine Joussein unfolded a cosmos of sound between impressionistic echoes and experimental noise in a hall at the Bolzano trade fair. The festival's own format "Kabarila" developed into a five-hour "jazz ritual" with completely free forms of playing. Finally, in the Fondazione Antonio Dalle Nogare, the trio Fade spun filigree carpets of sound before the band The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters surprised the audience with a powerful, rhythmically complex thunderstorm of sound. The result was a musical cocktail full of energy, sharpness and variety - challenging, intoxicating and never boring.
