History

BEOGRADSKI DŽEZ FESTIVAL 1971–2024. 

Prvi Newport Jazz Festival u Beogradu održan je od 31. oktobra do 3. novembra 1971. godine. Manifestacija je predstavljala kulminaciju jednog ciklusa u radu Doma omladine Beograda, gde su se zatekli ljudi sa jasnim afinitetom prema džezu, poput urednika programa Gute Grdaničkog i Milana Ševića, kao i džez eksperta Aleksandra Živkovića, novinara Tanjuga. Prethodno je u seriji koncerata „Podijum džeza“ predstavljen značajan broj američkih umetnika, da bi konačno Živković pisao Džordžu Vinu, direktoru čuvenog Newport Jazz Festivala, iskazujući želju kuće da radi sa njim. Prvi veliki događaj sa Vinom, najavljen kao „najveći koncert džeza ikada održan u Beogradu!“, odigrao se u novembru 1970. godine, kada su iste večeri nastupili Erl Hajns, Anita O’Dej i Čarls Mingus.      

A year later, at the start of the Festival, publicist Žika Bogdanović wrote: "Overwhelmed with excitement and a new surge of hope, for the first time in this city, we welcome extremely distinguished guests - some of the greatest living figures of jazz... We already got Bitef, Bemus and Fest: now we also get the Newport in Belgrade, with a sincere hope that it will become a cultural tradition of this region." 

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra otvorili su prvo izdanje festivala. Četiri dana džeza u Velikoj dvorani Doma sindikata osvetlilo je celokupnu istoriju žanra, od diksilend nevinosti Kid Thomas’ Preservation Hall Band, preko baperske vatre The Giants of Jazz i intimnog impresionizma Gerija Bartona, do avangardnih klopki Orneta Kolmena i razvratnog džez-fanka Majlsa Dejvisa. Prvo izdanje bilo je deo spektakularne „Američke džez nedelje u Istočnoj Evropi“, ali Beograd je jedini video i Majlsa na ličnu intervenciju Živkovića, s obzirom da je Stejt department odbio da ga „pošalje u Evropu“ zbog kontroverznih stavova, te uz pomoć Duška Gojkovića, koji je starog prijatelja ubedio da nastupi „iza Gvozdene zavese“. Dok je slavni trubač u smiraj manifestacije izvodio muziku na koju niko nije bio pripremljen, svi su ipak bili svesni da prisustvuju menjanju istorije. Beograd je postao svetska džez metropola, a festival postavio tešku obavezu samom sebi već na prvom koraku – da budno prati svetske trendove i bude njihov hroničar. 

The following year, Aleksandar Živković was appointed as a program selector, assembling the "Dream Orchestra", the first Yugoslav All-Stars Band. George Wein was still in charge of the rest of the program and Belgrade welcomed the famous jazz journalist Leonard Feather and jazz broadcaster Willis Conover. On the sidelines of the main program, the Youth Center Dancing Hall hosted a series of memorable jam sessions that have since become a staple of the Belgrade Jazz Festival. The third edition already bared the name the Newport-Belgrade Jazz Festival. Belgrade band Korni grupa represented the local music, and for the first time, the audience got to watch a non-American jazz ensemble, the Polish vocal quartet Novi Singers. 

"The Youth Center presents the Belgrade Jazz Festival", the cover of the 1974 catalogue clearly indicated the big change: a local organization was capable of arranging the Festival and selecting the acts. For the first time, the main program took place in the Pioneer Sports Hall in front of a 4000-strong audience each night! America was represented by Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner and Stan Getz, as well as the Newport production Musical Life Of Charlie Parker. Vibraphone player Boško Petrović and his band B.P. Convention represented the local musicians, and there were performers from Argentina, West Germany and the Eastern bloc.

Živković prepared the next edition before focusing on his management career, becoming one of the great impresarios of jazz. Saša Radojčić took over the helm in 1976 and the Festival kept a similar concept - with several big stars from the USA, the best domestic jazzers, and European artists. Concerts mostly took place in the Union Hall, jam sessions in the Belgrade Youthe Center Dancing Hall, and for the performance of the world's most popular fusion band Weather Report, the festival "returned" to Pionir Hall at the opening in 1980. Fun fact: the ninth edition officially never happened - it is most likely that the organizers "rushed" the jubilee celebration in 1979 to ensure better funding and greater interest from sponsors and the media. 

During the harsh period of economic recession, the Festival almost got shut down, but in 1986 it was "saved" by the tremendous support of the US Embassy for the comeback concert of Miles Davis in the packed hall of the Sava Center. With the renewed interest from the audience, the Festival continued until 1990 as in its best days, presenting in the program Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Phil Woods, Art Blakey, Nina Simone, Jimmy Smith, Dizzy Gillespie United Nation Orchestra, Oregon and Modern Jazz Quartet, among others. 

Amid the civil war approaching Belgrade in the fall of 1991, the Belgrade Youth Center management issued a statement about the postponement of the Festival: "We apologize to our audience, jazz enthusiasts, culture envoys for refusing to live in illusions. We expect an apology from the real culprits for this unprecedented human and cultural misery we live in." The break went on for the next fifteen long years... 

Povratničko izdanje održano je 2005. godine, pod sloganom „Tradicija i futurizam“. Želeli smo da na njega pozovemo publiku koja se seća prvih Njuporta, ali i nove klince, ili ljubitelje muzike koji možda imaju „sluha za džez“, a da još to ne znaju. Nova koncepcija nije značila samo ravnotežu između tradicionalnijih džez stilova, avangarde i ukrštanja sa popularnom muzikom novog doba, već i značajniji naglasak na mlađe umetnike, kao i prebacivanje težišta sa SAD na Evropu, sagledavajući izvanredne rezultate umetnika na našem kontinentu. Prepoznajući značaj festivala za stvaranje najbolje kulturne slike prestonice, grad Beograd je 2007. godine proglasio manifestaciju događajem od posebnog kulturnog značaja. A zahvaljujući evropskim stremljenjima u novoj programskoj koncepciji, festival je 2014. po pozivu postao član Europe Jazz Network. 

Festival svake godine posećuje veliki broj inostranih novinara i fotografa, od SAD do Rusije, i od Velike Britanije do Italije, izveštavajući za prestižne džez časopise i portale, među kojima su DownBeat, The New York City Jazz Record, JazzTimes, All About Jazz, Jazz Wise, Jazz Journal, London Jazz News, Concerto, Jazz Flits, Laboratorium Muzycznych Fuzji... Srpski fotograf iz Temišvara Dragoslav Nedić okitio se priznanjem za džez fotografiju godine u glasanju Jazz Journalists Association, za fotografiju američke pevačice Džezmije Horn sa 35. Beogradskog džez festivala. Koncerte sa festivala dva puta je direktno za gledaoce u četrdesetak zemalja prenosio francuski MEZZO kanal, 2008. (Patriša Barber i Jaron Herman) i 2009. godine (Kurt Eling i Terens Blanšar).  

Dvadeset izdanja u drugom životu manifestacije obilovalo je nezaboravnim trenucima, gostovanjima velikih džez stvaralaca i brojnih talenata koji su tek kasnije postali slavni. Festival danas značajnu pažnju posvećuje domaćim umetnicima, preuzimajući odgovornost za afirmaciju srpskog džeza, kako kod nas, tako i u inostranstvu. Počev od 2008. festival svake godine naručuje jednu originalnu produkciju nekom istaknutom domaćem sastavu ili solisti – nastup sa premijernim programom i eventualno prestižnim gostima iz zemlje ili inostranstva. A počev od 2015. organizuje se i srpski showcase, na kome predstavljamo sastave pretežno mlađe generacije sa aktuelnim projektima. 

Na glavnom i pratećem programu dosad je nastupilo oko 580 sastava ili solista. Oko četvrtinu učesnika činili su domaći izvođači, oko 30% Amerikanci, te oko 45% sastavi i umetnici iz Evrope i „ostatka sveta“. Procentualna zastupljenost domaćih sastava pre i posle pauze je slična, dok se procenat inostranih učesnika promenio. U prvih dvadeset godina, bilo je oko 45% američkih, a 30% neameričkih izvođača, dok je od 2005. godine naovamo bilo 20% američkih, a preko polovine neameričkih umetnika. 

Rekordnih 18 nastupa na festivalu imao je Big bend RTS, nastupajući obično sa uvaženim gostima iz zemlje ili inostranstva. Rekordni broj individualnih nastupa kao lider orkestara i malih sastava, ili istaknuti solista imao je Duško Gojković. Među inostranim liderima rekorder je Dizi Gilespi sa 5 nastupa, a u novijoj istoriji manifestacije Džo Lovano sa 4 nastupa. Posle SAD i Jugoslavije/Srbije koji ubedljivo odskaču, na trećem mestu po broju učešća su austrijski sastavi, sa 23 nastupa na manifestaciji. Festival je najduže trajao 2019, čitavih 8 dana sa uvodnim i plus koncertom, kada je festival pratilo i rekordnih 30 inostranih novinara. Najveći broj učesnika nastupio je 2021. godine – ukupno 164 muzičara.   

During the harsh period of economic recession, the Festival almost got shut down, but in 1986 it was "saved" by the tremendous support of the US Embassy for the comeback concert of Miles Davis in the packed hall of the Sava Center. With the renewed interest from the audience, the Festival continued until 1990 as in its best days, presenting in the program Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Phil Woods, Art Blakey, Nina Simone, Jimmy Smith, Dizzy Gillespie United Nation Orchestra, Oregon and Modern Jazz Quartet, among others. 

Amid the civil war approaching Belgrade in the fall of 1991, the Belgrade Youth Center management issued a statement about the postponement of the Festival: "We apologize to our audience, jazz enthusiasts, culture envoys for refusing to live in illusions. We expect an apology from the real culprits for this unprecedented human and cultural misery we live in." The break went on for the next fifteen long years... 

The comeback edition took place in 2005 under the slogan Tradition and Futurism. The goal was to gather all jazz aficionados who still remember the first Newport and new kids, too, or just music enthusiasts who haven't yet discovered that they have a soft spot for jazz. The new concept meant not only a balance between more traditional jazz styles, avant-garde and crossover with popular music of the new age but an emphasis on younger artists, as well as shifting the focus from the USA to Europe, looking at the outstanding results of artists on our continent. Recognizing the Festival's importance in creating the best cultural image of the capital, in 2007, the City of Belgrade put the Belgrade Jazz Festival in a category of events of special interest. Thanks to the European course of its new program concept, the Festival became a member by invitation of the Europe Jazz Network in 2014.

Each year, a large number of foreign journalists and photographers, from the USA to Russia, from Great Britain to Italy, flock to Belgrade to report for prestigious jazz magazines and portals, including DownBeat, The New York City Jazz Record, JazzTimes, All About Jazz, Jazz Wise, Jazz Journal, London Jazz News, Concerto, Jazz Flits, Laboratorium Muzycznych Fuzji... Serbian photographer from Timişoara, Dragoslav Nedić, won the award for jazz photo of the year in the vote of the Jazz Journalists Association for the shot of the American singer Jazzmeia Horn taken at the 35th Belgrade Jazz Festival. Concerts from the Festival were broadcast twice directly to viewers in forty countries by the French MEZZO channel, in 2008 (Patricia Barber and Yaron Herman) and 2009 (Kurt Elling and Terence Blanchard). DownBeat, The New York City Jazz Record, JazzTimes, All About Jazz, Jazz Wise, Jazz Journal, London Jazz News, Concerto, Jazz Flits, Laboratorium Muzycznych Fuzji... Srpski fotograf iz Temišvara Dragoslav Nedić okitio se priznanjem za džez fotografiju godine u glasanju Jazz Journalists Association, za fotografiju američke pevačice Džezmije Horn sa 35. Beogradskog džez festivala. Koncerte sa festivala dva puta je direktno za gledaoce u četrdesetak zemalja prenosio francuski MEZZO kanal, 2008. (Patriša Barber i Jaron Herman) i 2009. godine (Kurt Eling i Terens Blanšar).  

Nineteen editions in the second life of the event were packed with unforgettable moments, guest appearances by great jazz creators and numerous talents who only later became famous. Today, the Festival pays special attention to local artists, taking responsibility for the affirmation of Serbian jazz in the country and internationally. Starting in 2008, each year, the Festival commissions one original production to a prominent local ensemble or soloists - a performance with a premier program and possibly prestigious guests from the country or abroad. And since 2015, the Serbian Showcase has presented three ensembles of mostly younger generations with their current projects. showcase, na kome predstavljamo po tri sastava pretežno mlađe generacije sa aktuelnim projektima. 

So far, around 560 bands or soloists have performed on the main and side programs. About a quarter of them were local, about 30% Americans, and about 45% acts were from Europe and the "rest of the world". The percentage representation of local teams before and after the break is similar, while the percentage of foreign acts has changed. In the first twenty years, it was about 45% American and 30% non-American artists; since 2005, it's been 20% American and over half non-American artists. 

The RTS Big Band holds the record with 17 performances at the Festival, usually performing with distinguished guests from the country or abroad. Duško Gojković had a record number of individual performances as a leader of orchestras and small ensembles or as a prominent soloist. Among the foreign leaders, the record holder is Dizzy Gillespie with five appearances, and in the recent history of the event, Joe Lovano with four appearances. After the USA and Yugoslavia/Serbia, which are well ahead, Austrian teams hold the third place, with 22 appearances at the event. The Festival lasted the longest in 2019, for eight whole days with an opening and a plus concert when a record 30 foreign journalists followed the Festival. The largest number of participants performed in 2021 - a total of 164 musicians.