History

BELGRADE JAZZ FESTIVAL 1971–2024. 

The first Newport Jazz Festival in Belgrade ran from 31 October to 3 November 1971. It was the culmination of a period at Dom omladine Beograda that had brought together people with a clear affinity for jazz: programme editors Guta Grdanički and Milan Šević, and jazz expert Aleksandar Živković, a journalist at Tanjug. A run of concerts under the title „Podijum džeza“ had already presented a good number of American artists, which led Živković to write to George Wein, director of the celebrated Newport Jazz Festival, to say the house wanted to work with him. The first major event with Wein, billed as „the greatest jazz concert ever held in Belgrade!“, took place in November 1970, when Earl Hines, Anita O’Day and Charles Mingus all performed on the same night.      

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 opened the first edition of the festival. Four days of jazz in the Great Hall of Dom sindikata lit up the entire history of the genre, from the Dixieland innocence of Kid Thomas’ Preservation Hall Band, through the bebop fire of The Giants of Jazz and the intimate impressionism of Gary Burton, to the avant-garde traps of Ornette Coleman and the louche jazz-funk of Miles Davis. The first edition was part of the spectacular „American Jazz Week in Eastern Europe“, but Belgrade was the only city to see Miles, thanks to Živković’s personal intervention – the State Department had refused to „send him to Europe“ over his controversial views – and to Dusko Goykovich, who persuaded his old friend to play „behind the Iron Curtain“. As the famous trumpeter closed the festival with music nobody was prepared for, everyone in the hall knew they were watching history change. Belgrade had become a world jazz capital, and at its very first step the festival had set itself a demanding obligation: to follow world trends closely and to be their chronicler. 

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... 

The festival returned in 2005 under the slogan „Tradition and Futurism“. We wanted to bring in the audience that remembers the first Newports, but also new kids, and music lovers who might have an „ear for jazz“ without knowing it yet. The new concept meant more than a balance between traditional jazz styles, the avant-garde and crossovers with contemporary popular music. It also meant a stronger emphasis on younger artists, and a shift of focus from the USA to Europe, in recognition of the remarkable work being done on our own continent. Acknowledging what the festival does for the cultural standing of the capital, the City of Belgrade declared it an event of special cultural significance in 2007. And thanks to the European direction of the new programme concept, the festival was invited to join Europe Jazz Network in 2014. 

Every year the festival is attended by a large number of foreign journalists and photographers, from the USA to Russia and from the United Kingdom to Italy, reporting 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 and Laboratorium Muzycznych Fuzji... Dragoslav Nedić, a Serbian photographer from Timișoara, was voted jazz photograph of the year by the Jazz Journalists Association for his picture of the American singer Jazzmeia Horn at the 35th Belgrade Jazz Festival. Festival concerts have twice been broadcast live to viewers in some forty countries by the French channel MEZZO, in 2008 (Patricia Barber and Yaron Herman) and in 2009 (Kurt Elling and Terence Blanchard).  

Twenty editions in the festival’s second life have been full of unforgettable moments, visits from major jazz figures and from many talents who only became famous later. Today the festival devotes considerable attention to artists from Serbia, taking on responsibility for the standing of Serbian jazz both at home and abroad. Since 2008 the festival has commissioned one original production each year from a prominent Serbian group or soloist – a performance of a premiere programme, sometimes with distinguished guests from Serbia or abroad. And since 2015 it has run a Serbian showcase, presenting mostly younger-generation groups with their current projects. 

Around 580 groups and soloists have performed on the main and accompanying programmes so far. About a quarter of the participants were Serbian performers, around 30% were American, and around 45% were groups and artists from Europe and the rest of the world. The share of Serbian groups before and after the break is similar, while the share of foreign participants has changed. In the first twenty years around 45% were American and 30% non-American, whereas from 2005 onwards 20% were American and more than half were non-American artists. 

Big Band RTS holds the record with 18 appearances at the festival, usually performing with respected guests from Serbia or abroad. Dusko Goykovich holds the record for individual appearances as a leader of orchestras and small groups, or as a featured soloist. Among foreign leaders the record belongs to Dizzy Gillespie with 5 appearances, and in the festival’s more recent history to Joe Lovano with 4. After the USA and Yugoslavia/Serbia, which are far ahead, Austrian groups come third with 23 appearances. The longest edition was 2019, a full 8 days including the opening and plus concerts, when a record 30 foreign journalists covered the festival. The largest number of participants performed in 2021 – 164 musicians in total.