With Swiss precision the ninth annual Leopolis Jazz Fest kicked-off in Lviv at 3 p.m. on June 26 with a performance by the young Florian Favre Trio from Switzerland in the city’s central square.
“The organization of this festival is amazing,” Guillaume Scheurer, the ambassador of Switzerland, whose embassy financed the opening performance, told the Kyiv Post.
“I’m sure the Montreux Jazz Festival has a very strong competition with Lviv Jazz Festival. The only thing that’s missing is the lake,” Scheurer said, comparing Leopolis to world’s second largest Montreux Jazz Festival on the Lake Geneva shoreline.
Florian Favre Trio played elegant contemporary jazz on piano, double bass and drums on the Rynok Square, one of the three stages of the festival. They were followed by Revoir Paris Trio from France led by Renaud Garcia-Fons, a double bass virtuoso who added the fifth string to the instrument.
During the five days of the festival, the Rynok Square stage will host performances by bands from another seven foreign countries, including Israel, Luxembourg and Turkey. Traditionally, most of these shows are financed by respective embassies. The entrance there is free.
“The idea of the festival is that you can hear everything for free,” says Natalia Gorbachevska, the executive director of Leopolis Jazz Fest. “We are preserving the traditions, keeping the best of what we have each year.”
The festival’s second free stage in the Pototskykh Palace yard (15 Kopernyka St.) will host shows by mostly Ukrainian bands, such as DZ’OB and LosSamos, starting with June 28, the third day of the festival. The German Nils Wogram Nostalgia Trio and the Italian Hub Roots band will also perform there.
Only the main stage of the Leopolis Jazz Fest requires a ticket – the Eddie Rosner Stage, named in honor of the great Polish jazz musician. But still, the shows there are broadcasted live at the free Jazz Picnic area nearby in the same Bohdan Khmelnytsky Culture Park (4 Bolharska St.)
The French rising jazz star Adrien Brandeis opened the main stage with his Adrien Brandeis Quintet, playing traditional jazz with modern influences. The well-traveled Brandeis, infuses the band’s music with Latin and Afro-Caribbean themes.
In the tune “Satao” about one of the world’s largest African elephants, the band’s percussionist Philippe Ciminato played African rhythms on the congas and Joachim Poutaroud mimicked trumpeting sounds of the elephant on the saxophone. The haunting climax of the tune imaginatively relates how Satao was killed by poachers for ivory in Congo’s National Park.
The much-anticipated headliners of the festival’s first day Snarky Puppy break down jazz and general music barriers altogether. The numerous instrumental ensemble from the U.S. performed in a nine-member line-up combining jazz, funk, world music and rock in a show that drove the audience off their seats.
What started as a single energetic dancer near the front rows, turned into a dance party by the stage, ecstatic from Snarky Puppy’s jams and grooves. The band returned to play encore two times, owning a standing ovation from the audience.
“Thank you. This has been so much fun,” Michael League, Snarky Puppy’s founder and leader, told the audience.
In total, Leopolis Jazz Festival will hold 26 shows on the three main stages and additional jams by street musicians around the city. Apart from music shows, the festival organizes workshops and film screenings about jazz around Lviv.
Over 300 musician from 15 countries will participate in the event, culminating with a performance by the British soul and pop singer Lisa Stansfield on the evening of June 30. Some of the shows from the main stage will be broadcasted live at www.youtube.com/user/alfajazzfest/.
The Leopolis Jazz Fest has been held in Lviv annually since 2011. It was known as Alfa Jazz until last year, named after the title sponsor Alfa Bank, the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Alfa Group Consortium. About 100,000 visitors attend it every year.
