The Leopolis Jazz Fest experimented with a lot with genres in its ninth year, including the blues, hip hop and world music, while staying true to its name with performances of some of the world’s most iconic jazz musicians on June 26-30 in Lviv.
“For the third year in a row, we have an excellent selection of artists for all five days of the festival,” Alexey Kogan, art director of the festival, told the Kyiv Post on June 30. “It’s important to deliver musicians to each stage in a way that music doesn’t repeat.”
Following the opening day’s performances by the imaginative Adrien Brandeis Quintet and genre-bending Snarky Puppy, Leopolis delivered the act that the visitors most wanted to hear, according to the festival’s polls – the Canadian jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall.
“Since the first festival in 2011 we negotiated with her management every year, but it didn’t work out because of her schedule. I even asked the Embassy of Canada to help, and the Ambassador Roman Waschuk wrote her a letter. This year we finally succeeded,” executive director of the festival Natalia Gorbachevska told the Kyiv Post on June 26.
Krall played jazz classics and original songs on June 27 with the band in which each member is an accomplished musician in his own right: saxophonist Joe Lovano, guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Karriem Riggins.
Hard rain started to fall on the canopy drowning Krall and the band’s soft music with the noise. But the audience encouraged the musicians to play by turning on flashlights on their phones, and so Krall improvised a tune about the rain. Standing ovations followed.
The third day of the festival, June 28, was also Ukraine’s Constitution Day, so the festive atmosphere intensified.
As a special event for the holiday, the Ukrainian hip-hop band Tanok Na Maidani Kongo (or TNMK) performed jazz and funk versions of their songs with Ukrainian Skhid-Side band and Dennis Adu Big Band. The Lviv audience sang along at the central Rynok Square, one of the three stages of the festival.
In the evening at the main Eddie Rosner Stage, Kenny Barron, called “the most lyrical piano player of our time” by Jazz Weekly, played jazz standards and original tunes with his Kenny Barron Quintet. Halfway into the set, he played solo “Song for Abdullah,” dedicated to the great South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim.
As the evening’s first surprise, the organizers of Leopolis Jazz Fest awarded Kenny Barron with the festival’s Leopolis Jazz Music Award, given for his significant contribution to the development of jazz music. The previous day, Barron had given a masterclass for the city’s musicians.
“Thank you so very much. And… does this mean I get to come back?” Barron said from the stage after receiving the award.
The festival’s largest crowd of listeners came to hear Bobby McFerrin, a unique vocal improviser, whose hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” made him a household name around the world. The 10-time Grammy Award winner came to Lviv with his new Gimme5 (Circlesongs) project.
McFerrin and Gimme5, the four members of his a cappella group Voicestra, led a twelve-voice ensemble of Ukrainian singers, to perform songs composed on-the-go spontaneously: with soaring melodies, tribal rhythms, harmonies, invented language, funny noises and laughter.
“I like these songs without words because they took us beyond our usual thoughts, and we discover something more lively and new,” Olia Chernyshova, one of the Ukrainian singers who sang with Gimme5, told the Kyiv Post.
Later, a Lviv choir joined the musical adventure, and then the audience sang along with McFerrin and his team as well. As the finale to the Constitution Day celebration, after the end of the show, the choir sang “Shchedryk,” a Ukrainian carol that was adapted as the English “Carol of the Bells.”
McFerrin’s long-time collaborator and 22-time Grammy Award winner Chick Corea was the headliner of June 29, the fourth day of the festival. In Lviv, with his The Spanish Heart Band, Corea presented the new album “Antidote” for the very first time on his European tour.
The star of the evening was Nino de los Reyes, a renowned flamenco dancer who spiced up some of the band’s songs tap-dancing in front of the stage.
The final day of the festival was full of the ninety’s pop nostalgia brought by the U.K. singer Lisa Stansfield. The pop and soul singer also presented songs from her album “Affection.”
Over the five days of the festival, many Ukrainian politicians, like Petro Poroshenko, oligarchs, like Victor Pinchuk, celebrities, like Jamala and Pavlo Gudimov, had been spotted there.
The next Leopolis Jazz Fest will be the 10th-anniversary jubilee. The organizers are already negotiating contracts with musicians, but don’t disclose the details yet.
“We have offers for five very famous musicians. But their current fees will exhaust our budget for all artists, so we have to negotiate about more affordable numbers or cut the concentration of fame. Kogan tries to disclose who the artists are, but I don’t let him,” Gorbachevska says.
“All I can say is that we will combine the pleasant with the pompous,” Kogan told the Kyiv Post.
