TIRANA, April 26 – The capital’s first Balkan Jazz Showcase edition will take place on Sunday and Monday, April 30 and April 31 at the Rogner Hotel, bringing together renowned bands from Albania and Kosovo, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania, Greece and Serbia.
With a free entrance at the hotel’s Concert Hall, the event will also offer workshops and meetings with participation from Portugal, Israel, Italy and Albania.
Organized by the Albanian Jazz Society partnering with the Albanian University of Arts and partially sponsored by the Greek Embassy to Albania and the Tirana Municipality, the Balkan Jazz Showcase will include the Stanislav Arabadjiev Trio, the Dimos Dimitriadis Trio, the AmGeDi Trio, the Sule Jovovic Quartet, the Sorin Zlat Trio, the Trio FAM and Albania’s Gent Rushi Quartet.
About the groups
Romania’s Sorin Zlat Trio
His style is a surprising fusion of jazz, latin, pop and classical music, erupting into a colorful and fascinating repertoire. His talent, revealed by his ability to find new dimensions to existing jazz standards and to create original compositions, gained him instant recognition on the jazz scene. In the summer of 2015, Sorin released his first album entitled Endurance, an album centered on the power of love and family and which is an attestation to his progression as an artist and his creative capabilities.
Bulgaria’s Stanislav Arabadjiev Trio
Stanislav Arabadjiev graduates the musical academy Professor Pancho Vladigerov in Sofia in 2014. He has participated in most of the jazz festivals in Bulgaria including the International Jazz Festival Bansko. The collaboration between his trio and Vassil Petrov has been very well received by the Bulgarian audience. His latest work includes collaborations with Petar Salchev and Craig Bailey, a renowned saxophonist and a long standing member of Ray Charles’ band.
Montenegro’s Sule Jovovic Quartet
Milorad-Sula Jovovic is a well known jazz guitarist-pianist and bass player in Montenegro. He graduated in the Music Academy. He is the founder of the first jazz bar in Montenegro Piva Jazz. The Quartet’s other members are Milivoje Picuric, composer, Martin Djordjevic, drummer and Sara Jovovic, who plays the piano. The Quartet lead by Sula Jovovic plays various styles from jazz, blues, fusion, rock, pop and fancier. The quartet and its members have had numerous performances in the country and abroad
Croatia and Albania AmGeDi Trio
This project was inspired by three musical worlds connected by three musicians by different backgrounds who put forward all their skills and stylistic influences, from classical to world music, to jazz, thus expressing a range of intimate atmospheres that create the path for Amalia’s voice. 3 Mundus pursues Amalia Baraona’s love of jazz and classical music by re-imagining songs from the vast Brazilian songbook that has been her passion. Genti Rushi and Dinko Stipanicev are superb Balkan musicians who recreate the feeling of an evening in the living room with friends.
Kosovo and Albania AJS Quartet
AJS in a union of jazz musicians from Albania and Kosovo. The union of ideas and experiences of the artists makes this performance so interesting. The music of AJS has a wide game of styles combinations and all that comes in the colors of contemporary Balkan jazz.
Greece’s Dimitris Dimitriadis Trio
Saxophonist, Fulbright Scholar and Professor of Jazz Studies Dimos Dimitriadis studies in the USA next to iconic jazz musicians and prominent jazz educators and worked as a freelance musician performing next to some of the leading jazz musicians in the US, Europe, Scandinavia, Brazil and South Africa. Dimitriadis is considered a key figure in musical education in Greece.
Serbia’s FAM Trio
The FAM Trio is a young bad from Serbia’s Nis. Their repertoire consists of jazz and bossa nova presented in the original way. The band includes Andrija Djordjevic, the youngest student of guitar at the Faculty of Arts in Nis, Milan Jovanovic, student of musical theory at the same faculty, and Filip Stipcic, also a member of the Nisville big band.
