It has been almost 40 years since the Saalfelden Jazz Festival opened its doors under the name "3 Days of Jazz" in 1978. Now in 2017, for the second time, you can listen to the unconventional sounds of jazz in winter and so we presented a total of 7 concerts at the "3 Days of Jazz" from 20 - 22 January 2017.
Four of them at the Kunsthaus Nexus in Saalfelden, two at the Leogang Mining and Gothic Museum and, for the first time, a free concert at the Stöcklalm in the centre of the Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn. The festival was jointly organised by the Saalfelden Tourist Board and the Centre for Contemporary Music. The artistic directors Mario Steidl and Michaela Mayer ensured a varied line-up.
The festival was traditionally opened on Friday by an Austrian artist, Ulrich Drechsler, who enlisted support for his performance. Judith Ferstl and Judith Schwarz provided the "female" flavour with their musical artistry. The Israeli pianist Anat Fort then presented a very light-footed yet powerful project with her quartet. One of her "special guests" was Gianluigi Trovesi, a true grandmaster of contemporary jazz.
On Saturday, there was plenty of blues rock to be heard in the middle of the Skicircus - at the Stöcklalm, Salzburg's "Hotrods's Band" brought plenty of groove to the mountain and created a bombastic atmosphere with their humour and passion. It continued at 8.00 pm with Mario Rom's Interzone & the German saxophonist Johnny Schleiermacher, who truly electrified the Nexus with their music. This was immediately followed by a concert by Giovanni Guidi / Gianluca Petrella, Gerald Cleaver and Louis Sclavis, in which they performed their incredibly fresh and creative album "Ida Lupino".
On Sunday, the festival finally moved to the Leogang Mining and Gothic Museum, a very time-honoured building, which was particularly impressive due to its intimate character. At 11.00 a.m. Ulrich Drechsler performed once again, but this time with a solo on a very unusual instrument: a basset horn, which is known almost exclusively from the chamber music scene. The final concert was given by Jean Louis Matinier and Marco Ambrosini. Here an accordion met a nyckelharpa, a Scandinavian type of violin. This duo moved between improvisation and composition and provided a worthy conclusion to the festival.
Download:
3 Tage Jazz.pdf
