Jazzfest Berlin 2024: Goran Kajfeš Tropiques // Kris Davis // Trio Tapestry

But he set about forging his own path: over the years he’s enfolded all kinds of global influences into his own soulful projects like Oddjob and his Subtropic Orchestra, which found ways to unite sounds from Ethiopia, Turkey and planet Saturn via Sun Ra who created the mythological narrative that he came from Saturn.

His elastic grooves always carved out space for improvisation. Kajfeš is a ferocious trumpeter, blowing seriously tuneful solos in groups like Nacka Forum and Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra, but with his Tropiques project, his main focus is conjuring haunting moods and projecting an otherworldly atmosphere.

For his latest album “Tell Us” he composed three extended works for his pulsing working quartet with pianist Alex Zethson, bassist Johan Berthling and drummer John Holmegard. He deftly supplemented their agile grooves with prominent string arrangements played by violinist Josefin Runsteen and cellist Leo Svensson Sander, both crucial in realising the leader’s cinematic vision. While there are some individual solos embedded in the churning din, this is an ensemble devoted to casting a collective spell.

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Kris Davis stands among the most wide-ranging pianists and bandleaders of our time, a musician of peerless technical range whose work is perpetually guided by broader concerns. She has worked closely with figures like guitarist Mary Halvorson, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and bassist Eric Revis. Most recently, her singular improvising collective Borderlands Trio dazzled Jazzfest Berlin attendees with their 2022 performance. While rooted in post-bop fundamentals, she consistently experiments with form and context.

 

Her restless creativity has led to a steady array of projects that explore different facets of an ever-growing musical personality, but perhaps no single band conveys the full diapason of her creativity like Diatom Ribbons. Since forming the group in 2019 the pianist has cemented deep artistic bonds with the ensemble’s legendary drummer Terry Lyne Carrington and turntablist Val Jeanty, streamlining the band’s initial cornucopia of ideas into a devastating core.

Last year’s album “Live at the Village Guard” captured a stunning composite of groove-oriented directions, whether interpreting the avant-funk of Ronald Shannon Jackson, building on the legacy of Charlie Parker or dispensing warped R&B. In this year’s group’s Berlin debut the combo is rounded out by the equally versatile bassist Nick Dunston.

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Although he’s arguably among the finest mainstream jazz saxophonists of the last three decades, Joe Lovano has never stopped experimenting and creating new contexts.

During his fruitful years on Blue Note he collaborated with Third Stream icon Gunther Schuller, dabbled in opera, visited the Frank Sinatra songbook and led numerous trios, quartets and quintets in which he distilled the entire history of jazz within his playing while ceaselessly navigating new harmonic complexities.

In 2018 he formed Trio Tapestry, probably one of his most daring projects, a bass-free group with Italian drummer Carmen Castaldi and the extraordinary American pianist Marilyn Crispell, who gives a rare solo performance on the opening day of this year’s Jazzfest Berlin.

 

Over the course of three contemplative albums, the trio has embraced a wide-open exchange of ideas. On last year’s sublime “Our Daily Bread” the saxophonist’s ruminative compositions allow for heightened interplay and shape-shifting improvisation.

Castaldi’s exquisite cymbal work allows Crispell endless freedom, forming constantly evolving fabrics of sound that undulate beneath the saxophonist’s searching lines as well as carving out their own narratives. Although most of the music takes the form of billowy ballads, the trio can swing with the best when it chooses to step on the gas.

Line-up