Milko Lazar and Igor Matkovič Team Up with the RTV Slovenija Big Band at Kino Šiška (2017)
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Concert date: 10/25/2017
Attendance: 350
Ticket price: €15.00
In the middle of the last week of October, on Wednesday, October 25, 2017, we witnessed an intriguing musical collision at CUK Kino Šiška in Ljubljana. Composer, pianist and conductor Milko Lazar joined forces on stage with trumpeter and composer Igor Matković. That alone would have been business as usual, but they also brought along the Big Band RTV Slovenija. The lineup was a bit stripped down, with no flutists, no bassoon and a few other sonic »extensions« missing, but no matter. Milko Lazar’s rich and wildly prolific career has piled up a huge amount of material that can be arranged one way or another for live performance with all sorts of musicians and »musical bodies«. The most appealing, of course, are the so-called »oddities«, which hit especially hard with their expressive foresight, smashing the established musical molds and opening up views onto ever new expanses of musical boundlessness.
Now, Lazar and Matković are hardly strangers to each other. In 2016, Lazar joined Matković’s group, which recorded and released the album »State of KU«. An excellent album, by the way, and let’s hope it eventually gets a studio successor. It’s not mentioned only because it became the foundation for further musical collaborations between Lazar and Matković, but also because another musician from that album played at Kino Šiška that evening: the many-layered guitarist, master of twisting sonic palettes and structures, the refined Jani Moder. Given the musical nature of what we enjoyed that night, his integration was so important that the Big Band RTV SLO never missed its regular guitarist Primož Grašič on stage.
The crew mostly performed Lazar’s works, although the opening part belonged to an original piece by Igor Matković. Lazar kicked it off on his »Rhodes« electric piano and blasted off to the early seventies, when jazz-rock fusionists led by Weather Report ruled the international music scene. Matković stayed in the role of soloist throughout the show, while Lazar, as conductor, really got moving, working up a sweat, doing calisthenics and marching around. Also worth mentioning is the moment when drummer Kristijan Kranjčan (from the back) sat down at the cello. Earlier, Lazar had sent the Big Band backstage for a break, and with Matković on trumpet they continued as a trio with one of the numbers in the concert repertoire.
In one of his heartfelt addresses, Lazar introduced the piece Istrion, a work by Aldo Kumar, whom he welcomed in the audience on this occasion. The crew played the piece on stage in Lazar’s version, meaning it was rearranged. In a grand way. Bathed in high dynamics of constant dramatic upheavals, interesting dialogues between the instruments, and unexpected deviations within and between the leading motifs. An exceptionally colorful composition that in itself was one of the highlights of the evening.
Over the course of the concert, several members of the Big Band RTV Slovenija also showed off their vast skills as soloists, so Matković on trumpet wasn’t left all alone in that role.
The event came across as distinctive and unique, giving the audience yet another one-of-a-kind adventure into a collision of jazz, folk melos, world music and moments that would have no trouble passing as a film soundtrack. There were flirtations with classical music as well as rock, but first and foremost, jazz was in play! A mantric temptation. In general, when you closed your eyes, this music coaxed even deeper emotions out of the listener, the musical landscape the players were painting became even more contrasted, the shades of sonic pastels even stronger, and the musicians’ messages even more penetrating and concise. A special evening of special music that delivered and conjured up sublime musical pleasure!
Setlist
1. Compendonk
2. Intuition
3. Doctor Faustus
4. Gentle Silence
5. Improvizacija
6. Margaret’s Chamber
7. Istrion
8. Ephemeral Lake
9. The Ancient Miracle
Photo Gallery
