Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Channel Zero (Metelkova) / Slovenia
Concert date: February 8, 2013
Attendance: 80
Ticket price: €0.00 (free entry)
Timotej Kotnik has sold his soul to jazz. There’s no doubt about it. The Slovenian musician and musical visionary is a highly respected artist abroad. His Via Ad Infinitum is a seven-piece, »nationally mixed« combo that usually operates in the Netherlands, which is exactly where Timotej Kotnik’s musical genius mostly lives these days. And yet it so happened that errands brought Timotej to Slovenia. That opened the door for him to play a few Slovenian shows with Via Ad Infinitum in a slightly adapted lineup, including the one we got to enjoy on the Slovenian cultural holiday, in the middle of the »all-rockers’ revelry« around the Saul Hudson – pardon, Slash – concert at Hala Tivoli, at our classic hideout, the beloved »Metka«. That is, at the club Channel Zero.
February 8 once again had Slovenia’s cultural events, and of course the capital, bursting at the seams! Hala Tivoli was roaring, Gromka was roaring, Gala hala, Orto bar and plenty of other spots too. And last but not least, Prešeren Square was roaring as well (we know why, and let’s hope it’s not in vain)! The late hour was deliberate, so that Gala hala (and maybe another nearby venue) could empty out and bring a few more visitors over to Channel Zero.
Joining Timotej on stage from the Dutch version of the band were two perfect pillars of the rhythm section! Cameroonian bassist Benson Itoe and Bulgarian drummer Stefan Goranov. Adapting the lineup for Slovenian soil brought an excellent twist, because besides guitarist Jure Praper and saxophonist Samo Kolar, Timotej was also joined on stage by the wonder kid Vid Jamnik, right now one of the most promising vibraphonists in Europe. So a hot show was on the cards.
The clock struck eleven at night when the musicians hit the stage. The sextet dug straight into the bosom of the good old school of traditional jazz rock fusion sound. It quickly became clear that these guys have played a ton and their fingers fly as if greased. The pricey gear decorating the stage that night confirmed that we were dealing with masters of their craft and pros at what they do. The guys served up a wonderfully colorful blend of jazz rock dialogue with a unique symbolism, one that recalls the experimental excursions of Miles Davis’s revolutionary electric-era pioneering in the early seventies, while the communication between band members on stage a few times offered hints of the Weather Report story (even without keyboards!!!). Into all this free note-»dribbling«, the sextet wove full-blooded imprints of world music, especially detours into Balkan melodies,… at one point Timotej drifted into a calm trumpet solo sequence, picking out notes that almost created the melody of Miles Davis’s adaptation of »Concierto de Aranjuez«, which he arranged for his famous classic »Sketches Of Spain« way back in 1960.
The Via Ad Infinitum story unfolded on stage unpredictably the whole way through, in a spirit of spontaneity and with shocking rhythm-line switches, but what really made an impression was the presence of young Vid Jamnik, who took your breath away with four mallets in his hands and some outstanding »juggling« on the vibraphone and the synth xylophone. His contribution completely made up for the missing keyboards this time. The musicians confidently passed improvisation spots to one another, in a spirit of rich experience, self-assured and by now almost routine. They’ve racked up a huge amount of mileage in their fingers. There was plenty of room to stretch out in their »solos«. Benson Itoe was another stunner: in the first part he mostly worked diligently in the background, but then in the middle of the show, in one of his »bass exposés«, he gave a little masterclass in the bass guitar school of Stanley Clarke and T.M Stevens. An exceptionally smooth bassist (like butter spread on bread) yet venomously fast, he placed a dose of pleasantly caressing, organic low-end warmth in the best possible way. Some eighty heads now and then drifted off into the free sway of a mental switch-off, especially during the numbers where the guys stepped out of the more demanding sequences of musical experimentation, the moments when they offered more melodic tangibility, grounded by the rock contour of the rhythm guitar riffs and the voluminous groove line of the bass guitar. And we certainly can’t overlook the strong »funk groove« engraving that runs through the concise musical density of the Via Ad Infinitum jazz story.
Perfectly in sync, Kotnik on trumpet, Kolar on sax and the incredible Jamnik on vibraphone repeatedly turned into a proper wild orchestra that didn’t hold back on spraying rapid-fire note sequences, and a few times they also built layered, harmonized lead motifs that effectively eased the load of the more demanding passages in their playing.
The regular set flew by in the blink of an eye. A slightly surprised Timotej, who this time handled the between-song announcements on stage all by himself, was so taken aback by the extraordinary response of the fascinated crowd that he just couldn’t stop thanking the audience, while the sextet got down to the obligatory encore. The crowd’s reaction confirmed that Via Ad Infinitum are a powerful live jazz rock fusion attraction, ennobled by a truly homegrown stamp of musical artistry!
I hope Timotej Kotnik, whose layered musical vision follows in the footsteps of the immortal genius Miles Davis, will soon release a studio album with Via Ad Infinitum, and that we’ll get to witness this kind of expressive insight and boundless art freedom on stage many more times, powered by the one-of-a-kind universal magic of musical communication.
The one sour note goes to the sound guy. A dude who spent the show fiddling with his cell phone more than with the faders on the mixing desk, he set Praper’s guitar, as well as Vid Jamnik’s vibraphone and xylophone synth, way too “quiet”, so you had to drag yourself over to the left side of the club (toward the bar) and almost up to the stage to properly follow what the two musicians were doing. Even Kotnik »theatrically« signaled from the stage with gestures a few times during the show that something was off with the sound. All in all, a gorgeous evening for jazz lovers and for the kind of »musical breakdown« that doesn’t recognize formulaic playing was a complete success!
Photo Gallery
