Self-released
Release date: September 15, 2024
Genre: Jazz / Jazz Rock Fusion
Rating: 9.0/10
After three studio albums and one live record, the Prekmurje jazz and jazz rock fusion outfit džeZZva has decided it’s time for its first ‘best of’ album, in other words an album of the best, or as they say it in the Prekmurje dialect: “Naj bouk še”. Nice.
This is a band that’s been seriously committed all along, its members are excellent musicians, and they come from quite different musical backgrounds! And that’s very likely the main reason we can talk about homegrown jazz and homegrown jazz rock fusion, where different genres vividly flirt and hang out with each other. “Naj bouk še” has ten tracks, and interestingly, as many as five of them are taken from the current album “Clearness” (RockLine review), which means we get more than half of that album on “Naj bouk še”. There are also four tracks from the band’s second studio album “Sintur” (RockLine review) and one from the debut “džeZZva” (RockLine review), which came out in 2014 – that’s the track East, ‘squeezed’ in among the first three tracks (from “Sintur”), followed by that five-track combo from “Clearness”.
So the band decided not to give a damn about ordering the tracks by when each song was written, nor about presenting the albums in a more measured, balanced way (the debut, for one, gets seriously short-changed). But that means nothing. Artistic freedom demands it, and the band followed. džeZZva know best why it is the way it is. In fact, the guys most likely spent quite a while weighing songs from all three albums, and it’s more than obvious they’re most excited about the artistic reach of the newest and still current “Clearness”, which came out at the end of November 2022.
The cover is a deep blue, with silhouettes of four swallows, standing for the individual members of the quartet, and around them, arranged in a circle, the titles of the first three albums, plus the live “Live From The Hidden Courtyard” (RockLine review). That means the cover of the compilation “Naj bouk še” embraces (at least symbolically) the band’s entire discography between 2014 and 2022!
The band can be proud of the road traveled over its first fifteen years. The track selection of the compilation shows it unmistakably, right away. But to spice things up, it’s worth keeping in mind that for “Naj bouk še” the band picked versions of some songs that were recorded between 2014 and 2022 and differ slightly from the album versions. Mostly tidied up and shortened. It should also be added that “Naj Bouk Še” came out in two physical formats: CD and single vinyl. The CD has nine tracks, the single vinyl three fewer. A shame. But that’s undoubtedly down to money. And since the band funds everything out of its own pocket, we know where we stand. We can be glad the guys go for physical media at all, since many bands that do it all themselves put albums out only digitally. But džeZZva are old-guard musicians and know what music on a physical medium means. It’s a kind of monument, and it’s right that it takes physical form. CD and vinyl each have their advantages, and true fans of this band know how to choose both.
So, to keep the length of the originals on vinyl, džeZZva would have had to put out a double vinyl, and that noticeably drives up the cost of making such a musical document. Still. “Naj bouk še” is the band’s first musical document that also came out on vinyl, and for that reason alone it’s worth ‘scraping together the cash’ for it right away!
džeZZva are an excellent band, which is no news anymore. Their unique musical flexibility, responsiveness, symbiosis and eclecticism never cease to impress and reward. It’s clear there are new original works on the horizon, which the band, with such concise yet homegrown musical adventurism, will bring to life with a flourish in the future too. And that should make us happy. “Naj bouk še” is a gorgeous summary of the band’s first era, underlining what a special and powerful entity džeZZva remain on the Slovenian music scene.
One more thing. džeZZva are the first jazz and jazz rock fusion band from Slovenia with a best-of compilation, and at the same time one of the few phenomena in the world of jazz worldwide that can boast such a document.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list (CD format):
1. Sedem (12:14)
2. Sintur (6:15)
3. Bruzel (6:28)
4. East (8:05)
5. Drops (9:03)
6. Next Song (7:06)
7. Landing (5:19)
8. So Easy (6:50)
9. Y Not (7:46)
