Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: džeZZva
Label: Self-released
Release: 2016
Rating: 4/5
džeZZva is, as the name itself hints, a jazz quartet. The name might sound young and fresh on the scene, but behind it stands enormous mileage and a wealth of experience from four seasoned, talented musicians from Prekmurje.
In 2014 the band put out a self-titled studio debut, a foundational step that gives them full credibility, not just as homegrown original artists but also when it comes to conquering live stages. These four have played a ton as individuals and built up a pile of their own original music, and I’m aiming mostly at the out-of-the-ordinary keyboardist and the band’s chief visionary Dejan Berden here. So the debut was already a document of a special musical adventure: a bold and wonderfully successful cruise through the worlds of free-spirited jazz experimentation, neoclassicism and folk music. With Prekmurje roots, geographically speaking.
In the last two years džeZZva have seen plenty of stages, building up their standing not just at home but abroad too. They’ve toured the Balkan Peninsula, and places north of the Slovenian border have had them over as well. Still, nothing beats playing at home in front of a hometown crowd, especially if you can record a gig and save the tape for a potential live album.
džeZZva are a self-contained institution that runs on the »do it yourself« principle. They operate completely independently and release their albums that way too. A second studio album is in the works (the little birds on the rooftops are already singing about it), but the guys decided to bridge the gap between the debut and its successor with a proper live document. So in mid-November this year they (again) self-released the live album »Live From the Hidden Courtyard«, recorded on August 20, 2016, in Murska Sobota. The repertoire covers nearly the whole debut, and džeZZva added two more pieces: their take on Zorn’s Ariel, and, right at the close of the show, a superbly arranged jazz-fusion dessert in the form of their version of the traditional (Prekmurje folk) Ne orji, ne sejaj. That one builds through a huge concert finale into one of the performance highlights of this live album.
The studio debut was already recorded in one take, like a concert in the studio. That’s what makes it one of a kind, unrepeatable. At the 20.08.2016 gig džeZZva ran through these pieces again, and of course played them in a one-of-a-kind, unrepeatable way once more. In other words, differently. It’s worth adding that the moments when the quartet stokes the improvisational fire are stretched out even longer, and in their playfulness and experimenting they come across as especially mischievous and unbridled. That will delight the gourmets among you who are drawn to complexity and the unusual in musical expression, in other words eclecticism.
If we’re hunting for the quirks or most interesting moments of this document, the superb IndinA definitely stands out. It runs over sixteen minutes and takes the listener straight to the heart of the whole musical essence of this band. It’s a wonderfully successful cumulus of homegrown jazz dialogue, developed and realized in the band’s own vision. They add elements of folk music on one side and neoclassicism on the other, extremely subtle (and at times barely noticeable), all in a jazz-improv seasoning. In this track the quartet even flies so far out that in the closing stages the whole thing borders on avant free-jazz customs. Still, džeZZva are a band that keeps things listenable throughout their playing. Even when the solos, the building blocks of the sonic picture, hit their peaks, those blocks always come back to a perceptible form of musicality (however “loosened” it may be), even if the sharp-witted improvisations carry them almost over the edge. That’s why their music has no moments of arrangement fragmentation.
džeZZva are also masters at evoking feelings, which they use to speak to the listener very effectively. One such piece is Spring, which džeZZva develop through a build-up of moods in which it’s easy to picture spring buds opening, or the gentle babbling of streams full of melting snow from a winter that’s slowly saying goodbye, with the first spring flowers peeking out along their banks. It also has to be said that all the pieces are played with extraordinary fire and joy, superbly balanced with sophisticated moments. Even though the music is instrumental, džeZZva interpret it in a way that lets you pick out the passion of seething emotions, along with a real, predatory touch of mysticism. All the building blocks of the soundscape come through intensely, and in the improvised moments they sensually open up space for one another. Leading the way in delivering all the material is the piano of the master Dejan Berden, superbly complemented and supported by the soulful, organic, often tenderly dreamy sound of Rodež’s guitar (which at moments sounds a bit Metheny-esque). The ever-active, lively rhythm line doesn’t stay indifferent either, especially the drum escapades of Miran Celec.
»Live From The Hidden Courtyard« is a superb live document that shows remarkable nerve and confirms the adventurous, homegrown jazz art rhetoric of one of the most interesting instrumental outfits in Slovenia. They work completely autonomously and, at the core of their relentlessly truth-seeking, exploratory musical expression, couldn’t care less about any trend. Given everything this live document offers, expectations for džeZZva’s new studio record are very high.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3P3vONXu88
Lineup
Dejan Berden – piano
Iztok Rodež – guitar
Mojmir Wolf – double bass
Miran Celec – drums, percussion
Production
džeZZva
Tracklist
1. Če bi jes bijla fčelica
2. Ariel
3. A Little Game
4. East
5. Spring
6. IndinA
7. Ne orji, ne sejaj
