I have been living in Cluj for almost 10 years. I would like to present the Transilvanian Jazz Festival, which suprisingly to its name, have hosted many ethno and folk artists. First time the event took place in Cluj in 2007 and has existed until present (with a one year break), with concerts taking place in the renowned hall of Opera Maghiara. The festival has been organised by Cetatea Alba Association in collaboration with The French Cultural Centre. Its aim is to promote a new cultural brand of this region, namely Transilvania.
Cluj was a candidate city for European Youth Capital 2015 (another Romanian city, Sibiu, was lucky to win the title of the European Cultural Capital in 2007) and has hosted the renowned Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) so far. It is time for our festival to become such a brand, especially because of many excellent, not only jazz, but also ethno and folk musicans coming to us from all over the world.
The event has been well organised and can boast an all-star line-up. Here used to play e.g. Billy Cobham, Jacky Terrasson, Anatoly Vapirov, Harry Tavitian, Johnny Răducanu, Theodosii Spassov and a lot of artists from Belgium, Czech Republic, Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and Romania. Poland was represented twice: in 2007 by Andre Ochodlo from The Jazzish Quintet and in 2009 by the jazz group Sound-Check.
My contact with the festival has began when I fell in love with the tango sound many years ago, later I went to tango classes in Cluj and continued when I was in Poland. One of the performances that I want to write about is a Juan Carlos Caceres and his Tango Negro Trio concert. It took place on the 6th September 2012 and was a kind of "prelude" for the main part of the festival which officially started in November.
The leader of the group, Juan Carlos, is a fully jazz musician, a trombonist, pianist and composer. On the one hand his roots are in Buenos Aires, but once he established in France in 1968 he has become "the missionary" of the tango in Europe. With a lot of passion he sings about day-to-day Buenos Aires, wounds of time and exile, saying how much he misses his home, Argentina, in the ambient rhythm of tango sounds with the jazz improvisation.
The group played just three instruments: a piano, guitar and what appeared to be african drums. The sounds were amazing! The music was wonderful! The blending of the sounds was incredible indeed: tango sounds with African and jazz ones were just great. For me, the energy of the music is something that I can't experience so often, and when I do, it is amazing! This concert was a revelation for me, especially as far as the music was concerned. I could never imagine that so many different styles can be combined in the one musical piece and could sound so great indeed! This concert surely opened my mind and made me see music from another perspective.
Transilvania Jazz Festival started officially two months later, on the 14th and lasted until 17th November 2012. Teodora Enache and Shekinah Rodz were the stars of this event, giving two concerts one day, so if somebody had happened to be in Cluj then, they surely would have enjoyed this event!
I am looking forward to the next edition of the festival. I highly recommend this event, because it has been promoting a good quality and interesting ethno-jazz music from Romania and abroad. Transilvania Jazz Festival is also a good way of promoting Cluj as a cultural city for people fond of exploring the world and new countries.
And at the end some technical remarks. The cheapest way to get from Poland to the capital of Transilvania is by coach from Cracow via Budapest or by air, but you have to "lurk about” the airline promotions. I do hope that - owing to my text and words of encouragement - we will soon meet in Cluj!
Transilvania Jazz Festival, Cluj, Romania
