Pat Metheny, guitar; Chris Fishman, piano, keyboards; Jermaine Paul, bass; Joe Dyson, drums 

His music transcends genres, as evidenced by the Grammy Awards he has won in ten different categories – from new age, pop and country to jazz, naturally, most of them in the last named category, which makes him the only artist ever to have achieved this. He has a total of twenty gold records and three gold albums, as well as an impressive songbook of jazz standards. 
It goes without saying that working with a roster of artists as diverse as Ornette Coleman, John Zorn, Joni Mitchell, and David Bowie calls for tremendous musical versatility and the corresponding technical virtuosity. He cites Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery and The Beatles as having the biggest impact on his music.

Metheny has been a key player in fusion jazz for the past four decades, with a broad community of followers, also satisfying their preferences for experimentation. We have consistently followed his artistic development, hosting Metheny with different line-ups at the Jazz Festival Ljubljana three times, most recently nine years ago. The Pat Metheny Group, active since 1978 with various changes in personnel, has decisively shaped the development of the jazz fusion genre and allowed him to evolve his distinctive lyricism under the auspices of ECM Records. 

He composes contemporary classical and film music, dreamy solo ballads, and virtuoso pieces, creating a canon of new standards, while also keeping an eye out for young new talents with whom to share his vision. Thus, in 2016, which many in the US see as the advent of a new dark age, Metheny started the Side-Eye project. The name is slang for "raising an eyebrow," being sceptical, distrustful, or disapproving, which is how the world has been looking at the US since 2016. Among the first to be invited to his home studio were two brilliant musicians, pianist James Francis and drummer Marcus Gilmore; their Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV) album instantly earned a Grammy nomination. 

The latest core lineup of the Side-Eye III+ project consists of Chris Fishman, a drummer-turned-pianist from the Louis Cole (Knower) orbit and the rising drumming star Joe Dyson, who brings New Orleans–style vehemence to the trio and has inspired Metheny to write several new compositions specifically for this trio. At Ljubljana Jazz Festival the non-classical guitar–piano–drums trio will be joined by Californian musical up-and-comer on bass, Jermaine Paul. At the end of February, their latest album was released on Pat Metheny’s newly founded label, Uniquity Music Their, which from now on will house of Metheny’s entire catalogue from 1984 and onward.

Meshell Ndegeocello, bass, keys, vocals; Justin Hicks, vocals; Jake Sherman, hammond organ; Chris Bruce, guitars; Abraham Rounds, drums, vocals

Meshell Ndegeocello is a bass player above all else. A bass player who is also a vocalist, a poet, rapper, political activist… as well as the spark that ignited the neo-soul movement. An uncategorizable artist of great prowess and a brilliant instrumentalist with impressive credentials, Meshell excels at everything from soul, funk, R&B, hip-hop, rock and, of course, jazz. Ndegeocello started out on her career in the 1980s, recorded with Herbie Hancock and Madonna, Tony Allen and Chaka Khan in the 1990s, and played alongside the Rolling Stones and Alanis Morissette. Known to be a member of and an advocate for the queer community, her MTV hit, If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night), is regarded as a provocative post-feminist anthem.

Ever since her debut album, Plantation Lullabies (1993), her musical genius and political activism have been guided by critical thought and a reflection on radical alternatives. In this context, her latest project and third Grammy win, No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, can be seen as the culmination of her artistic work. Marking his centennial, it is an in-depth homage to the writer and essayist James Baldwin, author of incisive quotes and a trenchant critic of systemic racism. In live performances – dominated by Ndegeocello’s throbbing bass and the Hammond organ accompaniment – the weighty references to James Baldwin, Audra Lorde and Martin Luther King Jr. patch up the holes in America’s frayed collective memory.

Festival pass EUR 95
All concerts, all venues, all days

Cécile McLorin Salvant, vocal; Sullivan Fortner, piano; Yasushi Nakamura, double bass; Kyle Poole, drums

One of the most distinctive voices of her generation – a singer, storyteller, composer and visual artist – is making her Ljubljana debut! Cécile McLorin Salvant is a vocalist and an eclectic curator tracing connections between blues, theatre, jazz and chanson. She has received three consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album: For One to Love (2015), Dreams and Daggers (2017) and The Window (2018). Among her many accolades, one of the most notable is her victory at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Competition, which she won at just twenty-one.

Everything touched by McLorin Salvant’s voice radiates a distinctive intellectual and lucid playfulness. She turns traditional jazz standards on their head, going against the grain and thoroughly reworking and refreshing them with her playful interpretations. Her music often incorporates rawer, less polished textures, leading some to draw comparisons with Fiona Apple. Her latest album, Mélusine (2023), is sung predominantly in French, while also drawing on Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyol. Her most recent project is a multi-layered musical tale in the form of a cantata titled Ogresse, which is being developed into a feature-length animated film – one she will direct herself!

Festival pass EUR 95
 All concerts, all venues, all days

20.30: Charles Lloyd Sky Quartet feat. Jason Moran, Larry Grenadier & Eric Harland
22.00: Chief Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott)

Starting of with a double concert at Križanke with the eminence and exceptional reed player Charles Lloyd, who has made a major impact on the jazz scene over the last six decades, and the jazz great Chief Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott), hailing from New Orleans, the cradle of jazz. 

Charles Lloyd, one of the last still active saxophonists of the “1950s history-making saxophone generation", which included Rollins, Coltrane and Coleman, is coming to Ljubljana with his phenomenal quartet on the wings of this year's masterpiece album The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow.

After having expanded his understanding of jazz into a concept he calls "stretch music", the innovator Chief Adjuah’s latest release is a throwback to the origins: the music of his ancestors. . Two powerful creative forces from two generations of jazz expression.


 

Please be advised that tonight’s concert is being filmed by Medici TV.   

Cankarjev dom (Jazz Festival Ljubljana) hereby informs the concertgoers that film recordings will be published on the above-mentioned platform (video on demand) as of August 2024 for a period of five years.
 

The Alfa Mist concert takes place before Benjamin Clementine's. 

Benjamin Clementine 
Benjamin Clementine, piano, voice

A highly compelling songwriter with three amazing albums to his name, an accomplished pianist, an instantly recognizable baritone and winner of the Mercury Prize, unexpectedly awarded to his 2015 debut album, At Least For Now. And, recently, also an up-and-coming film actor. Benjamin Clementine’s exploratory, idiosyncratic conceptual and occasionally avant-garde approach to chamber pop has markedly influenced our expectations regarding the meaning and, above all, the sound of pop in our current times. Clementine threw virtually all the rules out the window: always exercising complete creative freedom, composing incisive though occasionally highly metaphorical lyrics. He boldly blends genres, combining early and contemporary classical music, cabaret, rock, musicals... Simply put, the music he creates should be discovered one note at a time. In keeping with his firm nonconformist stance against the music industry, Clementine took complete control over the making of his third release, last year’s And I Have Been; not only did he write and record the tracks himself, but also self-produced and released the album under his own record label. Which is all the more impressive given that this is orchestral art pop featuring choral backing vocals. Part II is due for release this year, after which Clementine hints at taking a break from his musical ventures. Theatrical, intimate, political!
 

Alfa Mist 
Alfa Sekitoleko - Alfa Mist, keyboards, bandleader; Kaya Thomas-Dyke, bass, voice; Jamie Leeming, guitar; Johnny Woodham, trumpet; Jas Kayser, drums

Alfa Mist’s initiation was not uncommon: he discovered the language of jazz through hip-hop. His creative beginnings date back to secondary school, when he came across records by the likes of Madlib and J Dilla in search of samples for his hip-hop beat-making. Their music provided a gateway to jazz. It was while scrutinizing the harmonic structures of their iconic productions, that Mist taught himself to play piano by ear. Only a few years later, he released his first records (2015’s EP Nocturne, 2017’s attention-grabbing debut album Antiphon…) and his collaborations to date include musicians such as Yussef Dayes, Tom Misch, Jordan Rakei and Loyle Carner. With music spanning from hip-hop beat-making to producing for various rappers, composing neo-classical works for the London Contemporary Orchestra and remixing tracks from the eminent jazz label Blue Note – Alfa Mist is one of the most versatile and inquisitive artists to have emerged from London’s widely celebrated jazz reformation. Variables, his latest album and second release for the iconic record label ANTI, fully