Saalfelden Jazz Festival 2024 (3/3)

 

By Sarah Grosser

 

KONZERT IM RUDERBOOT: MATS GUSTAFSSON & NATE WOOLEY

Mountain Tracks

 

Mats Gustafsson – saxophone

Nate Wooley – trumpet

The Saalfelden lake can be found just a short 800m walk from the Main Stage, and is directly opposite the festival camping grounds. Past undulating hills and tucked away, surrounded by a vast panorama of glorious rocky mountains and grazing cattle, a strange quacking echoes from somewhere in the distance.

The rowboat performance is a long-standing festival tradition occurring at 8:30 AM and it seems like the whole town comes out to watch. Fold-out chairs line the perimeter of the lake, and - is that ‘Where’s Waldo’? No, it’s James Brandon Lewis again! Everyone’s gathered to see Mats Gustafsson & Nate Wooley imitating wild game as they gently float around in circles on the glassy body of water. The improvisations are carried beautifully across the surface of the lake and can be heard echoing through the mountains from miles around. Some of the louder bursts even echo with delay. Most onlookers are fairly silent, but some are (understandably) giggling at the bizarre sights and sounds. Yes, it’s impressive, but I'll be damned if it’s not adorably funny, even cute, watching Mats and Nate gliding merrily along, making duck calls in a damn row boat. Brilliant concept, totally worth waking up early, and a great way to get some fresh, cool air in the lungs after the blistering heat wave of the previous days.

OLI STEIDLE & THE KILLING POPES

Otto Gruberhalle

 

Photo by Matthias Heschl

Dan Nicholls - keys, electronics

Keisuke Matsuno - guitar

Justus Rayem - keys (absent)

Oli Steidle - drums midi controller

The Host is BACK. This time he’s making jokes in German about "Killing Popes on a SUNDAY." Ha ha haa.. good one. He’s the man.

There’s just three popes today - Popes Lite! Things kick off with blips, ploinks, water droplets and quick diverse selective drumming, hints of drum & bass on the tempo, and a reverberant lead synth on an interstellar exploration. One particularly windy synth sounds like an ancient flute. It’s totally groovy, infectious... funky, even. This must be around show number 6 for Oli, but save for a few beads of sweat on the brow, from the accuracy of his form, one could never tell he’s been so busy. He's just that professional. Oli was even one of the participants in the Saturday morning “Jazz Hike,” which was, according to him, "really great." It was unfortunate to have had to skip it due to scheduling conflicts, but this was a recurring theme at Saalfelden: with so much talent on offer at all hours of the day, there were often clashes resulting in difficult sacrifices. Dan has a deep, descending whirr going during a particularly trippin' breakdown while Keisuke exudes charisma on the git. Oli is a man about broken breakbeats. Each piece is deliberate, really infectious, creative, and always topped off with a killer, out-of-nowhere fill. Such exciting musicians to watch. You never know what's going to happen next; an addictive act!

The Halle is dense with bodies, but still plenty of space to boogie, which some people do. Jim Black can be spied nodding, counting along to Oli’s great drumming. A spontaneous tempo switch has feet tappin’ all round and locked in music-lovers are bouncing fast, and smiling at the riveting pace. One guy is grinning and shaking his head in disbelief at the magic and musicianship unfolding onstage. His partner and friend are deep in it too. Today is a good day for them. One woman walks past with a Popes record, no doubt to keep the party rockin’ later on.

TOMEKA REID QUARTET

Main Stage 

 

Photo by Matthias Heschl

 

Tomeka Reid – cello

Jason Roebke - bass

Mary Halvorson - guitar

Tomas Fujiwara - drums

Slowly wrapping things up for the weekend, the soundcheck isn't quite finished when they open the doors. It’s not a worry, nobody is fussy, especially when it gives a glimpse into the wonderful show that’s ahead of them. Sparse pitter-patters of Tomas's soft brushes meet the distant harmonics of Tomeka’s soft cello. Mary comes in with her glorious affected, reverberant guitar like a rainbow through the clouds, illuminating the sombre piece. (Again, the photographers swarm…)

The piece in question has a nice, shuffley swing to it. Tomeka and Jason play a main melody in unison an octave apart from each other. There's an unmistakable soul. Is this what it means when they talk about that "New York Jazz?” Tomas's plays an explosive little solo with a beautiful, natural fluidity.

Among other creative and unorthodox playing techniques used sparingly, Tomeka uses a “pressing” technique to elicit a rubbing sound. The playoff between Mary and Tomeka is complementary and conversational. There is hardly a seat free in the house. At one point Jason leans in and blows into the hole of his upright bass to produce an amplified, well, blowing sound. Tomeka accompanies with eccentric experimental plucking and creaking methods. Mary joins with feather light plucks and Tomas adds the occasional spattering of cymbal. Soon the instrumentation evolves slowly into a shifty jazz ballad, it's complicated but not to the point of being unpalatable. In fact, it’s quite enjoyable. Tomeka's cello harmonics whistle softly and the bass brings it all home.

POST KOMA FEAT. SOFIA JERNBERG
Main Stage

Photo by Matthias Heschl

Petter Eldh - bass

Sofia Jernberg - voice

Jonas Kulhammar - saxophone

Kaja Draxler - piano

Lukas König - drums

Petter explained the entomology of Post Koma: Koma Saxo is the original but Post Koma is with whoever he wants to play. Petter’s bone-dry stage banter is hilariously cheeky: "Normally we have Christian Lillinger – today we’ve got a better drummer, Lukas König.”

Petter rips a gorgeous bass solo and is joined by Kaja – it’s wonderfully melodic. In some groups it’s not always so obvious to the onlooker who is in charge, but with Post Koma it's clear that Petter is the leader. The basslines are frequent; involved and busy, and beyond that there's plenty of bass features accompanied only by drums or piano.

Sofia's sweet high voice provides a fitting top layer to round out the sound. The concept is established and confident. The compositions are tight. Sofia gives accents reminiscent of a powerful singer over a 90s club track. Love that.

Petter’s epically dark stage banter continues: ”This is a WORLD premiere. This song has a Swedish tone, by a Swedish man. I won't mention his name because he doesn't deserve it. Anyway, he’s dead.” So far Petter is just about the only artist to have any real jokes between songs and it's so funny.

Throughout the show there are some really cool percussive interludes in interesting shifting measures that have you counting along and keep you guessing. Again, the hall is packed, this time the balcony even more so. So far this is one of the most crowded shows, certainly due to the caliber of the musicians but probably also due to the bad weather and the rest of the festival having already packed up and called it a weekend. 

 

Ches Smith (with "The Throw"). Photo by Matthias Heschl

Speaking of which, it would have been an absolute delight to have indulged in Erik Friedlander’s “The Throw”, closing out the festival, as I am such a fan, but the intensity and overload of program dictated to me and my exhausted mortal hull that this was not to be. Which is terribly unfortunate, because aside from the New-York-based quartet being highly reputable, world class musicians in their own right, according to the photographs, Ches Smith wore a pair of white knee socks. Oh well. You snooze, you lose.



Saalfelden Festival runs a tight ship, and it’s obvious why people keep returning after 44 years in a row. Its success can be attributed to the professionalism of its co-ordinators, diversity of its artists, the variety of its different sized stages, and the overall great mood of seemingly everyone involved. It’s a testament to the festival that the artists were so present and happy to hang around the site among the festival-goers, but the blessing of great weather and a wide range of different food and entertainment options meant that there was never a dull moment. Yes, it was exhaustive, but perhaps the more seasoned Saalfelden attendee would be less overwhelmed the second time around. The only way to find out is to invite me back to next year’s Saalfelden #45, as I am already daydreaming about getting down to that sweet little mountain town, strolling over the valley at dawn, and enjoying some new set of glorious weirdos, floating around, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily torturing their musical instruments in a dingy.