jazz

In early 1999, while visiting Podrasnica, the site of this years festival (then known as an exile location aptly named 'Why Boro Hasn't Left)', a small group of people from Banja Luka came upon an idea to organize a jazz festival in that very place. In those years it seemed best to move jazz away from the urban areas, as they were still inundated by the ever persistent kitschy pseudo-folk culture which was a product of the not so distant years of war. The idea was realized only two months later, as organizers scrambled to book available acts and put together the first Zelenkovac Jazz Festival. The audience response was phenomenal, despite poor traffic and lack of organized transportation, problems with audience accommodations and the like. None of the above mentioned obstacles were enough to spoil the enjoyment of true music lovers who were patrons of the festival, which turned into a three day spectacle! It was then we realized that there was an audience starved for these kinds of events. And, though one might say that people would have flocked to any event of this kid for lack of anything similar, immediate future of the festival did everything to prove that kind of thinking wrong. Unfortunately, as the next few years brought on a feud among the organizers, a changing of the guard and a different selecting process, the festival was watered down, and it's audience began to dissipate. The original vision persisted, however, and we are now back with a vengeance, eager to prove that time is ripe for a true Jazz event - this we know also by the amazing response to the sporadic jazz concerts organized here from time to time, but not nearly with enough frequency to satisfy the appetite of the true music aficionado. We believe that all the conditions are in place to make our 2008. event a smash success! The line up is stellar, the dates are October 27th through November 2nd, nearly all of the participants have confirmed their appearance, with the rest to do so shortly. This year's festival will also feature a jazz workshop held by Vladimir Samardzic, in cooperation with some of the area's top musicians! As they say "proof is always in the pudding", ours is in the music of the participants - please give it a listen on this page!! It will make you want to be here now! But you will just have to be a bit patient and wait until the end of October. See you at JazzLook 2008.!****************************************************** ******** Početkom 1999. godine obilazeći Podrašnicu i svojevrstan egzil „Zašto nije otišao Boro“ jedna manja grupa ljudi iz Banjaluke je došla na ideju da se u tom i takvom prostoru organizuje, Jazz festival (tad tih godina je bilo uputnije jazz skloniti u šumu jer je u urbanim sredinama još uvijek odoljevao kič rođen u ratnim i poratnim godinama). Rečeno – učinjeno. Pošto jazz izvođači nisu uposleni 365 dana godišnje (bar oni koji su visinom honorara nama tad bili dostupni) u nepuna dva mjeseca je organizovan Prvi jazz festival Zelenkovac. Odziv publike je bio fenomenalan. Loša saobraćajna komunikacija, nedostatak organizovanog prevoza, nepostojanje kapaciteta za smještaj publike,... ništa od svega navedenog nije bilo prepreka da svi ljubitelji iz, prvenstveno, banjalučke regije pohrle u Podrašnicu i uživaju u trodnevnom spektaklu. Tad smo shvatili da je publika željna takvih dešavanja. Naravno, tih godina je publika u nedostatku ikakvih zgrabila prvu priliku. No, bez obzira što je to bila prva i jedina prilika tad te prve godine se pojavila isprofilisana publika koja je zaista znala šta želi. Već idućih godina zbog osporavanja autorstva nad jazz festivalom zelenkovac selektorska i organizaciona struktura je promjenjena te je festival izgubio na kvaliteti, a samim tim i publiku. Poslije svega je ostala jasno iskristalisana vizija da u ovom regionu postoji potreba za jazz festivalom što se i vidjelo u narednim godinama kroz poneki sporadičan jazz koncert. Mišljenja smo da su se sad stvorili uslovi za organizaciju jedne takve manifestacije. Te smo uspjeli da poslije kraćeg vijećanja izaberemo ovogodišnje učesnike. Skoro svi su već sad potvrdili svoje učešće na ovogodišnjem festivalu koji će se održati od 27.10. do 02.11. 2008. godine. U sklopu festivala će se održati i radionica koju će voditi profesor Vladimir Samardžić u saradnji s renomiranim muzičarima. U svakom slučaju poslušajte numere nekih ovogodišnjih učesnika i vidite dal se isplatilo čekati na prvi banjalučki jazz festival.....čekali smo dugo, strpimo se još malo :)