NEWS
Reflections on Prishtina Jazz Festival
by Robert Jukič
It is a wonder and an act of heroism, enthusiasm and self-sacrifice to organize a jazz festival in a time and a place where the majority of the people is striving to achieve the goals prescribed to them by the "western" societies. The people behind the Prishtina Jazz Festival (PJF) have succeeded to present the fifth edition of what is now a growing and every year more world-wide recognizable international jazz festival that is attracting artists from the whole planet and producing a new generation of music lovers of a different kind in a young developing country. The seeds have been planted.
Fighting the wind mills is obviously still popular, that is the only explanation that comes to mind next to the love for music as an art form and a spiritual value. PJF has overcome the obstacles, has ignored the recession (it is nice to see a festival being organized for reasons other than net income...) and presented a festival organized on a highly professional level. There are some who would argue the quality of the bass, the technical aspects of the sound system or the acoustics of the venue, but these are superfluous trivialities and as such not worth mentioning let alone debating over since the true value of PJF lies within the people who welcome you with open arms not only to the festival but into their lives and make you feel at home.
PJF is from a local point of view an institution, a corporation if you will, but not in a sense that is familiar to an average person. It is a unit expanding in the underground, through word of mouth, through subtle suggestive acts that are transforming ordinary people into more open, conscious, self-aware, responsible and decisive human beings who are capable of reading between the lines and are discovering new appetites within themselves. The influence and the effect of the PJF on the community as well as on individuals is apparent after just five years. The opportunity to help indirectly make a "healthier" and more aware community is at hand, we can just hope all the aspects, attributes and potentials of PJF and it's role in the process will be recognized, supported and nourished.
From a global point of view on one hand is PJF at present a small event when compared to big old dinosaurs with identity crisis produced all over the world, but a very important event for the region and as the years have shown not to be taken lightly as it has a big potential hidden in the growing audience and a committed team as well as supporters and Santa's little helpers of different kinds. On the other hand there are less and less "shelters" for music, musicians and music lovers like PJF in the world and the word about it is spreading fast. PJF is more global than any of us might think...
Last but not least, PJF is yet another proof for the nonbelievers or the wishful thinkers: jazz is not dead. It just can't die. Yes, maybe it smells funny sometimes, but it is as we all know a matter of taste in the end. How can you not like it if you never tried it, right? Jazz is energy and energy is something that can pass on but it cannot seize to exist. And that is what has been happening and will hopefully be happening for many years to come in Prishtina, a city bubbling with energy: energy was, is and will be passed around, shared, experienced, lived, inhaled and exhaled. Feed the seeds you have sown and watch for the fruits in most unlikely places...
working on new music!
recording sessions have started, more
information to be revealed soon...
