Kragujevac (SRB), 16. International Jazz Festival
Our last (non official) gig was in trio with Hans somewhere in Upper Austria two weeks ago, with an extended version of all our Rilke songs. Now we were finally back in the original line up to play my poet’s love on two Serbian festivals. Nobody of us ever heard the name Kragujevac (150 km south-east of Belgrade) before - now we do as we loved it from the very beginning! Warm sun light, lively town with thousands of cafes and an exceptionally friendly crew - we even got water and fruits for our ride in the shuttle with our personal assistant Stefan (who took such great care of us the whole time : ) ) from the Nikola Tesla Airport to the charming hotel in Kragujevac. The venue was the oldest theatre in Serbia (1835) - Srpski teatar!!!Constructed with wood it was spreading a warm atmosphere all over!!!I loved it!Soundcheck was a little tricky, as we had to get used to the acoustics in this wonderful theatre. We managed - and with we I especially mean Thomas Egger (thank youuuu for always bringing my favorite Neumann) - to find a good sound on stage - Theo Yamaha grand piano was challenging for mathias and Hans had to connect with his provided bass lady as quickly as possible!!!In the end our sound engineer Thomas Egger was able to satisfy each one of us and that besides many others : ) is the reason, why HE is our new sound guy since a couple of months! It was so wonderful to have Mario back on stage! mathias: „despite a couple of little or even less little fuck-ups from my side – who the hell wrote those piano charts? – it was a good concert with a tight rhythm section of the old guys (sorry dear Ingrid!) in the back row and the two beautiful youngsters Romeo & Julia in the first row, spreading emotion and high energy towards the audience who fell in love with our music. After our short 55 minutes-set a lot of people took pictures with Lia who felt very flattered and liked it a lot..:-)“ It was a magical evening for me, I loved the theatre, the people, the whole atmosphere!!!It was an exceptional audience - so direct and so openhearted!!!It was my very first time in Serbia and I am so happy that my first time is connected with this wonderful town and this incredible theatre. I especially liked taking a picture with eight year old Katja : )!!! The second set was done by the German duo constisting of Christof Lauer - mathias and Christoph studied together 1973/74 In Graz, and Christoph still looks like he did then: )! - and Rainer Temple, playing songs from Sidney Bechet, the inventor of Petite Fleur.
This intimate festival with its special atmosphere exists for 16 years!!!and it is special because the people who are organizing it and making it happen are special!!!Thank you Gordan Matic and the whole crew of the 16.International Jazz Festival Kragujevac from the bottom of my heart!
I can’t wait to see you again, yours Lia!
P.S.: After a short discussion, we agreed that our favorite Serbian male first name is ROZMIR!
