61. Ljubljana Jazz Festival: Collori & Momento Cigano (Slovenia)

Teo Collori, lead guitar; Metod Banko, rhythm guitar; Matija Krečič, violin; Matej Kužel, clarinet; Jošt Lampret, bass.

The choices were, seemingly endless. Did I go for The Jive Aces, Brandon Allen, Kai Hoffman or take a virtual trip to Slovenia? In the end, the latter won and I was off once more to Ljubljana and it didn't matter that I'd forgotten my passport!

Momento Cigano, led by Maccaferri maestro Collori, have taken the Hot Club formula to places where Stephane and Django would never have imagined. This is not to pit one against the other but rather to draw attention to the differences. Django played with both violin (Grappelli) and clarinet (Hubert Rostaing) but I don't think he recorded with violin and clarinet together - I am open to correction on this! Also, the original Hot Club Quintet, played primarily for dancing and thus were rarely able to mix up the tempos and modes as Momento do.

The music was a delightful mix varying from Hot Club style swing, to some ethnic moods. In one particularly frantic number where clarinet and guitar were playing in unison it crossed my mind that if Bird and Diz and, maybe Charlie Christian, had lived in The Balkans bebop may have sounded like this.

The announcements were all done in Slovenian so the only title I picked up was The Wedding Song - a fast 3/4 not unlike a jazzy old-tyme waltz.

Kužel plays Boehm System clarinet with a fluency, interspersed with some spiky staccato-like phrases that tell us he's not from NYC. Collori is Django 2020 and the band gel perfectly.

I'm assuming the applause at the end was dubbed as there was none during the performance. The band's response was to be the traditional arms around the shoulder bowing to the audience but Collori quickly ensured that social distancing was observed.

A most enjoyable 48 minutes.

Lance.