About the power of jazz of Scandinavian women

On Friday the program of this year’s Inntöne began with the Austrian Syndicate of the Vorarlberg pianist David Helbock, who in his reminiscence of the great Joe Zawinul operated the keys of the keyboard and left the pianistic highlights to his former teacher Peter Madsen. The sounds have a little 70’s patina and have a strong Latin touch, but still a good set-up opener.

The percussionist Marilyn Mazur brings the first highlight to the open-air stage of Paul Zauner’s Buchmannhof with her lush female band Shamania. Mazur, whose musical history stretches from Miles Davis to Jan Garbarek, writes generous, expansive pieces, which her colleagues use for committed, imaginative soloing. Lotte Anker on the saxophones, Hildegunn Øiseth, trumpet, and above all Sissel Vera Pettersen on the alto sax and as an expressive singer shine. On Saturday, the trio of Norwegian tenor saxophonist Mette Henriette also demonstrated the potential of female jazz in Scandinavia.

Chamber music with piano and cello, the band reduces tempo and volume. A few notes and tones are enough to create a mood of concentrated serenity. Music as a long, calm flow, steady like a reliable force and maintaining the arc of suspense from the first to the last minute. Suddenly it gets very quiet on the fairground. The quartet Asmara led by trumpeter Hermon Mehari creates the link between jazz and his parents’ Eritrean homeland.

The roots can still be heard and felt, but are increasingly dominated by dense mainstream jazz from Kansas City. Piano/vibraphone – Peter Schlamb plays both excellently – bass and drums weave a stable rhythmic carpet on which Mehari’s euphoric trumpet can shine.

If you want something sociable, stop by St. Pig’s Pub in the former pigsty for an eighth and the lively sounds of the NY Blue Note Quintet or applaud the kids from Jumping Jungle in the barn.

And then there was the famous Balanescu string quartet, the young French trio Nout, which linked Jethro Tull with punk, and Helga Plankensteiner, who brought Jelly Roll Morton’s music from the 20s into the new century. And that wasn’t all, but that’s just the Inn tones.