Don’t miss: Garana jazz festival

Garana Jazz Festival, a regular highlight of the Romanian and international jazz scene for 17 years now, will take place between July 11 and 14. The village of Garana is in Romania’s Semenic mountains, around 50 km from Resita, at an altitude of 1,000 meters.

Musicians Bill Frisell, Charles Lloyd, John Surman, Arild Andersen, Magnus Ostrom and Bugge Wesseltoft will transform the small village into the center of the jazz world, joined by native and foreign fellow performers who will make music from Thursday to Sunday, from 19.00 till daylight.

One feature will be the Charles Lloyd project, Sangam, part of the artist’s 75th Anniversary Tour. The great saxophonist will be accompanied by fellow jazz legends Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland.

The Romanian line-up for this year’s event includes Peter Wertheimer, Mario Florescu, Peter Sarosi, Luiza Zan, Sorin Romanescu, Eugen Gondi and Nicolas Simion. Fans are eagerly awaiting the concert by saxophonist Peter Wertheimer, who left Romania 30 years ago to settle in Israel.

Visual arts will also be represented. Festival goers will be able to visit the photography exhibition Happy Birthday Mister Lloyd, by Elisabeth Lili Ochsenfeld, while on July 13 the same artist presents the international exhibition of visual art, Eyemazing Florilegium.

Another exhibition running for the duration of the festival is First Jazz Festival Garana/Brebu 1997 – At the Crossroads, which brings together works by the photographer Carmen Keilfofer.

Garana village is 50 km from Resita, most easily reached by car. Trains run to Resita and Caransebes from Bucharest. The nearest airports are in Timisoara, Romania, or Novi Sad and Belgrade, Serbia.

Accommodation generally takes the form of bed and breakfast provided by local people, which tends to be low-cost and fairly basic.

Tickets, which cost RON 60 a day and RON 200 for the entire festival, can be bought from the venue during the festival.

Program:

July 11 – Present Percussion Ensemble (Romania), Bill Frisell – Big Sur Sextet (USA), Charles Lloid – Sangam (USA, India) and Peter Sarosi – Azara (Romania, Cuba)

July 12: Irina Popoa & The Sinners (Romania), Arild Andresen Trio (Norway, the UK), Luiza Zan Project (Romania, USA, Hungary) and John Surman – Vahalla (the UK, Norway)

July 13: Peter Wertheimer Quartet (Israel), Pavel Kaczmarczyc Audiofeeling Band (Poland), Dainius Pulauskas Band (Lithuania), In the Country (Norway) and Bugge Wesseltoft – Piano Solo (Norway)

July 14: Jazzybit (Romania), Nicolas Simion Trio – Crazy World feat. Eugen Gondi & Sorin Romanescu (Germany, Holland, Romania), Bugee Eesseltoft& Joe& Ilhan Ersahin – The Electric Trio and Magnus Ostrom (Sweden).

Oana Vasiliu

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