4. NISVILLE INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL

Nisville is an annual summer music festival in the Ancient Fortress of Nis, Serbia.

From the festival’s very beginning, its concept has been based on presenting the ‘traditional’ jazz forms together with their fusion with the ethnic tradition from the different parts of the world, especially from the Balkans. Nisville has become the leading and the most visited jazz festival in South Eastern Europe with a total visit of 100,000 people for 4-days festival. Nisville concept from the beginning, except the "traditional" forms of jazz, was based on the fusion of this stream with the ethnic traditions of various parts of the world, particulary the Balkans.

English magazine "New Europe" wrote about Nisville and the most famous jazz magazine in the world, American "Downbeat", in its extensive view of the festival, placed out Nisville as the best way bouth to promote jazz as a line formed in America, traditional Balkan music and the combination of these two styles, which contributed to the presentation of Balkan music as a new world musical phenomenon. 

Billy Cobham - Nisville

Here are some performers who have appeared over the years: Billy Cobham, Roy Hargrove, Tom Harrell, Benny Golson, Solomon Burke, Stanley Jordan, Candy Dulfer, Miroslav Vitous, dr Donald Byrd, Mingus Dynasty, Grace Kelly, Joe "Defunkt" Bowie, Incognito, The Brand New Heavies, Teodosi Spasov, Yildiz Ibrahimova, Dusko Gojkovic, Jamie Davis, Saban Bajramovic, Esma Redzepova…

Attracting some 100,000 visitors each year, the festival has managed to secure everyone from the saxophonist Grace Kelly to legendary soul star Solomon Burke in the past, as it fills two full programmes of music inside the fort on the Earth and Sky stages. Its third arena, the River stage, takes things beyond the walls with musicians playing in an intimate amphitheatre down by the Nis wharf

History 

The jazz festival tradition in Niš, initiated in 1981, and terminated in 1991, was renewed at the end of 1994 thanks to the producer and economist who specializes in cultural management, Ivan Blagojević, theatre director by vocation. The first manifestation, entitled “International Nišville Jazz Festival” was held in January 1995. From the very beginning, in addition to the “more traditional” forms of jazz, the concept of the festival has primarily been founded on the fusion of this genre with ethnic traditions of various parts of the world, especially the Balkans, and the venue, with the exception of two editions, (owing to space rental issues) was the large hall of “Klub Vojske” (Army Club), with the capacity of 800 seats.

Ever since the start, the Festival has established cooperation with cultural centers and embassies of the United States of America, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Germany, whose musicians have significantly participated at this manifestation and the names of the participants increasingly became greater: Reggie Workmen, Jimmy Cobb, Philip Catherine, Aria Hendricks, Miles Griffith, Denise Jannah, Bemshie Shearer etc.

Based on the ideas of Ivan Blagojević, Nišville has frequently had programs involving different musicians (who had often not been acquainted with one another by that time) forming the same bands, including the performance by Šaban Bajramović with jazz musicians from Serbia, Bulgaria and Germany, followed by the “ad hoc” ensemble whose main lineup was made up of musicians from the “triangle” of Serbia – Bulgaria – Macedonia: Vasil Hadžimanov, Teodosi Spasov and Toni Kitanovski (band which continued working after Nišville), and a special exclusive involved the only joint performance by the Queen and King of Romani music – Esma Redžepova and Šaban Bajramović.

Esma Redzepova and Saban Bajramovic