Aleksandras Ivanauskas-Fara, Edmundas Kučinskas, Steponas Januška, Veronika Povilionienė, Vytautas Juozapaitis – these are just some of the famous performers and musicians who visited this year’s free creative festival organized by composer and producer Gediminas Zujaus.
E. Kučinskas surprised
“This year we had three important occasions to meet. We celebrated the centenary of Lithuanian radio, the 70th anniversary of the first Lithuanian jazz orchestra – Kaunas Polytechnic Institute swing orchestra, and the 40th anniversary of the first private sound recording studio in Lithuania.
We wanted not only to remember history, but also to bring together on one stage the people who created it and those who will create it in the future”, said Gediminas Zujus, the creator of the festival.
The last anniversary was particularly personal for the organizer. In 1986, Gediminas Zujus, together with Kęstučius Luš and Giedris Litvinas, founded the first professional private sound recording studio in Lithuania in Kaunas. At that time, it operated in the very heart of the city – on the Town Hall Square, in rooms without windows, which were about four meters deep.
“In those days, no one allocated palaces to young creative people. We got such premises and worked. The most important thing was not the place, but the opportunity to create,” recalled G. Zujus.
Edmund Kučinskas soon appeared among the clients of the studio. Over four decades, dozens of songs, several albums and a long-term creative partnership were born here.
“I’ve always considered myself an architect of songs. I create the idea of a song, the melody, write the lyrics or suggest its direction, and Gediminas is the person who turns it all into the final piece.
He creates arrangements, works with sound, looks for the best form. A song can be built to live for years, or it can be built to live for decades. With Gediminas, we managed to create more than one such work”, said E. Kučinskas.
Therefore, the audience of the festival could see something that had not happened in forty years. Although they worked countless hours in the studio, and the music they created together became a part of the Lithuanian pop scene a long time ago, G. Zujus and E. Kučinskas had never performed on the same stage until now.
“We talked about it more than once. Something kept getting in the way – the date didn’t coincide, other work appeared. Therefore, this performance was simply a good opportunity to meet in music”, said E. Kučinskas.
A guest from far away
The “Šančiai Inn Jazz” festival this year has traditionally become a continuation of the projects that G. Zujus has been implementing with Lithuanians around the world for many years – from creative camps in Rumšiškės to creative workshops in Australia and New Zealand. Therefore, it is not surprising that this year too
not only different generations but also Lithuanians living on different continents met on the festival stage.
This time, the prominent guest of the event was INora Flowers, a performer living in New Zealand, who returned to Lithuania after eight years and visited Šančiai Inn Jazz.
“I came back with gifts – my songs. They were born far from Lithuania, but it was here that I wanted to show them for the first time to people who understand every word and feel every emotion,” said the artist who held a live performance in Kaunas.
She said that she never planned a solo career. For many years, he sang in various groups, and his original work only started during the pandemic.
“During the pandemic, melodies just started pouring into me. At first I recorded them on my phone, and then I realized that they wanted to become songs,” the musician recalled.
According to INora, today’s stay in Lithuania means much more to her than concerts.
“We are not only returning to our homeland. We are returning to relationships, to people, to our stories. Today, many people are rediscovering connections that were left behind many years ago,” she said.
There are no limits
Another goal of “Šančiai Inn Jazz”, according to G. Zujaus, is not only to remember history, but also to show that music has no age limits.
“Today, people who created the history of Lithuanian music forty years ago and those who will create it in the future can meet on one stage. I think this is the greatest value of the festival,” said G. Zujus.
This year, the festival program brought together performers of different generations and styles. In addition to the already mentioned musicians and singers, Arvydas Joffė, Saulius Šiaučiulis, Arūnas Urbiks, Egidijus Buožis, Giedrius Kuprevičius, Vytautas Petrušonis, Eugenijus Kunickas, Gražvydas Januška and other names of the Lithuanian music scene also appeared on stage or remotely. Along with the stage masters, young performers also performed – the LMTA alumni jazz quartet, Amelija, the group “Pauže”, Ignas, Beatričė, Augustė and other emerging talents.
This year, the festival united not only different generations, but also different parts of the world. Austėja, the youngest participant of the event, sang remotely from Sydney, who was supported live on stage by the most respected musicians of the festival – 83-year-old Kęstutis Ignatavičius and 85-year-old Eugenijus Kunickas. Father’s Day greetings from Western Australia were sent by July.
As last year, the final highlight of the festival was the inexhaustible imaginative compositions and improvisations of Ričardas Mekionis.
