I first visited the Jazz Goes To Town festival in the Czech city of Hradec Králové in 2022, at the invitation of its programmer, saxophonist Michal Wróblewski. His selection largely matched my own musical taste, and I had no urgent commitments at my regular job, so I gladly accepted the invitation and visited the festival for the first time.
This year, circumstances worked in my favour once again, so I returned to the festival, where the programme includes In Cahoots feat. Ingrid Laubrock, Amado/Leandre/Cleaver Trio, Arcanum Quartet (Trygve Seim, Arve Henriksen, Anders Jormin, Markku Ounaskari), BRIQUE (with Eve Risser), and many others.
On these pages and elsewhere, I have often written about what the “essence of a festival” actually is, and what makes a jazz festival interesting beyond the “pure music” — in other words, beyond the quality of the musicians who come to play. A large number of jazz festivals count on their tourist appeal almost as much as on the music itself, especially those held during the summer, when people are taking their holidays. Others have decades of reputation behind them and take place in major national capitals; still others gather jazz nerds in small towns and are known for their uncompromising attitude, bringing together a niche audience and communities of musicians and dedicated jazz people.
When it comes to Jazz Goes To Town, my knowledge of the situation in the Czech Republic is still limited, and I wouldn’t dare judge the festival’s importance for the Czech scene itself. From the perspective of someone coming from outside, what attracts me to this festival is its particular sense of “comfort” and “cosiness”.
Compared with major urban centres and capital cities, Hradec Králové is a relatively small (or perhaps “medium-sized”) city, where all the festival venues are generally within a 15–20 minute walk. There are two or three concerts during the day, and there is no typical accompanying programme of exhibitions, press conferences or panel discussions, which means that the focus is firmly on the concerts in the evening.
For jazz enthusiasts who also have experience with very intense jazz festivals, an event like this can be very pleasant precisely because of its relaxed pace. Your brain can properly absorb each concert, nothing goes on until very late at night, and during the day you have time to sleep and get some proper rest (or do your regular job online during the working week). Hradec Králové is not a hectic city, which adds to the feeling of relaxation. It also has several excellent coffee shops and some very decent restaurants, all of which provides great “logistics” for enjoying the concerts as well.
The concert venues are mostly fairly traditional — cinemas, theatres and concert halls — with one exception being the performance by Prague Quiet Music Collective at Sauna NUUK, which could turn out to be one of those performances that become an “event in itself” through the sheer creativity of the setting.
The festival began last night with a concert by vocalist Lenka Gálisová and her quartet, and continues tonight with a double bill: Olie Brice Quartet (Olie Brice, Rachel Musson, Alexander Hawkins, Will Glaser) and the already mentioned In Cahoots (Gratkowski / Zoubek / Landfermann / Mahnig) with Ingrid Laubrock.
Depending on time and how things unfold “on the field”, I’ll write at least one, and perhaps two, festival reports over the next few days, while posting more stories and reels on Instagram.
Stay tuned.