KAUNAS BIG BAND AND L. KRUSE PROJECT HIDDEN STONE

KAUNAS BIG BAND AND L. KRUSE PROJECT HIDDEN STONE

(Lithuania – Denmark)

Kaunas Big Band has been appearing at the Birštonas Jazz since 1980 and has presented many interesting programs and soloists here. The collective’s concerts usually feature vocalists, saxophonists, trumpeters or pianists, but this time the audience will hear a rarer combination of instruments – Line Kruse, a violinist, composer and arranger from Denmark, will present her solo program with Kaunas Big Band. This is her second collaboration with Kaunas’ jazzmen.

The program will be conducted by Jievaras Jasinskis, the principal conductor of Kaunas Big Band.

Line Kruse was born and grew up in Denmark. After graduating from the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, she continued her violin studies in Paris with Ivry Giltis, the virtuoso violinist, Israel’s Goodwill Ambassador to UNESCO.

In Paris, the performer quickly joined the local music community, working with avant-gardists Minino Garay (percussion), Youn Sun Nah (vocals), Niels Lan Doky (piano), Khalil Chahine (sound engineer, producer) and others.

These experiences helped the musician create a distinctive sound, which opened the door for her to the multicultural scene in Paris and later to other parts of the world. Impeccable technique, restrained theatricality and sincerity of music making lend new hues to every piece Line performs.

Inspired by violinist Jakob Gade and the music group Gotan Project (whose music is featured in the films Let’s Dance, Ocean’s Twelve and The Truth About Charlie), of which she herself was a member, Line Kruse has released an ambitious album, Hidden Stone. It shook the music world with the original approach to contemporary jazz. The album’s powerful Danish melodic lines intertwine with Argentine, Cuban and Afro-Peruvian folklore rhythms and gentle timbral gestures in violin and big band parts.

According to the violinist, she was always attracted by combinations of different music styles, rhythms and melodies. “My compositions reflect not only my musical experience, but also what’s going on ‘under my skin’,” said Line Kruse.

Kaunas Big Band has been in existence since 1991, again and again enhancing Lithuanian jazz scenes – Birštonas Jazz, Kaunas Jazz, Klaipėda Castle Jazz and Šiauliai Big Band festivals.

A member of the concert institution “Kauno santaka”, Kaunas Big Band has always been in the centre of the most important jazz music events. Over more than thirty years of its existence, it has become a significant leader of jazz culture of Kaunas and Lithuania in general, has educated a generation of jazz vocalists and instrumentalists. Last year, the Big Band welcomed their impressive anniversary with the Lithuanian big band music album Jazz up.  

Kaunas Big Band can be heard in prestigious concert halls and multi-thousand seat arenas, its programs feature jazz and pop musicians of the highest calibre.

The orchestra has presented the audience with many a world-class music celebrity including the Finnish jazzmen Eero Koivistoinen and Jukka Linkola, Swedish trumpeter Lasse Lindgren and multi-instrumentalist Gunhild Carling, American jazz composer Frank Mantooth, trumpeter Randy Brecker, trombone player Jiggs Whigham, saxophonist and composer Bob Mintzer, German organist Barbara Dennerlein, French accordionist Richard Galliano, Spanish percussionist Jorge Perez, clarinet virtuoso from Norway Felix Peikli, the young Estonian jazz star Sofia Rubina, Mexican vibraphonist Victor Mendoza and Russian multi-instrumentalist Arkady Shilkloper.

In recent years, Kaunas Big Band presented unique programs with vocalist Nadine Axisa (Malta), kantele virtuoso Ida Elina (Finland), saxophonist Hermine Deurloo, and pianist Peter Beets (the Netherlands).

Kaunas Big Band has represented Lithuania’s jazz culture in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, the Netherlands, Latvia, Russia, Belarus and Estonia. It is currently preparing for festivals in Tartu, Kaunas and Klaipėda.

It has partnered almost every celebrated Lithuanian jazz master, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. The exponents of other artistic medias have collaborated with the collective in educational programs. Several generations already have considered Kaunas Big Band as a symbol of the live jazz school.

The Big Band’s late leader Romualdas Grabštas (1943–2009) stood at the collective’s helm for 18 years. The founder’s aspirations were pursued by Skirmantas Sasnauskas, Tomas Botyrius and Petras Tadaras. Currently, Jievaras Jasinskis serves as the Big Band’s principal conductor. He also composes and arranges for the Big Band.

In 2006, the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union presented Kaunas Big Band with Gold Disc for its achievements. In 2009, Romualdas Grabštas was posthumously honoured with the Vilnius Jazz Award for his contributions to Lithuanian jazz.

Jievaras Jasinskis chose this direction of self-realisation not accidentally – last year he earned master’s degree in composition from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LAMT). He is currently most fascinated by the composer’s craft.

Jievaras’ biography is atypical. He graduated as a trombonist from the Balys Dvarionas Music School but stepped onto music scene from the underground band – Bekešo vilkai. Later, the trombonist joined the most popular youth groups in the country – Saulės kliošas and Skamp. Moreover, he teamed up with InCulto in the Eurovision Song Contest.

However, Jievaras decided to continue his professional career as a classical trombone player – he entered the LAMT. He also began arranging music. His creative ambitions soon propelled the musician into jazz, and the trombonist suddenly turned into nearly an expert of big bands: besides Reinless, he formed the Lithuanian JJazz Ensemble, became the principal conductor of Kaunas Big Band, debuted in Euroradio Jazz Orchestra (2018), and appeared as a soloist with the Latvian Radio Big Band.

Neither jazz orchestras nor pop musicians can get by without his arrangements. Without him, Andrius Mamontovas’ album Šiaurės naktis. Pusė penkių (North Night. Half past Four) would have hardly been given a new life – and now it was recorded with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra (LCO) at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London. Jasinskis arranged the album’s music for the chamber orchestra; he made his debut as a composer at the LCO’s concert at the National Philharmonic Hall.

Recently, the composer presented his first symphonic opus: on the occasion of the National Memorial Day for the Genocide Victims of the Lithuanian Jews, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra and invited classical, jazz and folklore musicians performed Jasinskis’ Symphony from Jerusalem of the North in Vilnius, Biržai and Kaunas. This composition intertwined classical music with Middle Eastern melodies and Lithuanian folklore.

His personal project for this Birštonas Jazz is an attempt to combine his different competencies.