BROKEN GLASS 4TET
(Lithuania)
Pranas Kentra – g, compositions
Jievaras Jasinskis – tb, banjo
Simonas Kaupinis – tba
Domantas Razmus – dr
These four thought-provoking personalities are well known to Lithuanian jazz, contemporary and improvisational music lovers, because these musicians can be heard in a variety of ensembles. Broken Glass 4tet is the result of their long-standing collaboration and friendship. The quartet was formed in 2021 by guitarist Pranas Kentra. He wanted to compose for a non-traditional ensemble. The group performs mainly his compositions.
Flexible musicians of colourful backgrounds masterfully navigate between musical genres and styles ranging from blues and rock to contemporary micro-rhythms, compound metres, polyrhythms and free improvisation.
Broken Glass 4tet has performed in the Baltic States and released its first album Solitude in 2022 to critical acclaim.
Pranas Kentra is a versatile guitarist and jazz composer, bandleader and initiator of international projects. He studied jazz at the Vilnius University of Applied Sciences, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LAMT) and Prince Claus Conservatory in the Netherlands. He is active in jazz and contemporary music projects. In 2013, Kentra’s trio won the Gitarų šėlsmas (Guitar Frenzy) competition in Vilnius.
He collaborates with a wide range of musicians, including many Lithuanian jazz artists, big bands, classical orchestras and choirs, contemporary academic music composers, the production company Operomanija, and is a regular participant in the projects of Jievaras Jasinskis.
In 2014, his group released its debut album Vague Memoirs in the Netherlands, and in 2016, the guitarist’s second album Centrifuge was released with Bulgarian drummer Stefan Goranov, Dutch Grammy-winning bassist Mark Haanstra, and talented younger generation musicians. Kentra has also worked with Chinese artists. Since 2014, he has been a member of the contemporary music ensemble Synaesthesis.
The guitarist combines performing and composing with pedagogical activities: for a long time, he has taught at Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University Academy of Music and Juozas Gruodis Conservatoire, and since 2016, he has been working at Vilnius University of Applied Sciences, where he is currently the head of the Department of Rhythmic Music and an associate professor at the Faculty of Arts.
Jievaras Jasinskis is one of the most active jazz trombonists, composers and arrangers in Lithuania, creating large-scale original music projects. He graduated from the LAMT where he has studied classical trombone and composition.
His musical biography is atypical. He started studying trombone at the Balys Dvarionas Music School and came to the music scene from the funk/acid jazz group Bekešo vilkai. Later he played in popular youth groups Saulės kliošas and Skamp, and even made it to the Eurovision with InCulto.
However, Jievaras decided to continue his professional career as a classical trombonist until his creative ambitions pushed him towards jazz. In 2014, his group Reinless began to storm the concert stages, performing his original compositions, which blend funk, soul, rock and jazz improvisation. The group has released two studio albums. In 2017, the Lithuanian JJAZZ Ensemble, a jazz orchestra formed by Jasinskis and saxophonist Liutauras Janušaitis, debuted at the Broma Jazz festival, playing original compositions by the founders.
Jievaras has been working with the Kaunas Big Band for eleven years, composing and arranging music for it. In 2018, he became its chief conductor. While in this ensemble, he fell in love with the big band genre and became its true expert. In 2018, the trombonist played in the Euroradio Jazz Orchestra, and last year led the orchestra and worked with it to perform his composition P(i)e(a)ce of Vilnius, which was broadcast on Euroradio. The trombone virtuoso has also soloed with the Latvian Radio Big Band and assisted them as a composer.
At the beginning of 2023, he left the Kaunas Big Band because of his new collective Vilnius JJAZZ Ensemble.
Neither jazz orchestras nor pop artists can do without Jasinskis’ arrangements. He has arranged more than 1500 works of various genres. In this capacity he has collaborated with Ten Walls, pop artists Linas Adomaitis, Ieva Narkutė, Merūnas Vitulskis, Andrius Mamontovas, the groups Lilas ir Innonime and G&G Sindikatas among others, as well as the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, and the composer Kipras Mašanauskas.
According to the artist, arrangements have become for him a reliable bridge to composition of symphonic music. In 2021, he premiered his symphony Iš šiaurės Jeruzalės (From Jerusalem of the North), and last year, to celebrate the Year of Sūduva, he composed a theatrical mystery Sūduvių pėdsakais (In the Footsteps of the Sūduvians).
In 2023, Jasinskis’ contribution to Lithuanian jazz was recognised with the Vilnius Jazz festival award.
Simonas Kaupinis, one of the most interesting young representatives of contemporary music, jazz and improvisational music, has rehabilitated the tuba as an expressive instrument suitable for a variety of musical styles.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in tuba as well as a master’s degree in Contemporary and Improvisational music from the LAMT. He also has honed his skills at the Gioachino Rossini Conservatoire in Italy as part of an exchange programme.
He participates in projects with composers, is actively involved in various improvisational music ensembles, including the Improdimensija Orchestra, groups Ąžuoliniai berželiai, Laivo Troupe, Kanalizacija, the contemporary music ensemble Synaesthesis, and Rakija Klezmer Orkestra.
In 2021, the tuba player released an album of his works for solo tuba, Tubism. He appears in various art projects, jazz and academic music festivals in Lithuania and abroad.
