BitefArtCafe Turns 25 With PJ Morton and Kovacs
BitefArtCafe has announced its 25th season of Musicology Barcaffè Sessions: from Nik West and PJ Morton to Ana Stanic and Kovacs, concerts run September 24 to November 27.
The first time bassist Nik West heard “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” in high school, she found the instrument she would end up dedicating her entire career to, rather than picking up now and then. “That’s when I discovered the bass guitar, and there was no going back,” said West, an artist Prince admired by her own account, and whom Quincy Jones once called a phenomenon. On September 24, that same bass opens the 25th, milestone season of BitefArtCafe, the Belgrade concert venue.
The club at 8 Mitropolita Petra Street opened in 2001 and has run under the same management ever since, which makes it a genuine rarity on the Belgrade scene, where venues tend to open and close faster than audiences can memorize their schedule. That continuity is what gave rise, in 2014, to Musicology Barcaffè Sessions, an international concert series that has spent season after season bringing names from the global jazz, soul, funk and crossover scene to Belgrade, staying true to that format longer than most festivals last at all.
When Does the Anniversary Season Start, and Who’s Playing First?
The lineup for the first half of the milestone season, announced this week, shows exactly what that continuity looks like in practice: acts making their Belgrade debut alternate with performers the audience has long claimed as its own. After Nik West, the Croatian outfit Ljetno Kino takes the stage on September 25, with Stane Kovacic on cello and the Argentine Romero brothers on drums and violin, joined for the night by Rok, son of frontman Maks, singing songs the band once recorded with Vlada Divljan. Four days later, on September 29, comes the final of the Musicology Showcase by Lenovo, where eight bands that played as opening acts over the previous season compete for the title: Kosta Paunovic Fusion Quartet, Ziva, Bvana and Dzezeri iz Lagune, Usto Fank, Elena Vasova, Zasto Kafka, Vuk Starinac and Lara Kalapis Quartet. The winner is chosen by both audience vote and an expert jury.
October turns the spotlight to names carrying a decade or three of experience. Pop singer Vana, three decades into her career, performs on the 9th; PJ Morton, the New Orleans based keyboardist of Maroon 5 and a six time Grammy winner with 22 nominations, arrives on the 15th; and a day later, on October 16, Ana Stanic takes the BitefArtCafe stage for the first time, bringing seven studio albums and two decades of a solo career. The run closes on October 30 with Psihomodo Pop, a band that has carried the status of a regional rock institution for four decades now.
November brings two names that best capture the range Musicology Barcaffè Sessions draws from. Kovacs, known for her deep, dark soul vocal and an aesthetic rooted in early electro and industrial sound, performs on the 4th, returning to Belgrade for what she says is already a third time. “Definitely a place I keep coming back to,” Kovacs said of a city where, so far, every one of her shows has sold out. The season closes on November 27 with the Japanese project Kyoto Jazz Massive, back on European stages after a fifteen year break with an entirely new lineup, joined by the orchestra Echoes Of A New Dawn and vocalist Vanessa Freeman. Suja Okino, one of the project’s founders, explained what’s behind the return:
“Hope is the joy of being alive, the happiness we feel when we share moments with friends… I want people to find, through the music of Kyoto Jazz Massive, hope and encouragement for a positive outlook on life.”
Taken out of context, that line could easily read as a promotional phrase. Placed at the end of an eight month, nine name run, it plays instead as an honest summary of what BitefArtCafe has quietly been doing for twenty five years: bringing in people who have something to say, then handing them the stage.
What sets this program apart from an ordinary season announcement isn’t its size, but how closely it sticks to the formula the venue established back in 2014: a mix of established names and debut acts, domestic and international voices, all staged at a venue that, unlike most clubs in Belgrade, has stayed loyal to one address and one idea for twenty five years running. Tickets for every announced date are on sale through bilet.rs.
