Belgrade Jazz Festival opens Oct. 21 with Nikolov, Popovic
From October 21 to 24, the Belgrade Youth Center hosts 13 concerts, and the first night pairs a world premiere of History Now with a blues guitarist returning to where she first played.
In October 2024, Vladimir Nikolov came to the Belgrade Jazz Festival as a listener, to hear the concert “Serbian All Stars: Past, Present and Future,” played by his colleagues. That concert, he says, pushed him to build something similar, with a similar band lineup but with added horns. Two years later he opens the same festival with his own project, called “History Now,” which carries ten new compositions.
The 42nd Belgrade Jazz Festival runs from October 21 to 24, 2026 at the Belgrade Youth Center (Dom omladine), with 13 concerts and a closing jam session. On the first night, October 21, the Vladimir Nikolov Nonet gives its world premiere in the Great Hall at 7 p.m., followed by Ana Popovic at 9 p.m.
Who plays “History Now,” and what is on the program?
Vladimir Nikolov was born in Skopje in 1979. Since 2018 he has headed the Department of Jazz and Popular Music at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, and he is a co-founder of the Nikolov-Ivanovic Undectet, with which he has released three albums. The nonet’s concert is organized with the support of SOKOJ, the Serbian music authors’ organization. Among the ten new compositions are tributes to Lyle Mays and Antonio Carlos Jobim, and the motto of the program reads “Myths are styles, and styles are myths.”
Nine musicians will be on stage:
- Ivan Radivojevic (trumpet)
- Luka Ignjatovic (alto saxophone)
- Kristijan Mlacak (tenor saxophone)
- Djordje Kujundzic (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet)
- Matija Evetovic (trombone)
- Sava Miletic (piano)
- Vladimir Nikolov (guitars)
- Milan Nikolic (double bass)
- Aleksandar Cvetkovic (drums)
Nikolov says that for the first time he felt a real need to try Ellington’s recipe, writing music for musicians rather than for instruments, so the style, tempo and character of individual pieces are tied to one of them. “Writing a homage is actually harder than writing a free composition,” he said in an interview with Danas. He explains that with a homage you enter a world the audience already knows, so the music has to be recognizable and still bring something new.
What does the festival mean to someone coming back to it?
Nikolov also played the Belgrade Jazz Festival in 2019, with the Nikolov-Ivanovic Undectet, and he calls that set one of the best of his career. “I still remember the atmosphere on stage, and the poster from that festival hangs in a central spot in my study,” he says.
The festival, he notes, has run for more than four decades, and many important musicians and projects have come through Belgrade. That history, he adds, should not be treated as a closed chapter:
I think that history should be respected and nurtured, but not seen as something finished and untouchable. Tradition makes sense if new music and new ideas come out of it.
Nikolov, a composer and head of the jazz department at the Faculty of Music, said this while talking about a project that carries history literally in its title.
Why is Ana Popovic the opening act the organizer highlights?
Dom omladine says that for the first time in the festival’s history its biggest star comes from the world of blues. Ana Popovic has ten Blues Award nominations, and this year she turns 50 and marks 25 years since her solo debut, “Hush.” She played her first big shows 30 years ago at Dom omladine itself, at the St. James club and at the Marsona Blues Fest.
The organizer also points out that B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Albert King and Memphis Slim performed at the festival in the 1970s, and it sees her concert as a continuation of that line. In Belgrade she plays songs from the album “Dance to the Rhythm” (2025), which includes a cover of Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” Her band is:
- Buthel Burns (bass, backing vocals)
- Kevin Jones (drums, backing vocals)
- Michele Papadia (keyboards)
- Claudio Giovagnoli (saxophone)
- Davide Ghidoni (trumpet)
- Skyler Jordan (backing vocals)
Who plays on the other nights?
The program by day, as the organizer has arranged it:
- October 22: Tino Tracanna with the project “Panorchestra,” and Chicago Underground Duo, made up of Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor
- October 23: the Ivan Radivojevic Quartet and the trio The Messthetics with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis
- October 24: the Joao Paulo Esteves da Silva Quartet and Marquis Hill with the band Blacktet Revisited
The festival closes with the Djordje Kujundzic Quartet and a jam session. The program also includes a duo of Spanish pianist Daniel Garcia and Swiss vocalist Andreas Schaerer, at 10:30 p.m. The organizer says as many as 12 bands are playing the festival for the first time.
Where can you buy tickets?
Single tickets are sold at all eFinity points of sale and online. A limited number of festival passes, valid for the eight main-program concerts that start at 7 p.m., are sold at the Dom omladine Belgrade box office. The organizer did not state ticket prices in its announcement.
