Ana Popovic opens Belgrade Jazz Festival, tickets sold out
The first night of the 42nd Belgrade Jazz Festival is sold out: a world premiere from Vladimir Nikolov in the Big Hall of Dom omladine, then Ana Popovic with her six-piece band.
Ana Popovic played the St. James club and the Marsoni blues fest at Dom omladine Beograda three decades ago. Tonight she returns to the same building as the biggest name at the 42nd Belgrade Jazz Festival, and there are no tickets left for her 9 p.m. concert. According to Dom omladine, the 7 p.m. concert before hers is sold out too, as are all festival passes.
According to the organizers’ announcement, carried by Ekspres, this is the first time in the festival’s history that its biggest star comes from the world of blues. The genre is no stranger to this hall: Dom omladine points out that B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Albert King and Memphis Slim all played the festival in the 1970s.
What is playing tonight in the Big Hall?
The 7 p.m. slot belongs to the Vladimir Nikolov nonet, who give the world premiere of a project called History Now. It consists of ten new compositions dedicated to Lyle Mays and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Nikolov, the composer, arranger and conductor, leads a nine-member lineup:
- 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)
Ana Popovic takes the stage at 9 p.m., in the year she turns 50 and 25 years after her solo debut, Hush. She has ten Blues Award nominations, and her current album, Dance to the Rhythm (2025), pairs original songs with her version of Paul Simon’s 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. She is joined by a six-piece band: Buthel Burns, Kevin Jones, Michele Papadia, Claudio Giovannoli, Davide Ghidoni and Skyler Jordan.
Why is the festival called the Confluence of Jazz?
According to artistic director Vojislav Pantic, the slogan came from the trumpet in this year’s design. The program links blues, neo-bop, post-punk, hip-hop, flamenco, Latin and funk. Pantic describes Belgrade as a meeting place:
“Belgrade really is that confluence where, for more than half a century, the greats of the genre from all over the world have gathered, along with the many styles that shape jazz.”
Pantic also said this about the 2026 edition: “Today, on the centenary of the birth of Miles and Coltrane, we celebrate their work in the right way, with another look into the future of jazz, without compromise!”
Jazz musician Jovan Maljokovic, president of the Belgrade Jazz Festival board, said ahead of the opening: “I invite the audience not to miss, over these four days, a superb selection of Serbian, European and American musicians.” Vanja Vulevic, acting director of Dom omladine Beograda, says in a statement:
“Every year the Belgrade Jazz Festival reminds us that culture is not only what is created on stage, but also what happens between the artists and the audience.”
What comes next through October 24?
The festival runs from October 21 to 24 in the Big Hall and the Amerikana hall. The program has 13 concerts and a closing jam session, and according to Dom omladine as many as 12 acts are playing the festival for the first time.
- October 22: Tin Trakan’s Panorchestra at 7 p.m., Chicago Underground Duo at 9 p.m., and in Amerikana Andreas Schaerer and Daniel Garcia from 10:30 p.m., then the Arun Ramamurthy trio from 11:45 p.m.
- October 23: the Ivan Radivojevic quartet with Rastko Obradovic premieres material from its second album, Not Quite Sun, Not Quite the Moon, followed by The Messthetics, which features former Fugazi members Joe Lally and Brendan Canty with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis; in Amerikana, Seifert Night with the Michal Modrzynski Trio and the band JuMa
- October 24: the Joao Paulo Esteves da Silva quartet and Marquis Hill Blacktet Revisited, and in Amerikana the Djordje Kujundzic quartet and a jam session at 11:45 p.m.
Among the American guests is trumpeter Rob Mazurek, who plays with drummer Chad Taylor as Chicago Underground Duo. The duo returned in 2025 with the album Hyperglyph after an eleven-year break, and ahead of the Belgrade concert Mazurek said the two of them have been making music together for almost thirty years. Asked about genres, he answered with a line that suits a festival split between blues, post-punk and neo-bop: “Genres are useful for organizing record stores, but they have very little to do with the act of creating itself.” On composition and improvisation he says: “The unexpected is essential.”
The organizer is Dom omladine Beograda, and the patrons are the City of Belgrade, the Secretariat for Culture, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. Individual tickets for the remaining concerts can be bought at eFinity sales points and on efinity.rs.
