200 artists from 16 nations

While we have been able to raise your excitement with a few details about this year's Jazzfestival Saalfelden, we are now proud to present the full program for the 44th edition of the festival from 22 to 25 August 2024: almost 200 musicians from 16 nations promise an eventful weekend full of musical discoveries and international gatherings. Well-established events such as the already fully booked ‘We Hike Jazz’ hike led by bassist Lukas Kranzelbinder or the spontaneous flash mobs - organised this year by saxophonist Yvonne Moriel - and the free ‘Citytracks’ are just as much a part of the program as the first-ever concert at the picturesque 17th-century ‘Einsiedelei’ just above Schloss Lichtenstein, which can be reached on an easy hike on Friday of the festival.

The Synesthetic Octet, otherMother and Purple Muscle Car are just some of the band names that prominently feature Austrian musicians, and the official opening concert at Congress Saalfelden will also be performed by an Austrian: Together with her musical companions Dorian Concept (synth, electr), Manu Mayr (bass) and Lou Zon (visuals), Iranian-born clarinettist Mona Matbou Riahi enters a sound space of composition and improvisation with the premiere of her project ‘Nebulift’.

This year's artist in residence also comes from Austria: Musician, composer, artist, sound researcher, mechanical engineer and recording studio operator, the multi-talented Chris Janka will be thinking outside the musical box this year with a total of five projects - including the freshly released Blueblut album ‘Garden of Robotic Unkraut’ - and giving the Jazzfestival Saalfelden its very own flavour with the intersection of music via new media and sound art. ‘I'm trying to do something that I've never heard before,’ says the artist and wants to use his impulses ‘to make people think, or at least take a closer look.’

Some of the artists coming to Saalfelden from overseas are old acquaintances and dear friends, but they always bring new projects with them. Sylvie Courvoisier, for example, brings together key musical personalities from the New York jazz scene such as Nasheet Waits (dr), Drew Gress (bass), Nate Wooley (tp) and Mexican-born Patricia Brennan (vib & perc) with the electro sound of Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz in her latest formation Chimaera.
Erik Friedlander's ‘The Throw’ presents their brand new album ‘Dirty Boxing’ as a captivating experience that explores the unexpected parallels between the disciplined artistry of music and the strategic combat of mixed martial arts. Also with a new album, saxophone titan James Brandon Lewis meets the trio Messthetics around guitarist Anthony Pirog, and cellist Tomeka Reid presents her suite ‘3+3’ together with Jason Roebke on bass, Mary Halvorson on guitar and Tomas Fujiwara on percussion. Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones will be performing in Saalfelden for the first time. The formation around the extraordinary singer pushes the boundaries of jazz and electronic forms and in the same breath thematises ‘power, oppression, capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, violence and the changing nature of truth’.

Anyone familiar with the Jazzfestival Saalfelden will also be familiar with our ‘regular guests’ from European countries, and names such as Petter Eldh, the brothers Théo and Valentin Ceccaldi, Sofia Jernberg, Daniel Erdmann, Mats Gustafsson, Dan Nicholls and Oliver Steidle are synonymous with musical curiosity, openness and a willingness to experiment. With their projects, they all bring artists to Saalfelden who will experience the unique atmosphere of the festival for the first time. Together with, for example, the award-winning violinist, mandolinist and composer Clément Janinet and his formation ‘La Litanie Des Cimes’ or the Brainteaser Orchestra around composer and bandleader Tijn Wybenga from the Netherlands, we invite them to become part of the musical family - on, in front of and behind the stage.