The concert of Enes Tahirović and friends opened with the sounds of drums that gradually got stronger, which started the glimpse of sevdah in the jazz manner. Marko Prentić sang "In the beautiful old town of Višegrad" and moved the audience with his voice, introducing them to a musical evening that will offer a meeting with great musicians, vocalists and arrangements.
It is Tahirović's original project "Emina" - a jazz interpretation by Himzo Polovina, one of the most famous sevdalinka performers in the region. Thus, on Tuesday evening, the music program of the Bar Chronicle was opened on the summer stage of the Cultural Center.
They continued to take the audience back to the past with the famous "Yellow Quince", also in the vocal performance of Prentić, during which you could hear that the track attracted people even outside the summer scene who asked "who is singing this?" Music, however, has the power to attract and evoke reactions.
Tahirović addressed the attendees, thanking them for coming in such a "good number". He introduced the musicians: Ben Kraef on tenor saxophone, Stefan Pavićević on clarinet, Sava Vujačić on harmonica, Slaven Ljujić on drums and Tin Džaferović on double bass.
"We will play you the most beautiful songs that Himzo Polovina liked to sing in our, narrowly speaking, ethno-jazz version", he said and added that there is still "a lot to listen to", because "it is of various genres".
He then announced "a strange version" of "Suljaga's Fate", which is an instrumental without a singer.
The sounds of the accordion, in their new jazz guise, awakened sevdah. At the same time, for a moment, the saxophone would take the imagination to some half-darkened jazz club where devotees gather, and in the background of which only the shadow of the instrument and the saxophonist can be seen. Every instrumentalist that evening showed that he is an exceptional virtuoso, and above all an admirer of music and his passion for it. The music moved from loud to soft and from soft to loud and was full of surprises. The whole evening the audience enjoyed, applauded and shouted "Bravo!"
"Now it's time for our first guest tonight, it's Lana Bojanić from Podgorica. She will sing 'The flowers are adorned with dew,'" announced Tahirović.
The sounds of the piano were the first to meet her. She sang in her melodious voice about the fate of a young woman who does not have her beloved, who is grieving, watching a dove and a dove, a swallow and a swallow kissing each other, while she was given to an old man for a couple.
"I want love, happiness and joy, I want a good song and youth," says the song, which shows how pure emotion Sevdalinka is.
The second guest introduced by Tahirović is Doria Nedović, who comes from Herceg Novi and for whom this was her "first performance on such a big stage".
"She will sing an equally balladic, slightly fairy-tale version, "In Istanbul on the Bosphorus" of our great standard," he said.
While growing up, my father often mentioned that I should make a tribute to Himza Polovina, because he is his favorite singer. I have always been skeptical. I was not a big fan of sevdah music. Now I am," Tahirović revealed to "Vijesta"
It is an understatement to say that no one would complain about the studio version of this performance, which could be listened to over and over again. Nedović's voice filled the space, and everyone was holding their breath so as not to miss a note. This was followed by the song "Snow fell on behar na fruit" performed by Marko Prentić.
All three performers that evening perfectly matched their sensibilities and wonderful decorations and made the jazz versions of sevdalinka gain a new emotion and experience. At the same time, as indicated by the very idea of the project, they sang in accordance with a jazz arrangement that includes the ornaments of sevdah and thus preserves its spirit.
This project has brought sevdah closer to those who may not be a particular fan of it.
The song "Razbolje se lijepa Hajrija" began with a double bass that foreshadows, hints, as if it is about to tell us something, but still stops. Kontabas Džaferović with two voices Bojanić and Nedović created an atmosphere in which it was as if sevdah got storytellers who, mourning Hajrija's but also human destiny, tell us a story.
After that song, Tahirović announced "Cudna jada od Mostar grada" in a "slightly funky version" with Prentić on the microphone. At one point, Ljujić had his solo moment behind the drums, where both the musicians and the audience listened closely and rewarded him with strong applause, after which Prentić continued the song.
The song after which the project was named was left for the very end of the concert, where everyone was on stage, with the arrival of harpist Milica Kankaraš. When her harp released the first notes, it was as if the music had found itself somewhere far away, and a mist opened in front of the audience, which then revealed a warm hammam... Those present were passing by the garden of the old Imam, and "when there in the garden, in the shade of jasmine with a pool in Emina's hand stood".
After the big applause, there was an "encore" with "Cudna jada od Mostar grada" and another standing ovation.
Freddie Mercury's thought is well known: "You can do what you want with my music, but don't make me boring". So Enes Tahirović and his friends gave the Sevdalinka, which Polovina loved to sing, a completely new outfit, which is definitely not boring. Music is a limitless field of possibilities. Field of experiments. Every new project and idea is an opportunity to preserve what is valuable, and in this case it is Himz Polovina's sevdah combined with jazz, which means - freedom.
Tahirović: Himzo Polovina approached sevdah as an intellectual
In an interview with "Vijesti" after the concert, Tahirović stated that the source of the idea to form the "Emina" project was completely personal.
"While growing up, my father often mentioned that I should make a tribute to Himz Polovina, because he is his favorite singer. I have always been skeptical. I was not a big fan of sevdah music. Now I am," he said.
He pointed out that he did not even know that Polovina was, as he says, a learned man, a doctor of science, a collector of sevdah music, that he found, collected, wrote down, and composed for some of the most sevdalinka.
"It is interesting that "Emina" is completely his song, although the lyrics, as we all know, were written by Aleksa Šantić. That song is his. It was interesting to me precisely because Himzo himself approached sevdah as an intellectual, and less like what we are used to - a tavern-like approach", explained Tahirović and said that he has removed that stigma from himself and that he sees sevdah as something that "is very spiritually powerful and pure, very pure".
"So my father - number one, and number two wish to bring together all the best Montenegrin musicians, as well as colleagues who have something to do with me and live abroad", Tahirović explained the sources of the idea for this project.
Speaking about the music team itself, he says that they are in Bar for the first time and that they have been reinforced on the saxophone with Doria Nedović from Herceg Novi.
"Both the first and the second time, the collaboration was very colorful, because they all have their own sensibilities. Everyone is different, everyone comes from a different background. We have Tino Džaferović, a jazz double bassist, who has ties to Bosnia through his grandfather. He is a famous jazz drummer, who completed his studies at Berklee, and he likes folk music a lot. He doesn't play it professionally, but he loves it. So I was looking for people who look at things with an open mind, and people who understand music a little more. So the rehearsals were like a game of hide and seek, finding a common center, and I think we succeeded in that, especially this year we expanded the arrangements a bit and everything sounds a lot more serious", stated Tahirović.
He says that jazz has completely changed his experience of sevdah, because before he did not approach sevdah as something that is the blues music of Bosnia, but as something that is played in a pub. He thought that sevdah was something "shallow, for fun, weddings, celebrations..."
"However, sevdah is deep music, and it is very spiritual and musically expressive. So, jazz is there with that element of improvisation and harmony. I tried to enrich these songs as much as possible without changing their original identity", explained Tahirović.
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