Leading Croatian jazz musician today Matija Dedic He is a welcome guest in Montenegro. He performed with his trio, but also with his parents, and these performances were always well attended.
However, he has not had a workshop in Montenegro until now, so Tuesday, December 13, starting at 11 a.m., in the Chamber Hall of the Music Center of Montenegro, will be the first of its kind with him. He will have the opportunity to talk with fellow jazz pianists from Montenegro at the workshop "Jazz stories with Matija Dedić and friends". Enes Tahirović i Vladimir Marash.
On the same day, on the Big Stage of the Music Center of Montenegro, Matija will give a concert in the same hall.
Matija Dedić reveals in an interview with Vijesti whether the stories at the workshop will be exclusively about jazz or if there will be some anecdotes.
"I wouldn't want to waste my time in a lecture, considering that I don't consider myself very competent for that, nor is it in my nature. I would like to talk informally and to try to answer all the questions or to play what is in my power", he points out.
Although musicians usually decide on the jazz direction at a mature age, Matija showed interest in this genre very early on.
"I think that a lot more of us fell in love with jazz in our teenage days, and mainly from the default format of classical music, our path to improvisation and creating our own stamp started", believes Dedić, who built himself in this direction through his own author's music. Today, when he plays the pieces he wrote for his trio, he discovers how long the improvisations within the composition, which always make them fresh, can last and whether he gives space to the other members of the ensemble in which he is playing at that moment to prove themselves through them or whether they are exclusively intended for the piano , corresponds to:
"The duration can be infinite, but we have to think about the audience and have a measure. We must not exaggerate in order not to burden them, and make them enjoy themselves and come to the concert again", reveals the recipe for a good performance Dedić, whose father as an author left behind numerous works and they are always Arsen and his mother Gabi were highly regarded as musicians. Given that Matija also decided that his calling in life was music, he had no problem with the fact that he had to be at that level.
"I didn't have any pressure because I come from a musical family. My father was an author, and I'm a musician", describes the difference, Dedić, whose daughter is Lu also showed her musical talent through the composition they worked together for Matia's current album "Ladies". But, as Matija claims, he will not continue the family tradition.
"Lu didn't go our way. He works in graphics. She only graduated from junior high school, the piano department, and very rarely sings somewhere," admits Matija.
We live in places where the text of a composition is heard first, and only then the melody, the arrangement, that's why instrumental music is still in its infancy. However, he does not think that his decision was brave to express his creativity through instrumental music.
"I would not agree that instrumental music is in its infancy. She is beautiful. From Brazilian to the Middle East, a lot can be said through it. For example, when I play Arsen's music, people hear the lyrics. "Keith Jarrett Trio" proves how arrangements are not so important. Lyrics are important, but they are done by masters like my late father, Cohen, Brela, Tenka, Paulija... and some regional exceptions", proudly points out Dedić, whom the general public, who does not follow jazz and his work as much, just got to know through Arsen's covers, as well as some other authors.
"At the same time, I am working on projects for the region that are drinkable and not difficult for people, but they are recognizable, because I know that they are much more interested in that, than my real jazz discography, which has been published mostly abroad for the last almost 10 years. Of course, there are also jazz festivals in these areas where the organizer only wants to hear from me," said Dedić.
With his last album "Ladies", Matija brought together female vocal artists who left a special impression on him with their interpretation. When asked if he is satisfied with how it went over with the audience, he answers:
"Marijana Zlopaš is the only guest from the ex-Yu space on that album, which features exclusively my beautiful and extremely high-quality friends with whom I have shared the scene and travels for the last 25 years. Plus mother and daughter early. That album is only and exclusively my decision to perpetuate the above on CD", he claims.
In recent decades, a lot of pianists from this area have decided to play jazz, and that's where they are the most successful Vasil Hadzhimanov, Bojan Zulfikarpašić. What does he think of the jazz scene in the Balkans today and does he have time to see off the younger generations who are coming, he says:
"I follow as much as I can and I think I am well informed. There are a lot of very talented new young people, but unfortunately they were caught at the wrong time," concludes Dedić.
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