BRUNO MIČETIĆ, guitar
JOE KAPLOWITZ, keyboards, hammond, tuba
RATKO DIVJAK, drums
(in cooperation with the Rijeka Jazz Festival)
BRUNO MIČETIĆ
Bruno Mičetić graduated from the Conservatory in Klagenfurt, Jazz Department, going on to form a trio with the musicians he was working with during the studies. The trio has been active for three years, appearing at a number of festivals and jazz clubs.
Bruno has worked with many Croatian and foreign musicians of various orientations and taken part in numerous jazz clinics: ”Umbria Jazz”, ”Jazz Is Back – Grožnjan”, ”Jazz kamp Kranj”. A self-admitted fan of old school jazz (bebop, mainstream jazz) as well as jazz – rock fusion, Bruno does not hide the fact that his first love is rock, and as the years went by, his desire for progradation led him to jazz. This undoubtedly shows the scope of width and interests of this young outstanding musician, guitarist from Rijeka.
Besides Bruno Mičetić, the trio members are American pianist, composer and arranger Joe Kaplowitz, and renowned drummer –Ratko Divjak – known as a member of the legendary band Time, which was awarded the Porin Prize for Life Work, and a member of the RTV Slovenia Big Band for years. This year the trio has released their first album ”Phantom’s Whisper”, a homage to jazz standards fostered by the trio for some time now, and in its final form it extracts a huge creative mass of sound. It is an album which leaves a Croatian listener with a faith that there is still good and sincere jazz performed by musicians of outstanding musicianship who commit themselves to the music without compromises!
JOE KAPLOWITZ
web: www.myspace.com/joekaplowitz
Joe Kaplowitz began performing professionally at age 15 inWashington, DC. He earned a degree in music at Youngstown StateUniversity in 1995 and since then has performed with the likes of EddieDaniels, James Moody, Ernie Krivda, Greg Bandy, Randy Jonston, Wycliff Gordan, Ralph Bowen, and Sean Jones. Joe has also shared the stage with David “Fathead” Newman and blues legends Koko Taylor andLucky Peterson. Since 1999, Joe has led jazz groups in appearances at the White House and music venues such as Blues Alley, The Knitting Factory and The House of Blues. From 2002 to 2006 Joe lived and played in New York City. During this period he formed the Joe Kap Organ Trio and performed in many well know venues across the city as well as having a long collaboration with rising jazz trumpet artist Mark Rapp. Other highlights include gigs with bassist Gavin Fallow, guitarists Liberty Ellman and Avi Rothbard, saxophonists Abraham Burton and Wess Anderson and drummers Mark Ferber, Kyle Struve and Kim Thompson. Since 2006 Joe has been living in southern Europe in the Republic of Croatia where he has become a musician and music educator in high demand as well as performing with (inter)national artists such as Tamara Obrovac, Elvis Stanić, Kruno Levačić, Igor Lumpert and Klemens Marktl.
RATKO DIVJAK
Ratko Divjak is famous jazz drummer who started his career in rock music. Interestingly enough, he achieved his full affirmation in Ljubljana, although Zagreb was the place where he spent an important period of his formative jazz years. Born in 1947 in Vukovar, Ratko Divjak finished his high school education in Osijek. His music education commenced in the same place – he first studied flute in primary and secondary music school. He took up the drums in 1964, becoming on irreplaceable jazz drummer after he graduated from the Jazz Institute in Graz.
He first played the drums in rock and pop groups, and his encounter with jazz occurred through gramophone records, similarly to most of our jazzmen of that time. In 1968 he moved to Zagreb where he joined the Ića Keleman’s Orchestra, and a year later he started working with Boško Petrović. He was the drummer in Petrović’s groups, namely, his quartet, as well as ‘B.P. Convention’, and his international ensemble ‘Nonconvertible All Stars’.
With these ensembles he has appeared at international jazz festivals in Prague, Montreux, Budapest, Vienna, West Berlin, and Ljubljana. In Zagreb he recorded with Leo Wright and Slide Hampton, and appeared at the Szeged International Jazz Festival with the Pop Asanović Trio. He also played in the Radio-television Zagreb Dance Orchestra for a while, appearing at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival in 1971.
By the end of 1973 Ratko Divjak left for Ljubljana where he joined the Radio-television Ljubljana Dance Orchestra, with which he regularly played at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival, sometimes with guests such as Jiggs Whigham, Duško Gojković, and appearing at the Belgrade Jazz Festival.
In the same period he played with Ljubljan’s smaller bands: with Petar Ugrin in ‘Pop Jazz Ljubljana’, in the Tone Janša Quintet, representing JRT at the International Jazz Festival in Pori, Finland. He occasionally played with the group ‘Sončna pot’, as well as the Andrej Arnol Quartet. He was a member of the rhythm section at the jam session held in Ljubljana’s hotel ‘Bellevue’ within the 20th anniversary of the Ljubljana Festival in ’79, accompanying domestic and foreign jazzmen. He had regular gigs at the same hotel with jazz musicians from Ljubljana and guests.
Although he has spent a long time living in Ljubljana, he has frequent contacts with Zagreb, so he performed with Boško Petrović and his bands in the club ‘Lapidarium’ in Zagreb as well as concerts in Novi Sad, Zagreb and Ljubljana, where they recorded the album’4 lica jazza’(Four Faces of Jazz).
Selected discography:
Swiniging East (MPS/PGP- RTB); Jazz Festivals Ljubljana ’71 and ’74 (Suzy/Jugoton); From Europe With Jazz VOL. 1 (MPS); Zeleno raspoloženje (Jugoton); Križanke (RTV Ljubljana); Jazz na koncertnom podiju VOL. 1 (Jugoton); 4 lica jazza (Jugoton); Samo muzika (RTV Ljubljana)