Aleksandar Bahun, piano Fedor Ruškuc, double bass
Dušan Ivanišević, drums Uroš Šećerov, percussions
Aleksandar Bahun
Aleksandar Bahun /composer, arranger, pianist/ born on 14th December 1975 in Novi Sad into an old musical family. He completed his primary and high music education at Music School “Isidor Bajić,” going on to study Composition at the Novi Sad Academy of Arts in class of Prof. Slavko Šuklar. In early 1990, he founded his first jazz band Ab Sextet, performing with it in clubs and at cultural events in Novi Sad for several years. In 1996 Adam Klem and Aleksandar Bahun founded the Stomp Quartet, performing at the JazzTime Fest in Novi Sad in November 1997 as the youngest ensemble playing their original music and as the festival hosts. In 1998 he founded the Alexandar Bahun Trio (Ištvan Mađarić, Robert Pongo, and Aleksandar as a pianist and author), appearing at a couple of national jazz festival and playing ECM jazz as an open form which allows all kinds of experiments. The same year he became a member of the RTV NS Big Band and the Vojvodina Youth Big Band. In 2000 he left for Egypt with the members of the funk, acid jazz ensemble Colibri, performing there for more than a year. Upon his return from Egypt, in November 2001, he appeared with his Trio at the OLD GOLD Novi Sad Jazz Festival. The same year, he worked with the Adam Klemm Quartet, the Groove Masters and the theatre troupe “Duplo Dno,” collaborating with them on several project writing music for plays, short films and performance art (Ranjeni orao, Leptirica, Mahniti…), performed at a number of national and international festivals. At the beginning of 2004, Aleksandar joined the Belgrade-based Latin jazz band Fiesta Latina, which he still performs with in our country and abroad. Later that year, Adam Klemm, Igor Molnar and Aleksandar founded the band MOBADA, which plays original music only. Mobada appeared at the Umbria Jazz Balkanic Windows Festival and the Novi Sad Jazz Festival in 2004. In 2006, Vladimir Samardžić and Aleksandar founded the authorial band Panonia Project, which appeared at the Film Festival Motovun (Croatia), then the Umbria Jazz Balkanic Windows festival in August 2006 in Novi Sad, and in November the same year at the Novi Sad Jazz Festival, when the band was joined by Marko Đorđević, a trumpet player from Belgrade. In 2007 he worked shortly with the Belgrade-based almost big band Jazz Connection composed of leading national jazz soloists, performing at the official opening of the Serbian Film Festival, where he worked with Dusko Goykovich, Dado Topić, etc. In mid-2007, he went to Dortmund as one of the representatives of the cultural delegation of Novi Sad within cultural cooperation of the two cities, collaborating with saxophone player Uwe Plath. The same year, he appeared at the Jazz Festival in Valjevo and Petrovac (Montenegro) with Panonia Project. In November 2007, he was invited by maestro Bubiša Simić to perform as a guest of the RTS Big Band in Kolarac as part of the concert A Homage to the Pianist dedicated to the brilliant pianist, arranger and composer Bora Roković. During the summer of 2008, he made music and arrangements for play KNKN PNKN of the newly founded troupe “Jorik”, directed by ŽankoTomić, which premiered at BELEF 2008. In November 2010 he performed with Panonia Project at the Belgrade Jazz Festival and Novi Sad Jazz Festival, as well as a concert in Studio M, promoting the album The Bridge where he was presented as a composer and arranger. For the last couple of years Aleksandar has been active performing in our country and the region with the leading domestic jazz musicians and ensembles (Ivan Ilić, Dušan Novakov, Dušan Ivanišević, Vladimir Kostadinović, Slobodan Bata Božanić, Branko Marković, Milan Pavković, Ljubiša Paunić, Alexandar Jaćimović, Goran Potić, Vladimir Krnetić, Marko Đorđevic, Adam Klemm, Marko Đorđević(NY), Max Ionata, Sofija Knezević, Luka Ignjatović…). He collaborates on a number of projects with national and international artists from all fields of culture and the media (radio, television series, film, theatre troupes)and is a regular member of the Serbian National Theatre’s Opera.
Fedor Ruškuc
Born in Novi Sad, Fedor Ruškuc started studying violin at the age of 6. After elementary music school he switched to classical double bass at the ”Isidor Bajić” music high school in class of Prof. Goran Kerleta. He studied jazz first in Graz (Austria) with Prof. Wayne Darling and then in Cologne (Germany) with Prof. Dieter Manderscheid. He graduated with a Master Diploma in 2005. After the studies he continued to live in Cologne where he worked with a number of ensembles and musicians such as Keith Copeland, Dennis Rowland, J. D. Walter, Bernd Konrad, Uwe Plath, Ferenc and Magnus Mehl, Ryan Carniaux, and many others. He has awarded numerous awards in international competitions with the Ferenc and Magnus Mehl Quartet as well as with the quartet East Affair, whose regular member he still is. He also received the title of Best Bass Player at ”Jimmy Woody Award 2008.” He has lived in Novi Sad since 2010, where he led the Youth Jazz Orchestra of Vojvodina for a while. He has presented his authorial work performed by the Fedorchestra band to the audience at the Cultural Centre of Novi Sad. He has recorded about twenty CDs in our country and abroad, and appeared in a film about the World Music scene of Cologne produced by WDR ‘Global Local’. He has performed all over Europe as well as Russia and Indonesia.
Dušan Ivanišević
Born in 1969 in Pančevo where he received his elementary education, Dušan Ivanišević went on to the Music High School “Stanković” in Belgrade, in class of Prof. Miroslav Karlović. At the same time, he started his professional career playing with local jazz and rock groups, as well as performing with the Youth Philharmonics. The concerts were in Yugoslavia, Belgium and Switzerland. As the best student of his school, he attended jazz workshops with the top jazz artists organised by the Music Youth of Yugoslavia, which were held in Grožnjan, Istria (Croatia), performing with well-known national and international jazz musicians such as Stjepko Gut, Eduard Sađil, Bora Roković, Alex Deutsch, Renato Chicco…
He went to study at the Jazz Academy in Graz in 1989, where he continued to pursue his professional career. During his studies, he attended a number of workshops and courses with renowned jazz artists: Dave Weckl, Jojo Meyer, Vinnie Colaiuta, Peter Erskine… He played concerts all over Europe, both with his own group and as a guest musician. In 1992,European student drummers organised by Magazine “Sticks“.
While studying he started working on the education of young Serbian musicians. He received his Master Degree in 1997 from the ‘Hochschule fur darstellende Kunst’ in Graz.
Since 2000 he has worked at the Academy of Arts in Belgrade. The same year, he became the Art Director of the Pančevo Jazz Festival, which has grown into the most important cultural event in Pančevo and one of the prestigious events in Serbia.
Ivanišević’s knowledge and skills have brought him a number of appearances both on the national and international music scenes (Vienna – “Cross over the border“, Paris – “Jazz Colors“, Trieste – “The Days of Serbian Music“, the Belgrade Jazz Festival, the Novi Sad Jazz Festival, the Herceg Novi Festival, etc…) Due to the fact that he is considered to be a successful organiser and producer, he is invited from time to time as a consultant in preparation of some cultural events.
He has received the Award of Pančevo for presenting the culture of Pančevo abroad.
He organises art events in Serbia in collaboration with the Embassies of Austria, America, France, Denmark, Indonesia, Great Britain…
Since 2003 he has been engaged as a professor at the Jazz Department of the Music School “Stanković” in Belgrade.
He is also engaged as a visiting professor at the music high school in Podgorica.
He is active as a concert, club and studio musician, with about 40 recorded CDs, video and TV editions. He is married with a son Uroš.
Uroš Šećerov
(see in the Main Concert Programme under MAJAMISTY TRIO & FRIENDS)