Time flies! December is coming sooner than you think, and that means that Kick Jazz is just around the corner. Vienna’s premiere showcase festival for domestically produced jazz will take place this year on December 3rd and 4th.
Kick Jazz, the annual presentation of up-and-coming Austrian (and, in one case, Slovenian) jazz acts, is a cooperation between Austrian Music Export and the Vienna club Porgy & Bess. The trio HAEZZ will open the two-day extravaganza on December 3rd, followed by a solo set by double bassist Helene Glüxam, then Beate Wiesinger‘s art-pop/jazz ensemble e c h o boomer. The Slovenian trio Etceteral will close out the first evening. December 4th will open with the Valentin Duit Quartet, followed by Slowklang and Schmack. Both concerts begin at 8:30 p.m. sharp.
Tuesday, December 3
Haezz
Austrian jazz fans are likely already familiar with the names Martin Eberle, Tobias Vedovelli, and Štěpán Flagar: they’ve long since attained prominence with bands like Kompost 3, Purple Is The Color, and the Leonhard Skorupa Ensemble (to name only a few). If you know their work, you also know that each of them is competent in a variety of musical settings and that their musical signatures are always on whatever they do. Listening to HAEZZ, you get the impression that they’ve opted for a more approachable form of jazz, where creating an atmosphere takes precedence over instrumental virtuosity. Moments of freedom, rhythmic complexity, grooves both rapid and cool are all present, but they don’t dominate. Instead, they function as components of carefully arranged pieces, marked by a chamber music swing, space, and inviting warmth.
Tobias Vedovelli – double bass
Štěpán Flagar – tenor saxophone
Martin Eberle – trumpet
Helene Glüxam
Helene Glüxam is able to contribute to a variety of musical situations. Be it global music (Kurdophone) or experimental pop (HALM), she always manages to find a conduit to jazz and improvisation. In her solo program, the Viennese bassist focuses on her primary instrument, double bass, combining its deep sonorities with her voice – an intriguing marriage of opposites. It’s minimalist music, rich in unconventional playing techniques. The compositions are stylistically diverse and intimate; the pieces conjure unique imagery, inviting the listener to dive into an unusual, atmospheric world.
Helene Glüxam – bass, voice
E C h O Boomer
An internet search for “echoboomer” leads directly to Generation Y. These seven children of baby boomers, the “art-pop/jazz orchestra” led by Beate Wiesinger, intersperses Wiesinger’s arrangements – reminiscent of Gil Evans, Duke Ellington, the Kronos Quartet, and Radiohead – with improvisation. Chamber jazz for the U.S.S. Enterprise. In 2019, the band made the jazz top-10 list in the Vienna city paper Falter; mica – music austria‘s own Michael Ternai calls their 2019 release Aliens On Board “an album that truly leaves a lasting impression”.
Beate Wiesinger – composition, basses, voice
Philipp Jagschitz – piano, synths
Michal Wierzgon – drums
Astrid Wiesinger – alto & soprano saxophone
Alois Eberl – trombone
Florian Sighartner – violin
Clemens Sainitzer – cello
Etceteral
Etceteral is a Slovenian experimental trio that plays driving, polyrhythmic, futuristic jazz. The sound is characterized by abstract, modular explorations, hypnotic drums, throwback saxophone sounds, and free improvisations. The trio plays its arrangements like rubber bands, stretching them as far as possible and testing their architecture to the very limit, before snapping back. Their music also features elements of dub, krautrock, African rhythm, and electronic music.
Boštjan Simon – tenor saxophone, electronics
Marek Fakuč – drums
Lina Rica – visuals
Wednesday, December 4
Valentin Duit quartetT
The quartet interprets pieces by Valentin Duit which offer space for collective and solo improvisation in different ways. It emerged from the Tobias Meissl Trio in 2023 and has existed as a collective exploratory ensemble ever since. In 2025, the quartet’s first album “SINN/ist” will be released on the Klanggalerie label.
Robert Unterköfler – saxophones
Tobias Meissl – vibraphone
Ivar Roban Križić – double bass
Valentin Duit – drums
Valentin Duit (roteweltrecords)
Slowklang
If there’s one element that characterizes the sound of the Vienna trio Slowklang, it’s the difficulty in categorizing them musically. Together, the three musicians realize a truly unique sound: the starting point is jazz, to be sure, but that’s a root with many branches. As their name suggests, their method is deliberate and unhurried: instead of dazzling listeners with virtuosity, their focus is more on creating atmosphere, using the tension between composition and improvisation. They tell stories in their own way – sometimes calm and vulnerable, sometimes emotional, sometimes with energy and groove.
Amina Bouroyen – voice
Robert Unterköfler – tenor saxophone
Robin Gadermaier – bass
Schmack
Danceable, grooving jazz, jazz disguised as pop, a sound somewhere between jazz, pop, and who knows what: whatever you call Schmack’s music, it’s probably not 100% correct. The Linz-based quartet works intensively with rhythm and complex beats, leavening them with catchy melodies and experimental interjections. Wonderfully weird harmonies, spanning the spectrum from calm to highly explosive, etc., etc., etc. Still, they manage to pack all that diversity into truly unified songs. Music that both entertains and challenges.
Patrick Pillichshammer – drums
Tobias Wöhrer – bass
Philipp Wohofsky – keyboards
Andi Holler – tenor saxophone
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