Naked

thursday, july 15, at 10.30 pm
main stage

Branislav Radojković (el. bass)
Đorđe Mijušković (violin)
Goran Milošević (drums, percussion)
Ivan Teofilović (clarinet, saxophone)
Đorđe Kujundžić (baritone and alto saxophone, clarinet)

Belgrade’s band Naked has been playing its original and invigorating mix of various traditional music (from the Balkans through the Mediterranean to Africa), swing, bebop, funk, and more since 2005, when the band brought together a wide variety of musicians (from symphonists to metalheads). They have presented their playful compositions on an enviable number of world-renowned stages. Apart from having performed at esteemed festivals such as Womex, Folk Alliance International (New Orleans), Budapest Ritmo, Colors of Ostrava, Ring Ring, EXIT or Todo Mundo, they had also embarked on longer tours to Brazil, South Korea, India, Latin America, a.o. In Cerkno, new songs from the upcoming fifth album Srećna tuga, which will be released in September, will be played for the first time in Slovenia.

The ensemble was put together after many jam sessions by musicians with experience from a wide variety of genres, from symphonic and chamber music through jazz and theatre music, to nu metal, funk and pop. No more than a year after their founding, in 2006, they performed at the renowned Umbria Jazz Balkanic Windows festival. Initially, they were a sextet (they had two bassists and an accordionist), but now they work as a quartet, which has been strengthened with the reed player Đorđe Kujundžić for the purpose of playing music from the upcoming fifth album. After the debut Noyz (2008), released in Serbia, all three subsequent albums, Get Naked (2011), Nakedonia (2015) and YES (2018), were released by the Hungarian label Narrator Records. In his review of the Nakedonia album for All About Jazz portal, Nenad Georgievski wrote that the album is “at the same time cinematic and playful with its mesmerizing melodies and grooves, infused with a healthy dose of humour.” In the review of the YES album for Tolpa Bumov show at Radio Študent, Ana M. Korošec emphasized that the album “rewards the active listener all the more because of the structure and skilful interweaving of musical themes. An album for all occasions…”