VILNIUS MAMA JAZZ 2025 I MARIJUS ALEKSA „VILNIUS X-O“ (LT)
Marijus Aleksa „Vilnius X-O”, LT
Dominykas Vyšniauskas – tr, trmb, fgh
Paulius Kilbauskas – elec
Marijus Aleksa – dr
“I’d like to be the quietest drummer in the world,” said Marijus Aleksa, an undoubtedly one of the most outstanding drummers and percussionists in the country, in an interview for the Lithuanian Radio programme Mūza ant Peties in autumn 2024. It sounds like an oxymoron, because for many drums/percussion are associated with a loud, high intensity sound, rather than with silence. Yet Marijus has not been known as a typical kind of musician. His creative explorations tend to diverge from the canon into less familiar territories, where the elements of jazz, rock, world, and electronic music fuse. Thus aiming for silence is a perfect reflection of Aleksa’s uncanonical mindset.
Aleksa, who has wielded percussion instruments and mastered them down to the smallest detail, can be rightfully recognised among the music elite. He could stand alongside such contemporary drum and percussion philosophers and innovators as Eli Keszler, Christian Lillinger, Lukas König, Gabriele Ferrandini or Christian Windfeld. All of them play percussion, but with a difference. Marijus is equally authentic and unique!
Marijus spent almost a decade in London’s cultural melting pot establishing himself on the megapolis scene. Recording or performing with Keyon Harold, China Moses, Dennis Rollins, Anthony Joseph, Femi Temowo, Joe Armon-Jones, Ashley Henry, Bill Laurance and many others became his daily routine. Due to intensive collaborations, Marijus kept postponing the realisation of his own creative visions. Eventually, he returned to Lithuania and turned his experience and nurtured creative ideas into a series of albums.
Aleksa’s solo As they Are transcends the boundaries of genres, Solo live in Vilnius reveals the charm of acoustic percussion, Santaka, a joint project with Manfred Bajel, rethinks the academic works by Ričardas Mažulis, a proponent of superminimalism, and his Music For Non Existent Movie, in collaboration with Paulis Kilbauskas, delivers conceptually and technically impressive music. Aleksa’s creative output is a testament to his incredible versatility, technique and the ability not to sink into excessive conceptualism, but rather his talent to reveal the volume of even the smallest whisper of the percussion and the emotions it contains.
The drum and percussion master, on a trajectory towards silence, makes his come back to the Vilnius Mama Jazz scene together with his hugely talented friends – Paulius Kilbauskas and Dominykas Vyšniauskas.
Kilbauskas is another colourful and interesting musician. He invaded the Lithuanian music scene with the cult trailblazing group Empti, and has since continued to surprise audiences with his extraordinary take on electronic music and acoustic sound. The musician is on a sonic search journey which evolves into subtle musical stories.
Kilbauskas’ work is impressive both in terms of quantity and uniqueness of his ideas. His album Elements, for example, was inspired by Javanese/Balinese instrument gamelan and Vanduo reveals the volatile nature of water. His project Bango Collective recorded the legacy of Bango, a resident of Vilnius Roma community. He plays in the album Da laduma ladum, a recording of Advent and Christmas songs of the ethnographic area Dzūkija in Lithuania by Eglė Kaš.
But there is more. Music in Kilbauskas’ life is closely related with visual arts. Fine arts, film, theatre or even computer games are the areas related to his musical explorations. Memorable performances together with the artist Sigitas Staniūnas, compositions for stage performances by theatre director Oskaras Koršunovas, Paulijus Ignatavičius, Ieva Stundžytė and others, and sound tracks for films by film directors Ignas Jonynas, Ernestas Jankauskas, Emilis Vėlyvis and others are all part of the dynamic and varied creative life of the musician.
The third member of the trio that will appear on the Vilnius Mama Jazz Scene, is Dominykas Vyšniauskas, an exceptional Lithuanian trumpeter whose musical path in the context of this trio is perhaps with the fewest “deviations.”
Vyšniauskas’ musical journey started from touching the piano keys in his grandfather’s house, before eventually turning to the trumpet. From an early age, Dominykas was encouraged to explore various styles and find spaces to express himself and improvise – even to step into the shoes of a wedding musician. Jazz, however, was his choice that has accompanied him for many years now and opened the door to the world stage.
There have been some “deviations” in Vyšniauskas’ musical career too. His collaboration with the sound artist and composer Arturas Bumšteinas both on stage and in a recording studio has revealed Vyšniauskas’ ability to dive into multi-layered conceptual experiments at the expense of his career as the jazzman.
The trio, which defies dogmas, canons, standards or any preconceptions and limitations, will appear at the 24th Vilnius Mama Jazz Festival as Vilnius X-O.
The trio’s enigmatic name, Vilnius X-O, reminiscent of a secret code, symbolises a tribute to Vilnius. A city with multiple faces and the ability to remain authentic in the European and global context. Vilnius X-O will seek to purify the distinctive sound of Vilnius, which slowly began to emerge in Aleksa’s previous projects, such as As They Are or Santaka. This will be a joint sonic interpretation of the city by three musicians with personal connection to Vilnius. Vilnius X-O will connect the coordinates of the capital city’s past, present and future into a new sonic map.
We will let you in on a secret – the performance by Marijus, Paulius and Dominykas at Vilnius Mama Jazz Festival will open up a new page in the history of Vilnius’ identity, and will be a watershed event in the history of music, on a par with the (non)jazz explosion in Vilnius in the form of the trio of Vyacheslav Ganelin, Vladimiras Tarasovas ir Vladimiras Čekasinas five decades ago.
THEON CROSS (UNITED KINGDOM)
Theon Cross – tuba
Nikos Ziarkas – g
James Akers – sax
King David-Ike Elechi – dr
Meet the band led by a tuba player. It is not an everyday occurrence at jazz festivals, but the talented Theon Cross, a guest of the Vilnius Mama Jazz festival from the UK, brings the instrument, that has over the last decades been unjustly relegated to the back of the stage, into the spotlight.
In today’s vibrant and lively British jazz scene, Cross stands out as a musician with a unique approach to the tuba. “He has expanded the instrument’s sonic possibilities in revolutionary fashion, restoring it to a long-forgotten prominence as a crucial part of the contemporary jazz ensemble,” this is how the star of the festival is described today.
Born in London, of Caribbean heritage, the musician blends a range of genres, from grime (British hip-hop) to reggae and Afrobeat. A true citizen of the world, Cross dives into sometimes very different musical experiences with great enthusiasm.
Cross started playing brass instruments in his childhood. Since discovering the tuba as a teenager, he hasn’t looked back.
The British mentoring initiative Tomorrow’s Warriors – a talent development programme for musicians that has helped train a number of stars for the country’s jazz scene – helped Cross improve his skills and discover his own voice in jazz.
His studies at London’s renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama further enhanced his talent. In 2015, he released his debut EP Aspirations.
At that time, Cross already played in the well-known British band Sons Of Kemet, hailed as the jazz visionaries of their generation. He was a member of the band, which also appeared at Vilnius Mama Jazz in 2015, until they disbanded in 2022.
The tuba virtuoso simultaneously continued his solo career releasing the critically acclaimed first solo album, Fyah, in 2019 and Intra-I in 2021.
The musician’s talent was soon noticed by many accomplished professionals from different music genres. In the jazz scene, Cross has played with the renowned US drummer and bandleader, Makaya McCraven, and the seven-time Grammy winner, John Batiste.
He collaborated with Nubya Garcia, one of the most prominent British jazz musicians of today, Moses Boyd, a drummer who appeared at last year’s Vilnius Mama Jazz, and this year’s festival guests, Steam Down.
Cross also played with the British rap stars, Little Simz and Kano. In the world of pop music, he performed with singers Emeli Sande and Joy Crookes. The fans of alternative rock will be interested to hear that Theon has played with The Smile (a band in which two members of the famous Radiohead play with Tom Skinner, former drummer of Sons Of Kemet).
A combination of technical mastery, deep musical knowledge and creative vision, makes Cross a truly significant and distinctive figure on the British music scene today. A rather complex yet engaging sound, unexpected sonic layers and a very special atmosphere – this is what you can expect from this performance, which will likely make you take a fresh look at the tuba too.
