The final evening of the “Nišville International Jazz Festival 2025” (August 17, 2025) was opened by the band “Alpha Trianguli” whose music is inspired by the cosmos, which can easily be concluded from the name of the band itself. Alpha Trianguli is otherwise a binary spectroscopic star from the constellation Triangulum and is 63.3 light-years away. Right after them, the band “Light Star Guiding” performed, another cosmic story inspired by jazz, rock’n’roll and contemporary music, at times colored by ethnic sounds.
After that, there was a central program made up of the following performers:
– Luca Aquino & Moba (Italy / Serbia): 21:30h.
– Judith Hill (USA): 22:45h.
– Fun Lovin’ Criminals (NYC, USA / in recent years UK): after midnight.
The honor of closing the festival went to the band “Process”, from the city of Niš, Serbia.
Throughout the festival, numerous other stages with rich musical content were arranged in other parts of the Niš Fortress, and access to them was completely free.
Luca Aquino (trumpet) performed together with the jazz quartet “Moba” from the city of Niš (Serbia). We had the opportunity to hear the finest sounds of his trumpet, soft, refined and mellow jazz with fantastic accompaniment. It was a great opportunity for festival visitors to feel the incredible synergy between two cultures and two styles – Italian and Serbian jazz. This Italian jazz musician was awarded by the prestigious Italian magazine “Musica Jazz”, dedicated to jazz music, with their “Top Jazz” award for the album “Lunaria” (2009), which also featured Maria Pia De Vito and Roy Hargrove, as guests.
“It has been a great experience to play at the Nišville Jazz Festival with a Serbian band. I’ve been really impressed by the audience. The huge quantity of people, and the silence… All the people, children too, in silence listen to the concert. That speaks of education that comes from long years. From families. From schools. From the radio. I enjoyed the food also. I’ve already been to Serbia. Some years ago I played in Belgrade with a super-trio ‘The Skopje Connection’ under management by Enrico Blumer, with Džijan Emin on french horn and melodica, and Georgi Šareski on guitars, and myself. It has been great to come back and I hope to play again in Serbia soon”. – Luca Aquino
Judith Hill was a very pleasant surprise for the audience in Serbia. Very modern version of the “old school” sound. A unique sound that results from the synthesis of several genres and creates a completely new unrepeatable form of sound, a unique masterpiece. Her sound was a combination of jazz, blues, funk, soul, R’n’B, and the dominant styles changed from song to song, from theme to theme, from variation to variation. Her voice is powerful and magnetic, unique and inimitable. While listening to her music at the festival, I couldn’t escape the impression and try to define that unique sound on some overall level. The first thing that came to my mind was: “This is some very heavy funk!”. The biggest reason for that was the very powerful bass that added color to that original hard funk sound. Her performance at the Nišville Jazz Festival was part of her summer European tour in 2025. In one word – unforgettable!
Judith Hill was also one of the main protagonists of the documentary film “20 Feet to Stardom” (2013), which talks about the most famous backing vocalists in the world of music. The film won 13 awards, including the “Oscar for the best documentary feature”, but also the famous “Grammy” award for the best music film. Her song “Desperation” in the mentioned film won her the “Black Reel Award” for the best original song, 2014.
Fun Lovin’ Criminals opened their performance with a song from their first studio album “Come Find Yourself”, number 1 on the track-list. It was the song “The Fun Lovin’ Criminal”, which was mostly experienced as a kind of privilege, but also as a sign of great respect for the audience and fans at the festival itself. It can be said that the performance had a clearly defined concept that was a combination of hard and funky beats. From harder beats, they played songs like: Scooby Snacks, King of New York, Bear Hug. From softer and funky beats, they played songs like: Loco, A Little Bit Further (from their new album), Love Unlimited (a dedication to Barry White). They also played Big Night Out from their second album, a song whose ending was accompanied by a chorus of crowd singing (as well as many other songs). Some fans may have been confused to know that FLC opens most of their shows with the song Scooby Snacks which starts with the legendary samples from Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ movie. However, somewhere in the middle of the concert, they took a two-minute break to pay a short tribute to the “student struggle” in Serbia. Yes, “Pumpaj!” was heard from their stage, and yes, they used Serbian slang (eng. Pump!, the most prominent slogan of the student movement). And the little confusion of some fans about the opening song disappeared, because immediately after “pumping” with the audience, they played “Scooby Snacks” as another special gift. At the end of the performance, they said goodbye and toasted with us. The audience asked for an encore, of course! And they got the encore that was most likely foreseen by the organizers of the festival. After the encore, they said goodbye again and toasted with us. The audience again asked for and received an unplanned encore, so the concert lasted a full 90 minutes. It was also the third time they greeted and toasted with their audience, and promised to come back again. Now they are on tour promoting their new album “A Matter of Time” which was released on August 29, 2025.
“We had a great time at the Nišville Jazz Festival. The festival staff and sound crew all did a great job and were a pleasure to work with. The audience made the show one to remember!” – Fun Lovin’ Criminals
Stereo MC’s – The Night Before:
Stereo MC’s performed the night before the closing night of the “Nišville International Jazz Festival 2025” (August 16, 2025), around midnight, at the very peak of the night. They gave their audience their cult-classic hits, such as: Connected, Creation, Fade Away, Pressure, Step It Up, etc. They showed great respect to their audience in the spirit of the “student struggle” in Serbia, and the audience responded the same way. The audience also spontaneously “pumped” showing respect to the “student movement”. Nothing less could be expected from a band that has a highly developed awareness about society, global changes and phenomena. For Stereo MC’s, it was most likely just a logical sequence of events, without any surprise, either for them or for the audience. The local audience knows Stereo MC’s very well since they often came and played in Serbia, whenever the circumstances allowed them and knowing that they have a very strong fan-base in Serbia. The whole story started back in the early 90’s. At first, their first album “33 45 78” (1989) was ‘unearthed’ by underground music scene enthusiasts, so it was initially reserved for that kind of crew. Then came the album “Supernatural” (1990), which was very well received by a wider audience. After that came “Connected” (1992) and with it Stereo MC’s officially gained the status of a cult group in Serbia. The author of these lines still remembers that throughout that decade, even in the early 2000s, Connected was playing in every club in Serbia, and even now it can be heard from time to time. There was also a period in which a house party is not a party if Connected and a few more songs by Stereo MC’s are not played. Due to the described universal musical presence, they were respected by those who were not their die-hard fans too. Apart from their global career, Stereo MC’s probably also wrote their own part of musical history in Serbia (and most probably in the entire Balkans).
“Our feeling from performing at Nišville was indeed an experience. The energy from the people was very strong – they wanted to be heard and they carried the spirit of protest in their chanting. They made us push harder, reach higher and it was a feeling of great release in a time when the suffering and injustice of our world hangs heavily upon us.
We played longer than scheduled so we apologize for any inconvenience caused to other artists.
The festival was well organized and I enjoyed hearing the other musicians that evening. The music was high quality and interesting.
We would like to express our gratitude to our fans and everyone who has come to our shows and supported us over the years since we first visited Serbia.
Thank you. We hope to enjoy your company soon again. Peace.“ – Rob Birch (from “Stereo MC’s”)
Links: Nišville, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Judith Hill, Luca Aquino, Stereo MC’s.
Photography: alxspirit
Additional photography (Stereo MC’s): Vladimir Jovanović, Niš.
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