The trio JazzyBIT is celebrating 13 years since its founding with a concert scheduled for Friday, March 14th, in Timișoara, at Stage Pub, starting at 9:00 PM. For more details about this event and the band's activity, we have pianist Teodor Pop on the phone. Welcome to Radio România Muzical.

Thank you for having me, and I really appreciate the invitation.

You are celebrating 13 years, an interesting choice. Most bands celebrate round numbers-10 years, 15 years. Why are you marking this particular anniversary?

We generally celebrate all our anniversaries. I remember we even had a concert for JazzyBIT's first anniversary. Of course, we haven't managed to do it every single year. Unlike how 13 is often considered an unlucky number, we see it as a lucky one. Considering that last year, for our 12th anniversary, we had a great concert with guest artists, this year we will do another concert, but without guests-it will be just the three of us.

Please introduce your bandmates.

Mihai Moldoveanu on bass guitar and Szabo Csongor-Zsolt on drums. We have had the same lineup for 13 years. We haven't changed anything-except the playlist.

You already have three albums. Can you briefly introduce them and tell us how we can find them?

We released our first album in 2014, on February 2nd. The album is called Touch the Sky. It is available on all streaming platforms. Unfortunately, in physical form, it is only available on CD Baby in America. Then, in 2016, we released Horizon. Same story as Touch the Sky-sadly, it is no longer available in physical format, as all copies have been sold, but of course, you can listen to it on all streaming platforms. Our newest album, Drive, was released in 2022. This album is also available on vinyl, and we will have the double vinyl with us at our concerts this year, including the one at Stage Pub.

Looking at your track record, I see you have performed on three continents.

That's right. We've had over 300 concerts in these 13 years. We have performed on three continents-Europe, America, and Asia. Most of our concerts have been in Europe, as it's easier for us to travel, but we have also toured in the USA, Mexico, and even played in China, for example, at the Blue Note Jazz Club. Of course, more exciting concerts are coming this year, which we will most likely announce in the coming weeks.

How was it in China? I believe you also performed in South Korea.

That's right. We've been to Asia twice and once to the Middle East, in Qatar. The first time in Asia, we played in South Korea in 2017 at the Jarasum International Jazz Festival. It's the biggest jazz festival in South Korea, held in a beautiful location about 60-70 km from Seoul. The audience in South Korea is very interesting-they love dynamic jazz, especially the style we play. Compared to China, where we played in 2023, the audience there was very different between Beijing and Shanghai. In Beijing, people are more conservative; they truly appreciate the music, but they are not like European audiences who shout and cheer. They applaud very elegantly, but after the concert, they immediately come up to you to praise you and tell you how much they enjoyed it. On the other hand, in Shanghai-which is a much more of a western city-the audience is much more expressive and reacts more loudly compared to Beijing.

You've also played at festivals that aren't jazz-focused, like Sziget or even Untold. How were you received there?

We try to take our music beyond the jazz scene because we don't see ourselves as a purely jazz band. We performed at Untold three years in a row. Back then, the festival had a really cool live music stage. We played at Sziget twice. Sziget has a dedicated jazz stage-the Papageno Stage-which combines jazz and opera. We also played at Exit Festival, for example, which is another non-jazz festival. I remember we were performing at the same time as several death metal bands, which made it quite challenging because the stages at Exit Festival, in the fortress of Novi Sad, are very high. When you perform, especially in between songs, you can hear the stage in front of you. Even if the audience doesn't notice, being so high up, you can hear everything happening on the neighboring stage.

Before we listen to a song from you, let's talk a bit about the style you play. You describe it as loud jazz.

We see loud jazz as a powerful fusion. We have influences from funk, rock, and even Latin jazz, but we play with intensity-we transmit a lot of energy from the stage.

You focus heavily on improvisation as a core element.

Absolutely. As my colleague Michi says, jazz means freedom-it means expressing yourself as you are and being honest on stage. So, naturally, 70-80% of our concert is improvisation, which is why we believe every concert has a unique element.