The Skopje Jazz Festival opens on 15 October with two line-ups that look nothing like each other: Slovenian percussionist Zlatko Kaucic with Kombo BC, and Viennese saxophonist Leonhard Skorupa with the New Quispel Octet. Doors at 20:00 at the National Opera and Ballet, tickets 800 denars.

Kaucic is the self-taught musician who built Slovenia's entire free improvisation scene - he has played with Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Ab Baars and pianist Agustí Fernández, run clubs, organised festivals, and taught younger generations for decades. Kombo BC is made up precisely of his former students, with Italian guests. The project "Bravery of the Brave" is a suite dedicated to people who refuse to surrender, first performed at Italy's Jazz & Wine of Peace festival in 2021 and later reworked into the version "Bravery of the Brave: Free Palestine", which the group still tours.

The second half of the evening is a different story. Leonhard Skorupa is a tenor saxophonist and composer based in Vienna whose ensemble welds experimental jazz to avant-garde chamber music. For the festival's 45th edition he expanded his Quispel Quintet into an octet specifically for Skopje, adding three Macedonian musicians - so the band heard on 15 October exists for that night and nowhere else.

The two names together are the whole point of the festival: a veteran who has kept free improvisation alive in this region for forty years, and a composer who builds his ensemble around local players instead of shipping in a finished package from Vienna. Tickets are 800 denars through mktickets.mk, or as part of the festival pass for all four nights.