Marko Djordjevic lives in New York, teaches at Berklee in Boston and turns up regularly on lists of the most respected jazz drummers in the world. On August 24 he plays „Bluz i Pivo” at Cetinjska 15 in Belgrade, a club whose capacity is measured in dozens, not thousands. The ticket costs 1,000 dinars.

The story of how he got there is not the typical one. He left Belgrade for America at 16, convinced he did not have enough talent. Today he is a member of the „Drummers Collective” and leads the post-bop fusion group „Sveti”, featuring keyboardist Vasil Hadžimanov and guitarist Branko Trijić. That group is a mix of Balkan idiom and Western musical tradition, and their album received a five-star review on the Criticaljazz.com portal. Djordjevic is also among the jazz musicians included in the book „The New Face Of Jazz”.

He comes to Belgrade with a quartet, not with „Sveti”. On stage with him are saxophonists Rastko Obradović and Luka Ignjatović and double bassist Boris Šainović. A line-up with two saxophones and no harmonic instrument is a choice that leaves a lot of space empty, and that is usually a sign the group leans on improvisation rather than arrangement.

Three days later, on August 27, the Marko Djordjevic Trio plays the same club. Two different line-ups in the same week, in the same place, for a man who otherwise comes from another continent. Tickets are via tickets.rs.