ImproCamp Jazzfest Berlin
While the official opening of Jazzfest Berlin is tomorrow, our Festspielhaus and surroundings have been taken over by kids taking part in the festival’s ImproCamp. The camp is one of two projects that have been devised with and for children that explore the question of how children can be guided towards music and improvisation without narrowing their “natural” ability in the areas of playing and intuition. The kids are joined by several other artists from the festival lineup throughout the week.
Mariá Portugal at Jazzfest Berlin
Last year, Mariá Portugal was one of the insider tips of Jazzfest 2022 with her band Quartabê. This year, the Brazilian drummer, whose influences include techno as well as Stockhausen, will play in an unusual trio – and for the first time together with British guitarist Fred Frith and Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva. While Frith has been one of the best-known names in improvised music since the 1970s, Portugal stands for contemporary experimental approaches in improvisation. "I'm sure it's gonna be beautiful", she says in her greeting message – we think so too, you can hear the programme "Laying Demons to Rest" on 3 November!
Mounir // Frith / Santos Silva / Portugal // Nilssen-Love
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/jj3r9a8m
If, like Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, you have mostly been on stage with a free jazz group called Large Unity Big Band in recent years, a septet might almost count as a reduction. Yet his new band is also a musical tumult – "Circus" is the meaningful name of the baby from pandemic times: between chaos and groove, Nilsson-Love steers the ensemble sovereignly, even a few somersaults are performed, of course without a net or double bottom. The biggest sensation in the festival ring, however, is singer Juliana Venter: channeling voices, telling stories, and bringing a fractured narrative to a host of celebratory original pieces by the drummer and some traditional themes from Brazil – on Friday, 3 November on the Main Stage!
Mounir // Frith / Santos Silva / Portugal // Nilssen-Love
3 November, 17:30
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/2rnznppr
Valentin Ceccaldi at Jazzfest Berlin
What could a Bonbon Flamme be, please? Valentin Ceccaldi's video message is shrouded in eloquent silence. In the last ten years, the cellist has attracted attention with experimental musical partners such as Joëlle Léandre, Ronny Graupe and Alexandra Grimal. But also with a suspicious love for the pathetically grandiose progressive rock of the band King Crimson. Bonbon Flamme now combines Jazz and prog rock with anarchic joy of playing to create a musical christmas cracker – to be heard on the opening evening of Jazzfest Berlin at Quasimodo!
Valentin Ceccaldi’s Bonbon Flamme
2.11. 22:30 QUASIMODO Berlin
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/yc6u74xf
When the Jazzfest sends out impulses, things really go bang: Paal Nilsson-Love, at least, will certainly ensure that both sides enjoy playing in his collective improvisation impulse with children between nine and twelve. At the Jazzfest Berlin 2023, the coming generations will not only be on stage at the opening concert "Apparations", but will already be at the centre of the action before the festival begins: the Jazzfest ImproCamp offers 30 children, invited by organisations such as Die Arche or SOS Kinderdörfer, a holistic, transdisciplinary approach to the art of improvisation. For five days, they dance, paint and make music in a playful and intuitive way. Workshop leader Nelly Thea Köster and Jakob Fraisse from the cooperation partner Deutsche Jazzunion talk to Nadin Deventer about art as a safe space for encounters and why pedagogy has to be more than a fancy add-on - watch it in our “Story”!
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https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/jazzfest-berlin/programm/2023/story
Kaja Draksler at Jazzfest Berlin
Pianist Kaja Draksler announces an unusual concert in her welcome message – at the German premiere of her new project "matter 100" there will be two keyboards, spoken words and a prepared hurdy-gurdy. She wants to explore songs and sounds: Songs as a formal structure, sounds as a source of creative ideas. The Slovenian musician will be supported by artists from the environment of great bands from the jazz periphery, such as The Ex from Amsterdam and the Polish Mitch & Mitch – on 4.11. in the Kassenhalle!
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/3xu64b6s
Andreas Røysum Ensemble at Jazzfest Berlin
What do you mean, Andreas Røysum doesn't want to evoke a unique bond between the audience and the charismatic musician in his greeting message, just invite everyone to Jazzfest Berlin – do we get a sense of slight criticism of our modest request? No, it's just that the clarinettist doesn't need to do that at all, the connection comes about all by itself with his playing. Røysum has emerged as a rising force in Norwegian Jazz and improvised music as an activist, festival organiser and musician, who has also developed an ensemble that keeps growing. With the spirit of Free Jazz, danceable grooves and influences from African and Asian music, Røysum subscribes to the transformative power of music, pouring his heart into his playing, and expressing unalloyed joy – a perfect final chapter to Jazzfest 2023!
Andreas Røysum Ensemble
5 November, 22:30
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/rpztmdd6
William Parker sees himself as a griot, as musical storytellers are called in the West African tradition. Not a quality that is necessarily associated with Free Jazz. Since the 1970s, Parker has played in various constellations, for example with Cecil Taylor or Peter Brötzmann.
At Jazzfest 2023, he and his long-time duo partner, drummer Hamid Drake, will meet one of the biggest names of the former GDR jazz scene – Conny Bauer is this year's winner of the Albert Mangelsdorff Prize. They first played together as a trio in 2010: Their joint playing releases an almost pulsating energy, a mix of solid grooves and rhythmic soulfulness that offers the trombonist a dynamic scenery full of surprises for his forays. What stories will one day be told of this 5 November 2023?
McHenry / Cyrille // Red Desert Orchestra // Bauer / Parker / Drake // Moreno
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/bdhumyhx
Very purposefully, Marlies Debacker finds her way to her instrument in her greeting video – there seems to be little improvisation. That may be so, because for the Belgian pianist, who lives and teaches in Cologne, improvisation is also linked to discipline, with the ability to play precisely and thus to gain the courage to follow one's inner sound ideas. On 4 November, she will be a guest at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele with breathtaking solo improvisations. An interview with Debacker can be found in the story "(Un-)Learning Jazz" on our website!
Debacker // Arkbro / Graden // Threadgill's Zooid / Eberhard’s Potsa Lotsa XL
4 November, 18:00
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/yemjxwe6
Aki Takase & Alexander von Schlippenbach at Jazzfest Berlin
Aki Takase and Alexander von Schlippenbach have been living the duo concept for decades on the piano as well as in private – the two veterans of the Berlin jazz scene of course can’t be absent when the 60th edition of Jazzfest Berlin celebrates the interplay.
Japanese pianist Takase played her first European concert at this festival in 1981, Schlippenbach founded his big band Globe Unity Orchestra, which still exists today, in 1966 for the third edition, and later left his mark on European free jazz with his label collective Free Music Productions. Both hold the prestigious Albert Mangelsdorff Award. On the opening night, the two will play four-handed pieces from their joint album “Four Hands Piano Pieces”.
Courvoisier / Halvorson // Apparitions // Takase / von Schlippenbach
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/3pvyw4eh
Jazzfest Berlin: Story now online!
“The idea that jazz musicians should learn based on jazz education is contradicting how jazz came about”, says Fred Frith in an interview with journalist Peter Margasak.
The video is part of the digital magazine format “Story”, which accompanies the festivals of the Berliner Festspiele – the issue for Jazzfest Berlin 2023 focuses on “(Un-)Learning Jazz”: How does education at music colleges work, which criticism of the academic system is justified and which is merely jazz populism? How can one forget everything one has learned in order to dare new paths?
Interviews with musicians who are also music teachers, such as Frith, Marlies Debacker and Andrew Cyrille, are juxtaposed with essays – Harald Kisiedu, for example, writes about the lasting relevance of the Chicago AACM. While Brent Hayes Edwards, co-author of Henry Threadgill's autobiographically inspired book “Easily Slip into Another World”, created a playlist for us.
There is much to discover, have a look! ⇊ ⇊
https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/jazzfest-berlin/programm/2023/story
Admittedly: Marthe Lea's greeting to the Jazzfest community skimps a lot on the usual "looking forward!" – instead, she sent us a flute melody straight from the forest of her Nordic homeland. This is a clear indication of the music that the Marthe Lea Band will bring to the stage at Jazzfest: The Norwegians juggle elegantly between Scandinavian folk, North African twang and idyllic dream pop - and spice up experiments in the spirit of free jazz pioneer Albert Ayler, who said he didn't play jazz but "free music".
Marthe Lea plays the first German concert with her band at the A-Trane on 4. November – and her band’s clarinettist Andreas Røysum, who is also the heart of her label community Motvind Records, plays the grand finale of the Jazzfest at the Quasimodo the next day with a twelve-piece ensemble. There on tenor saxophone: Martha Lea!
Marthe Lea Band
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/5ecdfv9k
Vinicius Cajado and Mauricio Takara at Jazzfest Berlin
With Vinicius Cajado, one of the most exciting bassists of the young international scene comes to the Jazzfest Berlin. Born in Sao Paulo, Cajado spent formative years in New York. Now he is drawn to Berlin – free apartment, anyone? In his playing he lets traditional playing techniques and unconventional sound explorations meet and turns the stage into a place of organic sound growth. On November 4, together with Brazilian drummer Mauricio Takara, who also lives in Berlin, he gets involved with the spiritual playing of US saxophone sensation Zoh Amba. The trio is part of the late-night program at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, which that Saturday is dedicated to the avant-garde.
4.11., 22:00
Draksler // Amba / Cajado / Takara
Infos & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/3xu64b6s
Silke Eberhard at Jazzfest Berlin 2023
A WORLD PREMIERE is announced by alto saxophonist Silke Eberhard in her greeting message, and rarely has the big word been so appropriate: Pioneering saxophonist, flutist and composer Henry Threadgill was commissioned by Jazzfest Berlin to write one of his rare new pieces - specifically for an encounter between his group Zooid and Silke Eberhard's large Berlin ensemble Potsa Lotsa XL, which won the German Jazz Prize this year. Both ensembles will delve into Threadgill's compositional Zooid system and let the old master's aesthetic overtake itself once again.
4.11. 20:00
Debacker // Arkbro / Graden // Threadgill's Zooid / Eberhard’s Potsa Lotsa XL
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/yemjxwe6
Join us for “Apparitions”, the opening event of Jazzfest Berlin, a venture, an experience, a project by Antonin-Tri Hoang and Romain Clerc-Renaud of the Novembre Quartet featuring two children’s choirs. ↓↓↓
"Creative spaces are something we have to fight for," says Gudrun Luise Gierszal, director of young talent at the Staats- und Domchor of UdK Berlin. "Creative spaces means daring to do something, not knowing what will come out of it. To enter unknown spaces."
Together with the Girls' Choir of the Sing-Akademie, Gierszal's singers form a children's choir that is at the center of a highly exciting opening event - in "Apparitions" by Antonin-Tri Hoang and Romain Clerc-Renaud of the Novembre Quartet, the music jumps between bebop and free jazz, allowing the choir to intervene with a childlike spirit of experimentation. “Apparitions” is
framed by excellent performances that celebrate interplay: pianist Sylvie Courvoisier meets guitarist Mary Halvorson, pianist Aki Takase meets pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach.
Infos & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/3pvyw4eh
Courvoisier / Halvorson // Apparitions // Takase / von Schlippenbach
Put on your dancing socks. 🧦
Jazzfest Berlin socks: In our webshop now and soon enough, on your feet. → https://pulse.ly/5uaszyacyv
Music: Lumpeks at Jazzfest Berlin 2022
Only a bit more than 24 hours to go until Jazzfest Berlin’s 59th edition.
Enjoy our final trailer – and see you tomorrow or over the weekend! 🤗👋
As much as the word KOMПOUSSULĂ is a fusion of languages, this special festival commission is an experiment of fusing folk and traditional music in a jazz context. What do century old traditions sound like? Sneak a peek into the rehearsals that took place in Amsterdam a few weeks ago!
Featuring artists from Black Sea Songs and Lumpeks, together with Kateryna Ziabliuk, Samuel Hall, and Maryanka Golovchenko the group traces differences, traditions, and commonalities through music.
Asher Gamedze // KOMПOUSSULĂ // Matana Roberts
Saturday 5.11 from 18.30 on the Main Stage of Haus der Berliner Festspiele: https://pulse.ly/mz2lpf1vmj
Umlaut Records Label Louis Laurain Olga Kozieł Sebastien Beliah Sanem Kalfa Sanem Kalfa & George Dumitriu Joachim Badenhorst George Dumitriu
🔴 Jazzfest Berlin on Air 🔴
What’s more beautiful than the sound of waves? Jazzfest Berlin 2022 being played on the radio waves 🌊📻🎷
Thanks to our cooperation with ARD and Deutschlandradio, you can listen along live and on demand to selected performances from this year’s festival. Find out more about it in our Media Library: https://pulse.ly/ov1tl5d9zr
Bayern 2 , Bremen Zwei , hr2-kultur, MDR KULTUR , NDR Kultur , rbbKultur , SR 2 KulturRadio , SWR2 , WDR 3 , ARD-JazzNacht, BR-KLASSIK , Deutschlandfunk Kultur
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Creating the rhythm of Jazzfest Berlin 2022 are …
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Sven-Åke Johansson
Asher Gamedze
Sun-Mi Hong
Gard Nilssen
Mariá Portugal
Anna Lund
Camille Emaille
Hamid Drake
Evi Filippou
Amongst many others. We are excited to celebrate and see these drummers and percussionists in action over the course of the festival weekend. And you should be too!
Check out this year’s programme: https://pulse.ly/w8b8fphhqc
Its versatility makes it important to a vast range of genres and forms of expression. For many, it is synonymous with Jazz: the saxophone.
Having been used, adapted and conceived of in so many ways, at Jazzfest Berlin 2022 we have the honour of welcoming masters and modern pioneers of the instrument who continue to redefine its boundaries as well as its meaning in music.
This year’s festival features
Mette Rasmussen,
Isaiah Collier,
Immanuel Wilkens,
Matana Roberts,
Rodrigo Amado,
Peter Brötzmann,
Pierre Borel,
Chelsea Carmichael
Check out this year’s fantastic and diverse programme:
https://pulse.ly/d3qd1idxf1
👀 Sneak a peek at KOMПOUSSULĂ, rehearsing in Amsterdam for Jazzfest Berlin! The project commissioned for this year's festival is bringing together multiple artists and projects of the 2022 line-up from (mainly Eastern) Europe and around the Black Sea to develop a joint performance that traces differences and commonalities in their various traditions and specific approaches.
Details & Tickets: Asher Gamedze // KOMПOUSSULĂ // Matana Roberts
WHO is KOMПOUSSULĂ?
Experience the individual projects!
↠ Lumpeks 3.11.
↠ Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: Part of Jazzfest Berlin 2022: Playing the Haus 4.11.
↠ Black Sea Songs By Sanem Kalfa, Joachim Badenhorst, George Dumitriu 5.11.
Lumpeks Kateryna Ziabliuk Music Sanem Kalfa Sanem Kalfa & George Dumitriu Umlaut Records Label
“Folk music is so beautiful. When you hear field recordings, there's no notation that can match it.”
Together with Romanian pianist Lucian Ban violist Mat Maneri (US) joined forces with Oslo-based English reedist John Surman for the album “Transylvanian Folk Songs: The Béla Bartók Field Recordings” – a project essaying the folk roots of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, creating introspective three-way conversations between the three musicians.
Experience the trio at Jazzfest Berlin in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church!
Ban / Surman / Maneri “Transylvanian Folk Songs”
5.11. 20:30 – Details & Tickets: https://pulse.ly/6d11gvwrof
🔍 Folk Traditions and Cultural Encounters in Contemporary Jazz and Improvised Music in our Digital Guide: https://pulse.ly/j9pf6l###e
We are cooking up something! Can you guess where we are?
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w/ Kateryna Ziabliuk Music , Samuel Hall, Maryana Golovchenko, Louis Laurain, Pierre Borel, Olga Kozieł, Sébastien Beliah, Joachim Badenhorst, Sanem Kalfa , Sanem Kalfa & George Dumitriu ...
Umlaut Records Label
Jazzfest Berlin 2022: Moving Back / Forward
So, who’s it gonna be?
Pre-sale tickets have just gone online for 39 concerts as part of Jazzfest Berlin “Moving Back / Forward”, which returns to multiple venues across Berlin in just over a month’s time.
This year’s festival edition not only alludes to conceptions of and clashes between the future and tradition, but also our return to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
💡 PSA: Attend two events on one concert evening and save 20 % compared to single ticket sales.
Further information on our website: berlinerfestspiele.de/jazzfest-tickets
Jazzfest Berlin 2022 Trailer
Jazzfest Berlin 2022: Moving Back / Forward
3.–6.11.
We are very excited to announce the full programme of the 59th edition of the Jazzfest Berlin including more than 150 musicians from all over the world! Ticket sales start on 21 September.
berlinerfestspiele.de/jazzfest
The beginning of autumn always marks the arrival of Jazzfest Berlin. 💛 Returning to the resonant physical space of the here and now after two hybrid editions, we are welcoming over 150 international musicians from all over the world to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and Pierre Boulez Saal, the nearby clubs A-Trane and Quasimodo, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
Featuring: Sofia Jernberg Alexander Hawkins Nicole Mitchell Tomeka Reid Curtis Stewart - Violin Naïssam Jalal Sheila Maurice-Grey Jamie Saft Sofia Borges The Brother Moves On Chelsea Carmichael Umlaut Big Band Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few Sun-Mi Hong Quintet Gurdjieff Ensemble Quartabê Jeff Parker Pasquale Mirra Lumpeks Rodrigo Amado Immanuel Wilkins Sanem Kalfa Louis Laurain Kjetil Møster Otis Sandsjö Maciej Obara Eirik Hegdal Goran Kajfeš Guro Kvåle Petter Eldh Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Joel Grip and many more!
Jazzfest Berlin | Sibusile Xaba
Last year, Sibusile Xaba introduced IzangoMa to us at Jazzfest Berlin 2021.
One of South Africa’s most idiosyncratic and unpredictable forces, guitarist and singer Sibusile Xaba, extends and warps the legacy of Malombo pioneer Philip Tabane and turns the Zulu troubadour tradition of Maskandi on its head.
For his special Jazzfest Berlin performance, Xaba went into a new direction, switching from guitar to keyboard whilst fronting a 14-piece band with multiple percussionists and vocalists. Enjoy it again. Available on the Berliner Festspiele Media Library.
Save the date: Jazzfest Berlin 3.–6.11.22
🎞 mediathek.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/jazzfest-berlin/2021/quartabe-maria-portugal-sibusile-xaba
Metá Metá Jazzfest Berlin 2021
Since forming in 2008, the aesthetically voracious São Paulo trio Metá Metá have emerged as major figures in the Brazilian musical landscape.
“Ogbe Oyeku Iwori Odi” is the group’s audio-visual production that was created in cooperation with Manoela Wright & Juliano Gentile as part of Jazzfest Berlin 2021. The video, as well as those by the other artists featured during last year’s festival will be shown at this year’s Festival CHIII, taking place in São Paulo until 15.7.
Don’t forget, you can still take a look back at our Digital Guides, the four audio-visual productions and plenty more Jazzfest content in our Media Library:
Digital Guide, São Paulo: https://bit.ly/3AqBLnk
Jazzfest Berlin 2021 Media Library: https://bit.ly/3NAn9VD
Save the date: Jazzfest Berlin 3–6.11.22
At this year's Jazzfest Berlin, we welcome musicians via livestream from the Sognage in Johannesburg – musicians who, through their music, exhibit an intergenerational exchange that brings together the city's venerable jazz tradition, indigenous music styles, as well as the political interests of young musicians.
Madosini / Cara Stacey / Lungiswa Plaatjies – Herbie Tsoaeli – Side Bar – Shane Cooper and the Dinaledi Chamber Ensemble – Sibusile Xaba – Siya Makuzeni / IppYFuzE – Nduduzo Makhathini
The full Johannesburg lineup and tickets are available at: https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/jazzfest-berlin/programm/2021/berlin-johannesburg/termine.html
📷1: Steve Gordon, 2: Lesedi Rudolph, 5: Aubrey Jonsson, 6: Nqobi Temba
Madosini // Elephantine // São Paulo Underground
Aki Takase’s Japanic // Herbie Tsoaeli
Side Bar // Koma Saxo
Shane Cooper and the Dinaledi Chamber Ensemble // Nate Wooley: „Columbia Icefield“
Shane Cooper and the Dinaledi Chamber Ensemble // Nate Wooley: „Columbia Icefield“
Quartabê // Mariá Portugal // Sibusile Xaba
Siya Makuzeni // أحمد [Ahmed]
Metá Metá // Dave Douglas // Terrible Sounds // Nduduzo Makhathini
