Jazzfest Berlin

24/11/2023

The third and final part of the Jazznacht provides insight into the broad musical spectrum of this year's Jazzfest Berlin. You can listen to Mounir with her audiovisual project "Nozhet El Nofous," which conjures up forgotten voices of once-famous singers from Egypt at the turn of the 20th century. Also featured is the trio Clay Kin, led by drummer Julian Sartorius, who concluded Saturday evening on the side stage at the House of Berliner Festspiele. Additionally, there's the improvisation trio featuring the legendary experimental guitarist Fred Frith collaborating with Susanna Santos Silva and Mariá Portugal , along with musical impressions from the concert by composer, singer, and double bassist Fuensanta and her Ensamble Grande from Amsterdam. Furthermore, there's a tribute to Conny Bauer, who was honored this year with the Albert Mangelsdorff Prize.
The highlights, conversations, and impressions from the Jazzfest Berlin 2023 during the ARD Jazz Night can be heard in the Berliner Festspiele's media library until 6 December.

https://mediathek.berlinerfestspiele.de/de/jazzfest-berlin/2023/ard-jazznacht-3

Bayern 2 Bremen Zwei HR2 MDR KULTUR NDR.de rbbKultur SR 2 KulturRadio SWR Kultur WDR 3 ARD Audiothek

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Photos: Camille Blake, Peter Gannushkin

23/11/2023

ARD Jazznacht part 2 brings more highlights of this year's Jazzfest Berlin, featuring P**l Nilssen-Love and the stage-special 'Sonic Dreams: Chicago' with the formations The Separatist Party, Natural Information Society, and Bitchin Bajas. Listen to impressions from the Haus der Berliner Festspiele as well as glimpses of the German debut of the Marthe Lea Band at A-Trane. In addition, exciting conversations and soundbites from the festival activities await you, along with a spotlight on two Free Jazz greats who have been connected to the festival for decades: Aki Takase and Alexander von Schlippenbach. The radio recording will be available in our media library until December 6, 2023. (*in German)


https://mediathek.berlinerfestspiele.de

Bayern 2 Bremen Zwei HR2 MDR KULTUR NDR.de rbbKultur SR 2 KulturRadio SWR Kultur WDR 3
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Fotos: Camille Blake & Fabian Schellhorn

21/11/2023

Thanks to our collaboration with ARD radio, Jazzfest Berlin was broadcasted live during the ARD Jazznacht. While the live recordings of the concerts may have faded away two weeks ago, you can relive the musical highlights in the Berliner Festspiele's media library. The first part of the ARD Jazz Night focuses on the essential question 'What is Jazz?' featuring, among other things, the Jazzfest ImproCamp, which took place for the first time in the long history of Jazzfest Berlin. In this camp, children between the ages of nine and twelve explored their own paths to improvisation. Additionally, there's the opening project 'Apparitions' with two Berlin children's choirs, the Ensemble Novembre from Paris, and two other French formations. You'll also hear the New York piano-guitar duo Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson, the trio led by bassist Brandon Lopez with drummer Tom Rainey and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, and the hauntingly beautiful collaboration project of Ellen Arkbro and Johan Granden. The radio recording will be available in the media library until December 6, 2023. (*in German)

https://mediathek.berlinerfestspiele.de/de/jazzfest-berlin/2023/ard-jazznacht-1
Bayern 2 Bremen Zwei HR2 MDR KULTUR NDR Kultur rbbKultur SR 2 KulturRadio SWR Kultur WDR 3

16/11/2023

Tonight you can tune in to rbbKultur for highlights of this year's festival. Revisit the concerts by Eve Risser, Joyce Moreno, Conny Bauer and others. Listen in from 20:00!

"Spinning Time" – das war das Motto des 60. Jazzfests Berlin, das vom 2. bis 5. November 2023 wieder viele Musikerinnen und Musiker nach Berlin brachte.

06/11/2023

Four days of impulses and intuitions, dissonances and harmonies, rugged soundscapes and intimite dancing lie behind us – THANK YOU for a Jazzfest that will live long in the memory! 220 musicians from 25 countries, ranging in age from nine to 85, took part – and over 7000 spectators ensured a completely sold-out festival at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and the other venues. At yesterday's closing night, the audience hardly wanted to let the 12 Norwegians of Andreas Roysum Ensemble go – probably also because it will now be another year until the next Jazzfest Berlin!

Photo: Fabian Schellhorn

06/11/2023

Unbelievable, that this is already our last batch of festival photos. 😵

The final festival day brought us to Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, where the fluid, psychedelic grooves and textures of “Ghosted” made the interior of the church pulse as the trio of Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin made their debut in Germany.

Yesterday’s main stage programme began with the European premiere of a duo featuring the influential drummer Andrew Cyrille with the Barcelona-based American saxophonist Bill Mchenry Saxophonist, while French pianist Eve Risser brought her Red Desert Orchestra, an ensemble fueled by the rhythms and textures of West Africa. And for the grand finale of the main stage program, the veteran Brazilian jazz-bossa singer Joyce Moreno presented music spanning her long career.

At Jazz Club A-Trane Melting Pot, a collaborative project that annually features five of Europe’s best young improvisers from five different cities – including Berlin based Argentinian saxophonist Camila Nebbia – found common ground in real-time. They were followed by Omawi, an Amsterdam-based improvising trio built around the multi-layered playing of pianist Marta Warelis.

Finally at QUASIMODO Berlin the Andreas Røysum Ensemble wrapped Jazzfest Berlin 2023 up with their Berlin debut, a rememberable closing party with danceable grooves. 💛

Photos by Roland Owsnitzki and Peter Gannushkin

06/11/2023

Congratulations again to trombonist Conny Bauer, who is this year’s recipient of the Albert Mangelsdorff Prize, awarded by the Deutsche Jazzunion for lifetime achievement and services to jazz in Germany. For his award winners' concert he reunited with what has arguably been the most powerful rhythm section in improvised music over the last couple of decades, bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake.

Photos: Roland Owsnitzki

05/11/2023

More of Jazzfest Berlin Day #3 in pictures: Marthe Lea took us into her world at Jazz Club A-Trane with her nimble, multi-layered arrangements and the all-in support she got from her superb quintet, nearly all of whom are multi-instrumentalists, altering the complexion of the music in a heartbeat.

At Kassenhalle, two experimental performances made up the late night programme: “matter 100”, a brand new project from Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler with an eclectic group of European improvisers, melded text and abstract sound, while the American free jazz saxophonist and newcomer Zoh Amba shared her instinctive, earthy attack during her Jazzfest Berlin debut in a first-time trio.

At QUASIMODO Berlin Berlin’s Banquet of Consequences, an exciting new sextet led by bassist Antonio Borghini, brought its spirited mash-up of Dutch, Italian and South African jazz traditions to the stage.

Photos by Camille Blake and Peter Gannushkin

05/11/2023

A screening of the short film “ Potsa Lotsa XL – Eine Sekunde Nichts” (Potsa Lotsa XL – One Second of Nothing) followed by an artists’ talk between Silke Eberhard (Potsa Lotsa XL) and José Davila (Zooid) started of the third day of .

Belgian pianist Marlies Debacker opened the musical part of the evening on the Main Stage with a solo performance, forging impressive abstract sonic portraits unmoored from any single practice.

Next, Ellen Arkbro and pianist Johan Graden presented the German debut of their collaboration project “I get along without you very well”. For this occasion the duo assembled an excellent cast: cellist Lucy Railton, bassist Petter Eldh, trombonist Nabou Claerhout, clarinetist Michiko Ogawa and Konrad Agnas on the drums.

The Main Stages’ grand finale of last night was brought by the singular reedist and composer Henry Threadgill presenting a major Jazzfest Berlin commission, blending his agile quintet Zooid with Berlin reedist and composer Silke Eberhard’s acclaimed large ensemble Potsa Lotsa XL.

On the Side Stage the powerful American free jazz ensemble Irreversible Entanglements featuring spoken word artist and composer Camae Ayewa (aka Moor Mother) performed music from its new album “Protect Your Light”, the bands’ most kaleidoscopic and passionate album yet.

After that Percussionist Julian Sartorius, Keyboardist and producer Dan Nicholls, and filmmaker Lou Zon (Louise Boer) came together as Clay Kin, sharing their accretive, highly interactive fusion of manipulated field recordings, electronics and morphing grooves.

Photos by Camille Blake and Peter Gannushkin

05/11/2023

Today Conny Bauer will receive the Albert Mangelsdorff Prize 2023, awarded by the German Jazz Union for lifetime achievement and services to jazz in Germany. The ceremony will also include a panel discussion entitled “50 years of the German Jazz Union – 50 years of jazz policy in Germany”, featuring leading figures from the national scene. Listen in to Deutschlandfunk Kultur to find out more about trombonist Conny Bauer. ⇊

04/11/2023

More impressions from yesterday from the stages of QUASIMODO Berlin, Jazz Club A-Trane and our main stage. 💛

At A-Trane, Polish pianist and keyboardist Joanna Duda invited listeners into her restlessly creative practice. The duo she brings to Berlin, with bassist Ksawery Wójciński and drummer Michał Bryndal, offers a complete portrait of her vast talents.

Following a remodeling of the stage, “Sonic Dreams: Chicago” brought listeners on the stage floor to demonstrate the communal attitude of Chicargo’s city jazz scene: Joshua Abrams presented his long-running Natural Information Society, joined by special guest Ari Brown along with several Berlin musicians. Mike Reed also brought his new project, The Separatist Party, to Berlin for the first time.

Finally at our late-night-event Quasimodo hosted the elastic, sound-driven experiments by California-based trumpeter Steph Richards and her quartet, highlighting how our sense of smell can impact how we experience music.

04/11/2023

An artists’ talk marked the beginning of the day, before the night kicked off with an ambitious project by Egyptian multi-instrumentalist and producer Nancy Mounir. She premiered her project “Nozhet El Nofous”, commissioned by Jazzfest Berlin back during the Covid-19 pandemic, with her own Egyptian quintet and a string quartet.

British guitarist Fred Frith, an icon of improvised music as well as art-rock pioneer, made an appearance with his duo partner, the Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva. They were joined in a first time collaboration by the Brazilian drummer Mariá Portugal, who also performed at Jazzfest last year.

The first part of the main stage action concluded with the Berlin debut of Norwegian drummer P**l Nilssen-Love’s “Circus”, a compact ensemble infused with Brazilian melodies, wild improvisation and the magnetic presence of singer and actress Juliana Venter.

03/11/2023

What else happened at the Jazzfest Berlin opening day?

On the Festspielhaus side stage, the Mexican singer, composer and bassist Fuensanta gathered musicians from different parts of Europe and the world in her Ensamble Grande. Their folk-jazz songs are inspired by traditional Mexican music, but merge with well-balanced compositions, Fuensanta's melodious vocals, and the extraordinary playing of some of Amsterdam's finest jazz musicians.

Two evening concerts outside of the Berliner Festspielhaus offered two radically different manifestations of freely improvised music. At A-Trane a hard-hitting, wide-open trio featuring the rising bassist Brandon Lopez, veteran drummer Tom Rainey and German reedist Ingrid Laubrock delivered rigorous free jazz explorations with their projekt „No es la Playa“.

Meanwhile, at Quasimodo, the French cellist Valentin Ceccaldi presented the German premiere of his new project, Bonbon Flamme. It was a lively fusion of progressive rock and jazz, marked by a playful dedication to experimentation and boundless energy.

03/11/2023

Yesterday was the inauguration of the 60th Jazzfest Berlin, have a look at our first batch of photos from the main stage! ✨ After opening speeches we experienced musicians ranging from 9 to 85 years old: Mary Halvorson, one of the most original guitarists of our time, showcased her collaboration with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier. As a duo, they moved between melodic dialogues and experimental soundscapes, offering a virtuosic sonic experience.

In "Apparitions" commissioned by Jazzfest Berlin, the French quartet Novembre, along with a cello trio and another trio called Bribes, joined forces with 30 Berlin children's choir singers from the Mädchenchor der Sing-Akademie der Künste & Kapellknabenchor des Staats- und Domchores. They presented a musical dramaturgy filled with movements, surprises, secrets, and humor. The delicate arrangement of the various elements and the integration of the children within the piece made it something very special.

Last but not least, Berlin's Free Jazz icon, Alexander von Schlippenbach, took the stage with the equally esteemed pianist Aki Takase at the grand stage of the Festspielhaus. Facing each other but also sitting side by side, they played music from their new album "Four Hands Piano Pieces."

Photos by Camille Blake and Fabian Schellhorn

02/11/2023

„Ich bin daran interessiert, raumspezifisch zu komponieren.“ Steph Richards im Interview zu ihrer Aufführungspraxis. Morgen steht die kanadische Jazzmusikerin im QUASIMODO Berlin auf der Bühne!
→ Steph Richards „Power Vibe“

Es kommt immer auch auf die Intention hinter dem Sound an, sagt Steph Richards. Die kanadische Jazzmusikerin tritt beim Berliner Jazzfest auf.

02/11/2023

The final rehearsals are finished, Jazzfest Berlin 2023 starts tonight! We are very excited for the four days ahead. Enjoy some impressions from this week. 💛

All photos by Camille Blake

01/11/2023

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.

31/10/2023

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

31/10/2023

Tune in to radioeins for a live interview with our Artistic Director Nadin Deventer tonight at 19:40! ⇊

60 Jahre Jazz Fest Berlin. Diese Ausgabe "gibt Raum für das Spielerische und Intuitive in der Musik und bringt in 36 Projekten unterschiedliche Generationen zusammen. Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft gehen vielseitige Verbindungen ein" heißt es im Programm. Wir sind neugierig und haben die kü...

31/10/2023

In the legendary year of 1968, QUASIMODO Berlin was the scene of a protest against the established Jazztage, our predecessor festival – Total Music Meeting brought free jazz to the Berlin autumn. Since then, many veterans of these days played at Jazzfest Berlin.

Nevertheless, the Quasimodo retains its own will – the music heard here on four evenings is even more unruly: Bonbon Flamme opens the stage on Thursday with an irritating mixture of prog rock and jazz – amalgamated like melted sugar mass, but razor-sharp at the breaking edges. → Valentin Ceccaldi’s Bonbon Flamme

On Friday, Californian trumpeter Steph Richards presents her programme "Power Vibe". Her work deals with the intersections of new music, improvisation and performance art, and as an artist she has already played this broad field together with some prominent names: Yoko Ono and Kronos Quartet, John Zorn and Tyondai Braxton. → Steph Richards „Power Vibe“

With Banquet of Consequences, things get danceable on Saturday; the sextet with members from Great Britain, Turkey, Italy, France, Australia and Japan lets global influences flow into intoxicating grooves. → Banquet of Consequences

The closing fireworks are also rousing: Andreas Røysum has emerged as a rising force in Norwegian Jazz and improvised music. 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

All Quasimodo concerts: https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/jazzfest-berlin/programm/2023/kalender?q=Quasimodo

Photos: Quasimodo Berlin / Senten Images

30/10/2023

Thanks to our co-operation with the ARD radio network and Deutschlandradio, you once again have the opportunity to follow Jazzfest Berlin (live) on air, featuring background information and conversations as well as highlights from the concert programme.

3 November: Jazzfest Berlin On Air 1
on Deutschlandfunk Kultur

4 November: Jazzfest Berlin On Air 2
on BR-KLASSIK, Bremen Zwei, MDR KULTUR, NDR Kultur, rbbKultur, SR 2 KulturRadio, SWR2, WDR 3

5 November (Midnight!): ARD JazzNacht
on Bayern 2, Bremen Zwei, hr2-kultur, MDR Kultur, NDR Kultur, rbbKultur, SR 2 KulturRadio, SWR2, WDR 3

Recordings will be available in the media library for 30 days after the festival: https://mediathek.berlinerfestspiele.de/jazzfest

Photo: Anna Niedermeier

30/10/2023

Welcoming artists of all ages on our stage today – the ImproCamp and rehearsals at our Festspielhaus have officially started! 🫶

Staats- und Domchor Berlin Sing-Akademie zu Berlin Potsa Lotsa

27/10/2023

Swedish sound artist and composer Ellen Arkbro has attracted attention in the past mainly with a reference to – the past. Her debut album was recorded in Tangermünde on an organ constructed in 1624, her subsequent works also experiment with drones and explore tone fields that made European sound worlds richer before the dominance of equal temperament, and music as spatial art. So her new album "I get along without you very well", created together with the multi-instrumentalist Johan Graden, is a turnaround: It shows the Swede as a singer-songwriter, with a searching, fleeting sound language and a singing voice rarely heard in the context of jazz and experimental music. Ellen Arkbro and Johan Graden in concert: Jazzfest Berlin on 4 November alongside Henry Threadgill's Zooid with Potsa Lotsa XL and a solo set by Marlies Debacker!

Debacker // Arkbro / Graden // Threadgill's Zooid / Eberhard’s Potsa Lotsa XL
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/yemjxwe6

Photo: by the band

25/10/2023

At the beginning of her career, the then-19-year-old Joyce Moreno (*1948) ignited a controversy in her homeland Brazil because she was one of the first female Brazilian artists ever to dare to sing about being a woman from a first-person perspective. Moreno, who assumed a decisively feminist perspective against Brazilian paternalism in her early work, increasingly concentrated in the later 1970s on a jazz-influenced bossa sound. A 1977 album called “Natureza”, featuring an all-star line-up of musicians, could have given the Brazilian bossa jazz icon her international breakthrough, if the recordings had not been lost under strange circumstances before their release. It was not until last year that the now 75-year-old singer was able to earn greater international attention when the album, which she had saved an unmixed cassette from, was finally able to be released. During Jazzfest Berlin, she will present it on the main stage with her touring band on 5 November.

McHenry / Cyrille // Red Desert Orchestra // Bauer / Parker / Drake // Moreno

Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/bdhumyhx

Photo: Leo Aversa

24/10/2023

If, like Norwegian drummer P**l 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

23/10/2023

In 1932, musicologists and musicians, ethnomusicologists and composers came together for the Cairo Congress of Arab Music, a three-week mixture of music festival and scientific symposium, with the aim of appreciating and exploring Arab musical traditions. The end result, it is often said, was revitalisation of the region's traditional music. But also its standardisation: Western instruments were integrated into the ensembles, the system of microtonality was fenced off in favour of equal-tempered tuning. Victims of such developments were singers like Mounira El Mahdeya and Hayat Sabri, whose sound was soon frowned upon - and so was their freedom as female voices. Nancy Mounier, a musician from Cairo, today takes the opportunity to make their voices audible again in a contemporary arrangement and contextualisation. She will perform the album "Nozhet El Nofous" on 3 November. An essayistic music film about the project was already made in 2021 for the Jazzfest Berlin - time to enjoy it again.

Mounir // Frith / Santos Silva / Portugal // Nilssen-Love
3.11. 17:30

Watch the video work of 2021 here! ⇊

For five years, the Egyptian multi-instrumentalist Nancy Mounir researched Egyptian female singers of the 1920s who worked with microtonal scales that deviated from the Arabic norm of the time. She presented the results of this research in a video work at the 2021 Jazzfest Berlin.

23/10/2023

On 4 November, the Main Stage of our Haus der Berliner Festspiele develops a cosmic magnetism for the music scene as a whole: Henry Threadgill was one of the first jazz composers to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2016, and now a new piece is celebrating its world premiere here, composed for a large ensemble that expands his formation Zooid to include the large Berlin ensemble Potsa Lotsa XL.

We are very happy to finally be able to reveal the name of the piece today: "Simply Existing Surface" it is called, and we can also give it away: it's certainly not simple! The Berlin musicians have been rehearsing for three weeks now and are, they say, quite challenged. Rehearsals for another major project have also been going on for some time: "Apparations", the centrepiece of the opening evening, has been keeping the young choir singers involved busy for many months.

Debacker // Arkbro / Graden // Threadgill's Zooid / Eberhard’s Potsa Lotsa XL
Details & Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/yemjxwe6

21/10/2023

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

20/10/2023

At any festival, there are the big lines and the small ones. The ones that make you wonder a little bit how they've muddled their way into the overall picture, but then help to perfect it. They are the brushstrokes that shed a special light on textures and structures and make them come alive.

At Jazzfest Berlin 2023, one such line is the multitude of women working with the piano in innovative ways. We have already presented Marlies Debacker, Aki Takase and Kaja Draksler in recent weeks. The French pianist Eve Risser will be our guest with the Red Desert Orchestra on 5 November. The name refers, of course, to her formation White Desert Orchestra, with which she processed a mystical experience in Bryce Canyon in Utah, USA. But it also refers to the landscape of the region whose musical traditions now inspired the sound: West Africa. Trance states and ecstatic rhythms are the subtext of this musical experience – even on another continent, the musician and her ensemble, this time with balafon and djembé, remain connected to the borderlands.

Meanwhile, the Polish pianist Joanna Duda will be playing at the A-Trane Jazz-Club with her trio on 4 November, performing pieces from her new album “Fumitsuke” – somewhere between post-bop, swing and ambient. Jazzfest Berlin celebrates a world premiere there on 5 November: Marta Warelis, a Polish pianist living in Amsterdam, conjures up grooves and riffs with her trio Omawi seemingly out of nowhere and surprises again and again with extraordinary sound dynamics – the album “Waive” celebrated here will not be officially released until 10 November.

ss_socialDescription Jazzfest Berlin is one of Europe’s oldest and most renowned festivals of its kind. It aspires to provide a platform for upcoming artists and to convey the enduring vitality of jazz as an art form.

19/10/2023

When the Jazzfest sends out impulses, things really go bang: P**l 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

18/10/2023

With a decisive movement, Carla Bley launched her band into a song at the 1979 Jazztage that was to short-circuit her work with this festival: "Boo to you too" was a mean, snappy nudge in the direction of the boo-happy audience in the Berlin Philharmonie, credo: No matter what you think, my music is real, I'' just boo back. And Bley's work was authentic, especially in its exaltation. The California-born jazz artist, daughter of a church musician, was considered one of the most extraordinary composers of her time and one who liked to connect people - for example, in the 18-piece Very Big Carla Bley Band or the Jazz Composer's Orchestra, for which she wrote "Escalator Over The Hill", a jazz opera that brought together Rock, Jazz and Weillian musical theatre (1971). Her anarchistic humour also became explicitly political at times, as in her work with Liberation Music Orchestra, which repeatedly addressed global oppression and inequality. One of her last pieces commented sarcastically on Donald Trump's presidency. Yesterday, Carla Bley died at the age of 87. In the midst of a politically stirring time, Jazz loses one of its most creative artists.

Sie war eine sanfte Subversive. Ihre Stücke waren feine Verweigerungen von Erwartetem. Die Pianistin und Komponistin Carla Bley ist am 17. Oktober 2023 im Alter von 87 Jahren gestorben.

17/10/2023

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