Irreversible Entanglements // Moor Mother & Roscoe Mitchell // jaimie branch // Art Ensemble of Chicago

Irreversible Entanglements
Irreversible Entanglements are an example of how determined forces will find and strengthen each other. All participants are actively involved in multiple contexts, both of creation and expression and of society and politics. Saxophonist Keir Neuringer, poet Camae Ayewa and bass-player Luke Stewart met in a variety of self-organised grass-roots democracy activities in Philadelphia. In April 2015, they traveled to Brooklyn together to take part in the demonstration “Musicians Against Police Brutality”. They were followed immediately by a duo of trumpet and drums, played by Aquiles Navarro and Tscheser Holmes. Driven by the “bunch of heart-wrenching racist shit” that was boiling over at the time as well as their mutual musical and political interests, they arranged to meet again. Neuringer booked a studio in Brooklyn, where all five would play together for the first time one afternoon a few months later. This led to the album “Irreversible Entanglements”, released jointly by the Don Giovanni Label in New Jersey and International Anthem in Chicago. Free jazz meets the ruthlessly honest verse of poet Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother. The entire operation turned out to have an enormous (world-wide) catapult effect, hitting a vital nerve.

Moor Mother & Roscoe Mitchell
Camae Ayewa, powerfully eloquent poet, spoken word artist, musician and activist resolutely refuses labeling, stigmatization, distortion, misrepresentation and reduction of any kind. She traces the actions and repercussions of slavery and racism in the sediments and nerves of everyday life within a multitude of creative-expressive contexts, gives access to the traumas and generates boosts of strength for the communication of her messages with a resistive and visceral invocation. This is true for both her musical work and her involvement in society. As Moor Mother, she floats freely between rap, punk, noise and jazz, adding her voice to the canon of African-American activists in all consistency, grabbing the history of the African diaspora by its roots and translating it into a dystopic future in the manner of Afro-futurism. One of this year’s highlights at Jazzfest Berlin will be her first encounter with Roscoe Mitchell, a pioneer and creative spirits who is constantly reinventing himself. “Black Drop” promises a very special creative field of tension.

jaimie branch: Fly or Die
Trumpet player Jaimie Branch (*1984) has her roots in Chicago, but has dropped anchor in Brooklyn. She is another strong voice rising like a comet, and Jazzfest Berlin is delighted to set the main stage for her first appearance in Germany. Last year, she released a short and snappy debut that impacted like a precision projectile and made plenty of stages shake and roll. Her album made it into the top five albums of 2017 in the New York Times and on National Public Radio. After only a few bars from her band Fly or Die, you will know exactly what’s what. The unusual line-up of Jason Ajamian’s bass, Lester St. Louis’ cello and Chad Taylor’s drums creates a clear and gripping rhythm in a breathing river of psychedelic textures. With singular compactness, she operates inside and outside at once, creating existentially charged urban wake-up calls, often of graffiti-like brevity. Strong expression, a powerful voice and a clear signature mark this exceptional trumpeter’s songwriting. Fly or Die provide substantial sounds that get under their listeners’ skin. No UFOs, but echoes of sudden flashes of light along the cold chasms of high-rise buildings.

Art Ensemble of Chicago
The Art Ensemble of Chicago stands for “Great Black Music – Ancient to the Future”, as Lincoln T. Beauchamp, aka Chicago Beau, puts it in a nutshell. In the field of creative, constantly evolving music of the past five decades, the ensemble is unique and a shining example with a rich history (documented on 30 albums). This goes for the unity and singularity of their sound and visuals as well as for the highly productive atmosphere of community that has carried the group throughout its history. Of the original line-up, which could be seen and heard in all its glory at the 1991 Jazzfest Berlin, trumpeter Lester Bowie and bassist Malachi Favors Maghostut have passed away, while the ‘shaman’ Joseph Jarman officiates as a Buddhist priest and Aikido-Master today. The remaining musicians – the exceptional musical spirit and untiring mover and multi-instrumentalist Roscoe Mitchell and drummer Famoudou Don Moye – form a core around which closely affiliated musicians have gathered. Guided by its own desire to explore, the AEC has always moved freely through an open continuum of genres. Their total soundscape features winding lanes and broader paths, and their playing has never ceased to expand their own horizon as well as that of their listeners. In Berlin, they continue their journey in a company of nine.