60 Years of Jazzfest Berlin: The Party is Starting
Jazzfest Berlin starts today, 28 October, with the kick-off of the Jazzfest Community Lab Moabit in Petersburg Art Space (PAS Berlin), followed by the opening of the concert programme on Thursday, 31 October, in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, with performances by solo pianist Marilyn Crispell, the almost 85-year-old sax and trumpet player Joe McPhee with the trio Decoy and, making their German premiere, the 11-piece Unfolding Orchestra led by Swedish double bassist Vilhelm Bromander. Continuing through 3 November, the 60th anniversary edition of the festival offers 24 concerts, including numerous premieres and around 140 international musicians at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and other venues. Audiences are also invited to a wide-ranging supporting programme: a poster and photo exhibition, film screenings of Jazzfest concerts from its 60-year history that have been broadcast on ARD, and talks with musicians from the festival. In short presentations on Friday and Saturday, participants of the anniversary special Jazzfest Research Lab will share their contributions in the recently published anniversary magazine. The supporting programme is open to the public free of charge, as are the Jazzfest Community Lab events: workshops, meet-ups and concerts every day from 28 October, culminating in the Community Sunday on 3 November. Recorded by ARD and Deutschlandradio, concerts on three festival evenings will be broadcast live, complemented by clips on ARD Jazznacht. Afterwards, the radio recordings will be available on the new platform ARD Jazz and in the BerlinerFestspiele Media Library, where anniversary specials and further interviews will also be available.
On 31 October, the Vilhelm Bromander Unfolding Orchestra takes up the era of spiritual jazz – the ensemble are making their German premiere. Legendary saxophonist and trumpeter Joe McPhee is joining forces with the trio Decoy: Alexander Hawkins on Hammond organ, John Edwards on bass and Steve Nobie on drums. Pianist Marilyn Crispell will demonstrate her sophisticated, imaginative improvisation skills in a solo. On the following evening, Friday, 1 November, she will be on the main stage in the trio Tapestry along with Joe Lovano and drummer Carmen Castaldi. After the three performances, the stage will open again later in the evening for the Bühnenhaus Special, this year including John Hollenbeck's “The Drum Major Instinct”: this live performance of the composition, dedicated to one of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last sermons from 1968, will alternate with projections of selected concert recordings from six decades of jazz festival history. The audience is invited to move freely around the stage and immerse themselves in the history of the festival. Besides the concerts on the main stage, the side stage, in A-Trane and Quasimodo, there will be a concert in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, offering a special ambience on the Saturday of the festival, 2 November, in which the Malacoda String Quartet will honour the late cellist Tristan Honsinger with the world premiere of his final string quartets. Closing out the festival with their latest projects on Sunday, 3 November, will be composer Darius Jones, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and experimentalist and underground artist Otomo Yoshihide from Japan and his 16-piece Special Big Band. Plus, Jazzfest Berlin continues its tradition of jam sessions at Quasimodo, welcoming you to dance and party late into the night with DJ sets on Saturday and Sunday.
»Jazz speaks for life. The blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realise that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.«
– From Martin Luther King, J's opening address to the first Berliner Jazztage, 1964
Launching today, 28 October, the Jazzfest Community Lab Moabit brings together 40 musicians from this year's edition of the festival, 20 interdisciplinary workshop leaders and over 350 participants of all ages from Moabit, combining storytelling events, artistic interventions and neighbourhood concerts. The programme, developed in collaboration with 38 initiatives, is aimed primarily at children and teenagers, offering more than 15 workshops and ImproLabs. The Jazzfest Encounters and Jazzfest Specials take shape as artistic interventions and encounters in neighbourhood shops and cafés, theatres and cultural centres as well as other venues such as the Afrika-Haus Berlin and the Stadtschloss Moabit. In addition to acts from the festival line-up such as Joel Grip, Otomo Yoshihide and Vilhelm Bromander with their ensembles, featured musicians include Sofia Eftychidou, Michael Griener, Heinrich Köbberling, Max Plattner, Julia Stein, Simon Sieger, Sofia Jernberg, Guro Kvåle, Oumar Diallo, MFA Kera, Mike Russell and Charles Sammons.
The Community Lab Moabit will culminate on Community Sunday, 3 November, when numerous collective improvisations take place at three locations throughout Moabit. The starting point is the Jazz Institut Berlin with a concert by the children from the Mullewapp e. V. after-school centre at Miriam-Makeba-Grundschule and students from the Jazz Institut Berlin, as well as a performance by Syrian women's choir Haneen Choir Berlin. The second stop at OTTO-Platz provides the stage for a collective happening with around 30 musicians from Japan's Otomo Yoshihide Special Big Band and Sweden's Vilhelm Bromander Unfolding Orchestra as well as Theater X. Finally, Community Sunday will come to a a close at Refo Moabit, gathering contributions from 30 musicians of Jazzfest Berlin, the duo Musho, other acts from Moabit such as the choir and ensemble of the Turkish music school Berlin Saz Evi, and performers from Theater X.
Admission to the Jazzfest Community Lab Moabit events is free of charge. A special flyer will guide visitors through the multifaceted programme, and a map is available for downloadon the website.
The Jazzfest Community Lab Moabit is supported by the Federal Agency for Civic Education / bpb.
Press images and press releases are available in the Jazzfest Berlin press section.
Anniversary Magazine
In celebrating 60 years of Jazzfest Berlin, the anniversary magazine takes a multilayered look at the festival's history – without claiming to be exhaustive. At its heart are the research findings of the academics and students of the Jazzfest Research Lab, who have examined the festival archive. In addition, contemporary witnesses have offered anecdotes and highlighted unique aspects from throughout the festival's history. Pictures by photographer Anno Wilms provide insights into Jazzfest Berlin between 1967 and 1993. Musician and artist Damon Locks has designed the magazine cover for the festival anniversary.
Jazzfest Berlin On the Air
Thanks to our continued co-operation with ARD's radio stations and Deutschlandradio, Jazzfest Berlin can be heard on the airwaves. Excerpts from the concerts on Friday, 1 November, will be broadcast live on Deutschlandfunk Kultur from 20:00. Saturday evening, 2 November, will be broadcast live via ARD. And the concerts on Sunday, 3 November, will be broadcast live on radio3 from the rbb. Concert recordings will also be available after the festival on ARD and Deutschlandradio as well as the new online platform ARD Jazz and in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library.
Jazzfest Berlin is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Sponsors and project partners of the festival are the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the Jazz Institut Berlin and the Steinway Haus.
Media partners are ARTE, Dussmann, Cee Cee, Monopol, Wall and Yorck Kinogruppe.
Jazzfest Berlin is a member of the Europe Jazz Network and the Keychange initiative.