Jazzfest Berlin 2016:
Ticket sales start today, 26 September.
The festival starts with a perfomance by Matana Roberts at Martin-Gropius-Bau on 1 November. The grand opening concert at Haus der Berliner Festspiele on 3 November will present Julia Hülsmann Quartet with alto saxophonist Anna-Lena Schnabel, saxophonist Mette Henriette with ensemble and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith with his Great Lake Quartet.
From 1 to 6 November, Berliner Festspiele will host the 53rd Jazzfest Berlin. There will be 14 concerts by a total of 22 jazz formations, a film screening and artist talks on the programme. Three jazz groups will perform in each of the four concerts in the main hall at Haus der Berliner Festspiele from 3 to 6 November and for the first time each of this evenings will be broadcast live by the broadcasting stations – ARD, rbb Kulturradio and Deutschlandradio.
Many formations will perform in this special constellation at the festival for the first time. There are a number of premieres: the opening concert sets by Julia Hülsmann Quartet with alto saxophonist Anna-Lena Schnabel and saxophonist Mette Henriette with ensemble, the jubilee concert of the Globe Unity Orchestra, the performance by pianist Nik Bärtsch with his band Ronin and the hr-Bigband, the evening with pianist Eve Risser and her White Desert Orchestra and the duo-formations at A-Trane with Mary Halvorson, Ingrid Laubrock, Aki Takase and Charlotte Greve besides the duett by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Alexander Hawkins playing the organ at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
A further world premiere will be the multimedia-performance by american saxophonist and sound artist Matana Roberts, a Homage to Pina Bausch, at the reconstruction of the great choreographer’s famous Lichtburg rehearsal space in the Martin-Gropius-Bau for the festivalstart on 1 November.
CONCERTS at MARTIN-GROPIUS-BAU and INSTITUT FRANÇAIS
The festival will start 1 November with a performance by sound artist Matana Roberts at the reconstruction of the great choreographer’s famous Lichtburg rehearsal space in the Martin-Gropius-Bau. “Panoramic sound-quilting” is the term Roberts uses to describe her combination of instrumental music, singing, spoken word and visual imagery. In this way she will respond – together with Berlin musicians – to the exhibition celebrating the work of the choreographer Pina Bausch.
On 2 November the singer Michael Schiefel and the Wood & Steel Trio will present a second preconcert in another new venue, the Salle Boris Vian of the Institut Français Berlin, and reinterpret with the title “Songs out of Exile” the songs composed by Hanns Eisler during his Hollywood exile. Also at Institut Français the pianist Achim Kaufmann, who received the Albert-Mangelsdorff-Award at Jazzfest Berlin 2015, will present the project “SKEIN extended” for eight musicians created especially for Jazzfest Berlin on 5 November.
MAIN HALL Haus der Berliner Festspiele
The grand opening for the Jazzfest Berlin 2016 will take place on 3 November at Haus der Berliner Festspiele. There will be presented the first musical encounter between the Julia Hülsmann Quartet and alto saxophonist Anna-Lena Schnabel with pieces specially composed for the performance at this year’s festival. The young Norwegian saxophonist Mette Henriette will come to Berlin with a large ensemble, to present the music from her acclaimed debut album live on stage for the first time. Wadada Leo Smith, who received a Pulitzer Prize nomination 2013, will also be performing new music with his Great Lakes Quartet on the main stage of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
At the Jazzfest Berlin on 4 November the American musicians saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau will perform together again after an interruption for five years. The Globe Unity Orchestra with trumpeter Manfred Schoof and saxophonist Evan Parker will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its foundation with new music prepared by its leader, Alexander von Schlippenbach. Myra Melford will travel to Berlin from the US with her quintet, Snowy Egret, and a videographer, performing pieces inspired by the work of the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano.
On 5 November Angelika Niescier from Poland will co-leads the NYC Five with the pianist Florian Weber. The group is completed by three US musicians, including the outstanding trumpeter Ralph Alessi. The Swiss pianist Nik Bärtsch will present a new programme combining his regular small group, Ronin, with the hr-Bigband. Jack DeJohnette has known Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison since they were children. The three first played together in 1991 and now at Jazzfest Berlin their current programme.
In the concert at main hall on 6 November the American singer Julia Holter brings Berlin into play. She will give a performance with a string ensemble consisting of musicians from the city. The New York-based saxophonist and composer Steve Lehman presents the octet with which he explores highly original composition influenced by his studies of “spectral music” in France. Pianist Eve Risser with her White Desert Orchestra will present music from their new album live on stage, that will be released on 4 November.
SIDE STAGE Haus der Berliner Festspiele
After the opening concert at main hall on 3 November the evening will continue in a late-night journey with a concert by the Finnish band Oddarrang offering music without boundaries, although distinctively Nordic. Having led her band Family Hafla in concerts in Kuwait, Algeria, Ukraine and Bahrain the British trumpeter and composer Yazz Ahmed makes her German debut with this performance at Jazzfest Berlin on 4 November. The Swiss singer Lucia Cadotsch will present on the side stage together with two swedish musicians, saxophonist Otis Sandsö and bass player Petter Eldh, songs from her album “Speak Low” and more on 5 November.
A-TRANE
At A-Trane, a series titled “Brooklyn-Berlin Dialogues” features three overlapping duos, structured like a relay race: guitarist Mary Halvorson plays with saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock on the first night on 3 November, Laubrock and pianist Aki Takase on the second night on 4 November, and Takase and saxophonist Charlotte Greve on the third night on 5 November.
KAISER WILHELM MEMORIAL CHURCH
The distinguished trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith will make his second appearance at this year’s festival on 6 November in a special duo with Alexander Hawkins, who will play the pipe organ at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Hawkins, who was praised by the Berlin audience last year for his appearance on piano with the quartet of the South African drummer Louis Moholo Moholo, received early training as a church organist.
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thebluemoment Blog by Richard William
