The organizers of the “Jazz Week Burghausen”, the IG Jazz, were quite satisfied with the sheer number of visitors last year. The question quickly arose as to whether all spectators were happy with their visit to the 51st edition of Bavaria’s most famous and Europe’s oldest continuous jazz festival.
They flocked to Leslie Mandokis, for example soulmates fled, and in general there was a sense of uneasiness about the trend towards pop and faux pas, with which one wanted to keep the Wackerhalle, which was actually oversized for the location, full – despite the extinction of the big names in jazz, who have always been known since the festival was founded sat. The era of the eternal festival director Joe Viera also finally came to an end, so that for better or for worse a reorientation was due.
Do you see that? program at the 52nd edition starting this Tuesday, March 21st, a new focus on outstanding jazz artists is noticeable regardless of their popularity. On the one hand, one can identify the guitar veteran Lee Ritenour as the headliner, who, after going solo, is now back on the road with the band and opens the concert series in the Wackerhalle. And on the other hand the saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, who has been on everyone’s lips since her Coltrane homage and victory in the Down Beat Critics Poll as Saxophone Rising Star 2020. Another American, lapsteel specialist Robert Randolph, is yet to be discovered.
The London tuba player Theon, who usually travels with the “Sons of Kemet” and the “Seed Ensemble”, is now coming to Burghausen on his own behalf.
(Photo: Ian Hippolyte)
Following the development of current jazz, the European scene is equally represented. Among others with the Swiss bassist and old driving man Heiri Känzig, who with his new project “Travelin'” sums up his career from Vienna Art Orchestra about his trio department to sideman roles with many big stars from all over the world.
Tuba player Theon Cross will be there to represent the hot New London scene, while Scandinavian jazz will be represented by Finnish singer Ina Forsman and the Norwegian band Jaga Jazzist, which was already involved in the emancipation of European jazz three decades ago. France can once again deliver the party contribution with the Afro-Funk troupe Supergumbo. Finally, the role of jazz as a universal musical world language that connects everyone and everything comes into play at a “Trumpet Summit”, where the American Jon Faddis meets the Australian James Morrison, the Austrian Thomas Gansch and the Portuguese Gileno Santana.
Of course, tried and tested traditions are not thrown overboard in Burghausen. The festival will be opened for the 13th time with the European Burghausen Young Jazz Prize, which has developed into an exciting talent show and a definite highlight. The blues afternoon is also scheduled for Saturday, this time with the singer Trudy Lynn and the Chicago blues guitarist Toronzo Cannon, and the jazz night in the old town pubs with nine bands, mainly “local heroes” from Bavaria. Just like the nightly jam sessions in the jazz cellar, this time with the Lafayette Harris jr. Trio as a regular band, and the “Next in Jazz” Sunday on which the young ensembles We dated Björn, jin jim and the Bavarian State Youth Jazz Orchestra close the festival.
Artist in residence at the muc/tones festival: saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Thomas Zoller.
(Photo: Christian Hoffmann)
The fact that the Burghausen Jazz Week has to fight for its importance – even if this time, in addition to the American Consul General, Markus Söder, a Bavarian Prime Minister will be visiting for the first time – is also shown by the fact that previously no one would have dared to organize a festival in Munich at the same time. The saxophonist and longtime head of the Pirouet label Jason Seizer doesn’t give a damn about the competition at the second edition of his “muc\tones” at Heppel & Ettlich (March 23 to 25).
At the end of January 2020, he made his first attempt to bring chamber music, acoustic jazz to one of the smallest theater stages in Munich. All three evenings of the small festival were sold out and celebrated. So to continue was planned immediately – then came the pandemic. Now there is finally a sequel with the same basic idea: jazz in the living room. There are eight concerts over three days, with the focus on formations from Munich that enter into dialogue with artists from Dresden, Cologne, Berlin and Vienna.
This is how the Austrian jazz singer Veronika Morscher, who lives in Cologne and is known for, among other things, presents Of Cabbages and Kings, her solo project “Solitary Bird”. A recently formed Munich duo joins the two duos that bring the Cologne and Berlin scenes together, guitarist Bertram Burkert with saxophonist Matthew Halpin and saxophonist Christian Weidner with pianist Felix Hauptmann: jazz trumpeter Matthias Lindermayr has joined forces with the actually from the classical period upcoming pianist Masako Ohta, who caused a sensation with their debut album “Mmmmh”.
The Munich pianist Claus Raible, a bebop solitaire, will present a quintet with his music college students as a premiere, while the Weilheim star saxophonist Johannes Enders will present his new trio instant karma with the young bass player Nils Kugelmann (who is playing in the young talent competition in Burghausen) and the US drummer Howard Curtis.
And then there is the saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Thomas Zoller, an “artist in residence”. Zoller lived in Munich until he was appointed professor of composition in Dresden in 2008. Now the modern jazz virtuoso is returning to his old homeland, with a solo performance with C-melody sax, gongs, slates, percussion and voice, as well as a quartet with the woodwind colleagues put together especially for the festival Jason Seizer, Daniel Glatzel (also a former Munich resident and director of the award-winning Berliner Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra) and bassist Jakob Jäger.
With “Masaa” current German jazz award winners come to the “Jazz isch” festival in Mindelheim.
(Photo: Pavel Ovsik)
Between the very old and the very young festival, the Mindelheim Jazz Days “Jazz isch” Celebrate a milestone birthday: For the 30th time, the series of concerts will take place in the Dampfsäg Sontheim – whose sponsoring association, with Chairman Peter Schmid, is the organizer – and the Mindelheim town hall. Traditionally also taking place in March (March 23-26), Burghausen has mostly been missed in recent years, but this time both events are running in parallel.
The kick-off on Thursday will be with the classical and oriental-inspired quartet masaa around the singer Rabih Lahoud a band that has been awarded the German Jazz Prize, among others. Introduced, as it has been for many years, by the local trombone quintet around Markus Kolb, which kicks off with the “Signature Song” of the Jazztage, Chris Hazel’s piece “Kraken”.
The rare combination of jazz and opera follows the next day with the Hakon Kornstad Trio from Norway. With De.Phazz then comes one of the most successful German crossover jazz bands. Pit Baumgartner’s troupe, fronted by singers Pat Appleton and Karl Frierson, just celebrated their 25th anniversary with their 17th (!) album “Jelly Banquet”. Of course, their performance is already completely sold out, as is the finale of the Berlin a cappella formation, which has won many international awards on air.
If admission is free, there will still be room for the jazz morning pint, which has been scheduled again on Sunday in the Dampfsäg by popular request, with the Jazzkur BigBand from the Bad Wörishofen Municipal Singing and Music School. If you haven’t already decided on Munich or Burghausen.
52nd International Jazz Week Burghausen, Tuesday to Sunday, March 21 to 26, www.b-jazz.com; 30th Mindelheim Jazz Days, Thursday to Sunday, March 23 to 26, www.jazz-isch.de; Muc/Tones Vol. 2, Thursday to Saturday, March 23 to 25, Heppel & Ettlich, www.muctones.de