After the two hybrid festival editions with digital bridges to New York, Johannesburg, Cairo and São Paulo due to the pandemic, the Jazzfest Berlin 2022 returns to the resonant physical space of the here and now, and welcomes over 150 musicians from all over the world to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and surrounding venues from 3 to 6 November.
Enriched by the experiences of the recent years – through new partnerships around the Atlantic and new artistic formats – the 59th edition of the festival is back in the freshly renovated Haus der Berliner Festspiele, the Pierre Boulez Saal, the nearby clubs A-Trane and Quasimodo, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
In keeping with the dialectical current of a genre that has always been marked by migration, change and dialogue, the artistic encounters at this year’s festival feature meetings between young and old, tradition and renewal, continuity and disruption and a plurality of cultures from over 25 countries in 39 acts – among them once again numerous German and Berlin premieres. The line-up includes established greats of the US avant-garde scene such as Craig Taborn, Matana Roberts, Tomeka Reid, Hamid Drake and Kris Davis, young musicians influenced by spiritual jazz such as Immanuel Wilkins and Isaiah Collier, as well as other emerging US and European newcomers like Ben LaMar Gay, Sun-Mi Hong and Kirke Karja.
In addition, there will be on stage: Representatives of the South African jazz scene such as Asher Gamedze and the Johannesburg collective The Brother Moves On, improvising musicians inspired by folkloristic musical traditions such as Kateryna Ziabliuk and Maryana Golovchenko from Ukraine (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors), Olga Kozieł from Poland (Lumpeks), Sanem Kalfa from Turkey (Black Sea Songs), Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker from Italy (“Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d‘amore”), the Gurdjieff Ensemble from Armenia (“Zartir”) or Lucian Ban from Romania (“Transylvanian Folk Songs”), European free jazz pioneers such as Sven-Åke Johansson and Peter Brötzmann as well as protagonists of the younger generations such as Mette Rasmussen, Rodrigo Amado and Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra.
A special performance by Sven-Åke Johansson, whose multifaceted life’s work will be celebrated by the festival with a wide variety of contributions, will open the evening programme on Friday with a special performance – the day on which the Festspielhaus will be turned into an open resonance space for the audience and the musicians in the second part of the evening. A total of nine musical contributions can be experienced under the motto “Playing the Haus” on parallel stages including i.a. Die Hochstapler, Camille Émaille and Lisa Ullén, Synesthetic4 as well as the Umlaut Big Band, which will invite the listeners to dance on the remodelled theatre stage of the Festspielhaus in a swinging finale.
Finally, there is also a chance to stroll around and make discoveries in a neighbourhood walk on Sunday, which opens the final day of the festival with intimate concerts in a wine shop, a gallery and a book store located around the Festspielhaus.
You can hear from the musicians and discover more about festival themes in the essays, interviews and videos on our Digital Guide.
The concerts of the Jazzfest Berlin 2022 will be recorded by ARD and Deutschlandradio and broadcasted live or time-shifted.
The launch of the Digital Guide and the start of ticket sales will follow on Wednesday, 21 September, at 2 pm.
https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/jazzfest-berlin/start.html
Festival LINEUP:
KICK-OFF JAZZFEST BERLIN 2022
SUNDAY, 30.10.2022
Musho (UK, SE)
Alexander Hawkins, Sofia Jernberg
Alexander Hawkins (UK, SE, US) World premiere
Alexander Hawkins, Sofia Jernberg, Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid,
Gerry Hemingway, Matthew Wright
Commissioned by Pierre Boulez Saal in cooperation with Berliner Festspiele / Jazzfest Berlin
THURSDAY, 03.11.2022
The Hemphill Stringtet (US), European premiere
Sam Bardfeld, Curtis Stewart, Tomeka Reid, Stephanie Griffin
Hamid Drake’s Turiya: “Honoring Alice Coltrane”, feat. Naïssam Jalal (US, UK, FR, NO, IT)
Naïssam Jalal, Sheila Maurice-Grey, Jan Bang, Jamie Saft, Pasquale Mirra, Joshua Abrams, Hamid Drake
Craig Taborn (Commission) (US, PT), World premiere
Craig Taborn, Mat Maneri, Nick Dunston, Sofia Borges
Commissioned by Berliner Festspiele / Jazzfest Berlin
The Brother Moves On: “$/He Who Feeds You… Owns You”, feat. Chelsea Carmichael (ZA, UK) European premiere
Siyabonga Mthembu, Simphiwe Tshabalala, Ayanda Zalekile, Zelizwe Mthembu, Mthunzi Mvubu, Muhammad Dawjee, Chelsea Carmichael
Lumpeks (FR, PL)
Louis Laurain, Pierre Borel, Olga Kozieł, Sébastien Beliah
Mette Rasmussen Trio North (DK, NO, US), German premiere
Mette Rasmussen, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Chris Corsano
Rodrigo Amado’s The Bridge (PT, DE, US, NO), German premiere
Rodrigo Amado, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Gerry Hemingway
FRIDAY, 04.11.2022
Sven-Åke Johansson: “MM Schäumend – Overture for 15 hand fire extinguishers” (SE, FR, DE)
Pierre-Antoine Badaroux, Michaël Ballue, Sébastien Beliah, Pierre Borel, Antonio Borghini, Benjamin Dousteyssier, Geoffroy Gesser, Antonin-Tri Hoang, Louis Laurain, Pauline Leblond, Gabriel Levasseur, Hannes Lingens, Matthieu Naulleau, Brice Pichard, Romain Vuillemin, Sven-Åke Johansson
Karja / Renard / Wandinger (EE, DE, FR)
Kirke Karja, Ludwig Wandinger, Etienne Renard
Brötzmann / Bekkas / Drake (DE, MA, US)
Peter Brötzmann, Majid Bekkas, Hamid Drake
Carl / Grip / Johansson (DE, SE)
Rüdiger Carl, Joel Grip, Sven-Åke Johansson
Die Hochstapler (FR, IT, DE)
Pierre Borel, Louis Laurain, Antonio Borghini, Hannes Lingens
Umlaut Big Band (FR)
Sven-Åke Johansson, Pierre-Antoine Badaroux, Antonin-Tri Hoang, Pierre Borel, Geoffroy Gesser, Benjamin Dousteyssier, Brice Pichard, Pauline Leblond, Gabriel Levasseur, Michaël Ballue, Alexis Persigan, Matthieu Naulleau, Romain Vuillemin, Sébastien Beliah, Antonin Gerbal
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (UA, RO)
Musical storytelling, German premiere
Maryana Golovchenko, Anna Antypova, Kateryna Ziabliuk, George Dumitriu, Olha Chernii
Ullén / Bergman / Lund: “Space” (KR, SE), German premiere
Lisa Ullén, Elsa Bergman, Anna Lund
Synesthetic4: “Ahwowha” (AT)
Vincent Pongracz, Peter Rom, Manuel Mayr, Andreas Lettner
Camille Émaille solo (FR)
Camille Émaille
Silvia Tarozzi & Deborah Walker: “Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d‘amore” (IT)
Silvia Tarozzi, Deborah Walker
Camille Émaille’s OTTO (FR), German premiere
Gabriel Valtchev, Pol Small, Camille Émaille
Immanuel Wilkins: “The Seventh Hand”
Immanuel Wilkins, Micah Thomas, Tyrone Allen, Kweku Sumbry
SATURDAY, 05.11.2022
Blue for a Moment (LU)
Sven-Åke Johansson in a film portrait by Antoine Prum,
LU 2017, 82 min, German with English subtitles
Followed by a talk with Sven-Åke Johansson
Asher Gamedze: “Dialectic Soul” (ZA), German premiere
Asher Gamedze, Thembinkosi Mavimbela, Buddy Wells, Robin Fassie-Kock
KOMПOUSSULĂ (FR, UA, PL, AU, TR, BE, RO), World premiere
Kateryna Ziabliuk, Samuel Hall, Maryana Golovchenko, Louis Laurain, Pierre Borel, Olga Kozieł, Sébastien Beliah, Sanem Kalfa, Joachim Badenhorst, George Dumitriu
Commissioned by Berliner Festspiele / Jazzfest Berlin
Matana Roberts: “Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis” (US, CA), World premiere
Matana Roberts, Steve Swell, Hannah Marcus, Nic Caloia, Sam Shalabi, Ryan Sawyer
I AM: “Beyond” (US), German premiere // Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few: “Cosmic Transitions” (US)
Isaiah Collier, James Russell Sims, Jeremiah Hunt, Mike King
Black Sea Songs (TR, BE, RO)
Sanem Kalfa, Joachim Badenhorst, George Dumitriu
Sun-Mi Hong Quintet: “Third Page: RESONANCE” (KR, UK, IT)
Alistair Payne, Alessandro Fongaro, Sun-Mi Hong, Nicolo Ricci, Chaerin Im
Ban / Surman / Maneri: “Transylvanian Folk Songs” (UK, US, RO), German premiere
John Surman, Mat Maneri, Lucian Ban
SUNDAY, 06.11.2022
Kiezkonzerte
Improvised concerts with musicians from the festival programme in the neighbourhood of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Gurdjieff Ensemble: “Zartir” (AM), German premiere
Levon Eskenian, Emmanuel Hovhannisyan, Norayr Gapoyan, Armen Ayvazyan, Avag Margaryan, Aram Nikoghosyan, Meri Vardanyan, Davit Avagyan, Vladimir Papikyan, Mesrop Khalatyan
Sven-Åke Johansson: “Stumps” (SE, FR, DE)
Axel Dörner, Pierre Borel, Simon Sieger, Joel Grip, Sven-Åke Johansson
Jeff Parker: “Forfolks” (US)
Jeff Parker
Borderlands Trio: “Wandersphere” (US, CA)
Stephan Crump, Kris Davis, Eric McPherson
Ben LaMar Gay Ensemble: “Open Arms to Open Us” (US, IT)
Ben LaMar Gay, Edinho Gerber, Matt Davis, Tommaso Moretti
Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra: “If You Listen Carefully the Music is Yours” (DK, NO, PL, SE)
André Roligheten, Otis Sandsjö, Kjetil Møster, Maciej Obara, Mette Rasmussen, Per “Texas” Johansson, Eirik Hegdal, Signe Emmeluth, Thomas Johansson, Goran Kajfeš, Guro Kvåle, Erik Johannessen, Petter Eldh, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Ole Morten Vågan, Hans Hulbækmo, Håkon Mjåset Johansen, Gard Nilssen, Jørgen Brennhovd
Quartabê: “Lição #2: Dorival” (BR)
Mariá Portugal, Joana Queiroz, Maria Beraldo, Chicão
Melting Pot (PL, BE, AT, NO, GR), German premiere
Emil Storløkken Åse (Victoria, Oslo), Hanne De Backer (Handelsbeurs, Gent), Zbigniew Chojnacki (Jazztopad, Wroclaw), Beate Wiesinger (Jazzfestival Saalfelden), Evi Filippou (Jazzfest Berlin)
In collaboration with Jazztopad (Wroclaw) / Handelsbeurs (Ghent) / Nasjonal Jazzscene Victoria (Oslo) / Internationalenes Jazzfestival Saalfelden