JazzFest Berlin 09 opens on November 4 at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele with Terence Blanchard and his quintet accompanied by the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg performing his A Tale of Gods Will (A Requiem for Katrina). This concert forms the upbeat to this years festival while also highlighting our central theme: Blue Note: 70 years, in honor of the label's founders Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, both Berlin natives.

Invited this year in particular are musicians from the USA: the glamour of the early Blue Note years arrives in Berlin courtesy of trombonist Curtis Fuller and singer Sheila Jordan with pianist Steve Kuhn. Joining us from the younger Blue Note generation are saxophonist Joe Lovano in a duo with Hank Jones, and pianists Robert Glasper and Aaron Parks.

These performers will appear together with their trios in the early evening beneath the glass-topped courtyard of the Jewish Museum Berlin. There will be four trio concerts in all at this venue the occasion being a special exhibition at the Jewish Museum Berlin designed to complement the Blue Note theme of JazzFest Berlin 09.

Opening on October 30th, it features unpublished photographs by the labels cofounder Francis Wolff. Blue Note France and Blue Note Italy are also represented at JazzFest Berlin 09 through trumpeters Erik Traffic and Paolo Fresu. The ensemble JazzXChange will allow us to discover what Blue Note Germany has to offer. We will be transported back to the USA when the NDR Bigband with Jacky Terrasson at the piano perform their A Blue Note Tribute to Horace Silver honoring one of the greatest stars of the classic Blue Note era. Yet another Blue Note musician is young West African guitarist Lionel Loueke, who appears with his trio at the opening concert of JazzFest Berlin 09 on November 4th.

Lionel Louekes appearance forms part of the festivals African intermezzo but the second evening belongs to musicians from South Africa: the ensemble Dizu Plaatjies Ibuyambo Ensemble and South Aufricas Soul queen Lira each present unique mixtures of traditional music, jazz, and R&B.

Needless to add, a festival organized by Swedish trombonist Nils Landgren can be expected to sound a Nordic note: awaited among others are appearances by the Tingvall Trio featuring Swedish pianist Martin Tingvall, the Samel Jn Samelssons Big Band from Iceland, the Norwegian group Susanna & the Magical Orchestra, trumpeter Mathias Eick and his quartet, the Ensemble Denada, and contrabassist Arild Andersen. Additional festival highlights include concerts by Barry Guy and Dave Holland and John Scofield and Booker T..

Besides the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, festival venues include A-Trane, Quasimodo, the glass-topped courtyard of the Jewish Museum Berlin, and the Georg-Neumann-Saal, since January 2009 the concert hall of the Berlin Jazz Institute at Einsteinufer.

Advanced ticket sales begins at September 24th, at website
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