Articles by Martin Longley
Moers Festival Interviews: Bart Maris
by Martin Longley
Bart Maris is a heroic Belgian trumpeter, deeply committed to the art of improvisation, treading a wilder jazz path, and possessing a mighty appetite for road-life, gigging prolifically and always seeking out unfamiliar collaborators, knowing that this act will force his own playing into a continual sense of vital change. Therefore, he is a fine choice for this year's Improviser In Residence, a position that's been connected to the Moers Festival for nearly two decades. The concept involves an artist ...
Continue ReadingLive From Berlin: Lina Allemano, Jonas Westergaard & Lisa Wulff
by Martin Longley
Lina Allemano/Uli Kempendorff/Jonas Westergaard/Nathan Ott Kunstfabrik Schlot Berlin, Germany March 24, 2025 Johann Greve is lately running a monthly Schlot Session at this lesser-known (but wonderful) basement jazz club in the Mitte part of town, open since 1993 (originally in Prenzlauer Berg, but shifting here in 2000). It's quite spacious for such a joint, with many tables for quaffing and nibbling snack bar-bites. The stage is well-placed in its sight-lines, and even ...
Continue ReadingMaerz Musik 2025
by Martin Longley
Radialsystem/ Sophiensaele/Haus der Berliner Festspiele Berlin, Germany March 23-25 2025 Maerz Musik is organised by the Berliner Festspiele, the same venue that presents Jazzfest Berlin. This ten-day Maerzfest concerns itself with the spiky end of moderne composition, but frequently crosses the line into freely improvised spontaneity. Your scribe was in town for a mere three-day wedge of the avant-pie, attending performances at Radialsystem, Sophiensæle and the Haus der Berliner Festspiele itself. His ...
Continue ReadingLive From Tallinn: Eggvn, Oranssi Pazuzu & The Tallinn Ensemble For New Music
by Martin Longley
Eggvn Kino Maja April 19, 2025 Just on the perimeter of the Estonian capital's mystical Old Town, your scribe chanced upon the Tallinn Industrial Festival, a long evening that offered one of its most curious acts right at the beginning. Fortunate not to be missed, as an early arrival was for once the justified course. This is a Mexican duo called Eggvn (apparently their names are IV and V), hidden under large hornéd ...
Continue ReadingJazzkaar Interviews: Kristjan Randalu
by Martin Longley
The Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu gave one of the best performances at the 2021 Jazzkaar festival in Tallinn. It was the premiere of a work-sequence for the New Wind Orchestra, and it blew the audience on a wayward journey. Once again, Randalu will be delivering a premiere piece for Jazzkaar, opening up this year's 36th edition with his “Marginaalid ja Dividendid" (Margins And Dividends). Your scribe and this keysman ended up with a most unusual interview setting: Longley ...
Continue ReadingKraków Jazz Week: Seifert Competition & Jazz Juniors
by Martin Longley
Kraków Jazz Week Cricoteka/Hevre Kraków, Poland September 26th-October 3rd 2024 This was the second Kraków Jazz Week, but there is a much deeper history unearthed when studying the roots of this new event. Fundamentally, it involves the amalgamation of two long-running festivals: the Seifert Competition and Jazz Juniors, this latter having a history that reaches all the way back to 1976, so now nearing its 40th anniversary. The Seifert event is ...
Continue ReadingJazzkaar 2024
by Martin Longley
Jazzkaar Telliskivi Creative City Tallinn, Estonia April 21-28, 2024 Customarily, the almost-always April placement of the Jazzkaar festival is accompanied by a goodly beaming of spring-flavored sunshine, perhaps infected by the odd murky downpour, but soon drying off its feathers. Instead, during 2024's 35th edition, Tallinn's wondrous eight-dayer was forced to accept an incongruous spring-mush of a snowstorm, deeply clinging, sludging around for a few days, chilled to the bones. Somewhat cleverly, ...
Continue ReadingBudapest Ritmo 2024
by Martin Longley
Budapest Ritmo Szimpla Kert/Akvárium Klub Budapest, Hungary April 11-13, 2024 Due to the musical orientation of its organisers, and its general Hungarian location, the Budapest Ritmo festival tends to feature a Balkan and East European bias, presenting global-ethnic artists from within the region. There are, of course, some exceptions in the programme, one of which was its bejewelled centrepiece, a now-rare appearance by the revered Malian master Salif Keita, who ...
Continue ReadingMoers Festival Interviews: Zeena Parkins
by Martin Longley
The harpist Zeena Parkins is one of the key players on the New York City improvising and composing fronts, and indeed on the global scene generally. Most of her upcoming gigs are happening around Europe, although her 2024 datesheet is relatively sparse compared to her 2025 plans. She probably became known to most folks when playing with John Zorn in the late 1980s and beyond, particularly as part of his “Cobra" performances. Subsequently, she has developed her active solo trajectory, ...
Continue ReadingMoers Festival Interviews: Virginia Genta
by Martin Longley
There is a tradition in the small German city of Moers, although its aims are far from traditional in orientation. Unless we consider the already sixty-year history (at least) of jazz-derived free improvisation. The Moers Festival has run since 1972, originally bent on exploring the vitality of free jazz, and still resolved towards that direction today, although now acknowledging the input of rock, folkloric, electronic and moderne new music elements. Since 2008, the city of Moers has ...
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