JazzFest Berlin '09 will take place from November 4 to 8. The central theme chosen this year by artistic director Nils Landgren is Blue Note: 70 Years. The world-renowned US record label was founded in 1939 by two Berlin migrs, Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff. This historical context is explored and illustrated by a photo exhibition currently on view at Berlin's Jewish Museum.
JazzFest Berlin '09 will open at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele with Terence Blanchard's A Tale of God's Will (a Requiem for Katrina). His quintet will be accompanied by the Deutsche Filmorchester Babelsberg. A busy concert program will follow while the festival will include Booker T. performing “Time is Tight!"
The NDR Big Band with Jacky Terrasson on the piano honors a few of the incredible stars of the classic Blue Note era with a “Tribute to Horace Silver." Beforehand, concertgoers will have an opportunity to hear a live performance by Hank Jones (born in '18!), now in Berlin as a guest with his duo partner, saxophonist Joe Lovano. Additional Blue Note musicians attending JazzFest '09 include young West African guitarist Lionel Loueke with his trio, Sheila Jordan, the first singer to stand in front of Alfred Lion's microphones, and from the Italian branch of Blue Note, trumpet player Paolo Fresu.
On view beginning on October 30 at Berlin's Jewish Museum to complement the theme of this year's JazzFest is a special exhibition of unpublished photographs by Francis Wolff. This collaboration will be given audible and visible expression by four early evening concerts taking place beneath the glass-topped courtyard of the museum, and performed by Yaron Herman, by US-American Blue Note pianists Robert Glasper and Aaron Parks, and by trumpeter Erik Truffaz (Blue Note France). Another new performance venue for JazzFest Berlin is the Georg-Neumann Saal, the concert hall since January 2009 of the Berlin's Jazz Institute am Einsteinufer. Featured will be two big bands: Ensemble Denada from Norway, and the Samel Jn Samelssons Big Band from Iceland. In traditional style, the late evening acts of the JazzFest Berlin will take place as usual at Quasimodo and A-Trane.
Our successful collaboration with the ARD and Deutschlandradio Kultur will continue. All JazzFest Berlin '09 concerts will be recorded, and some of them broadcast live.
You can access the current program of JazzFest Berlin '09 at www.jazzfest-berlin.de, with information on bands from the extreme north and as far away as southern Africa. Nils Landgren will share additional background information at a press conference scheduled for October 12.
Advanced ticket sales will begin on September 24.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
