The Berlin JazzFest programme never fails to reflect the most significant trends in contemporary jazz, as was apparent on the first two days of this year’s festival
Day 1 – Thursday 30 October in the Haus der Festspiele
The opening set presented the complex compositions and high energy playing of a trio featuring Angelika Niescer on alto saxophone, Tomeka Reid on cello and Eliza Salem on drums. They were playing material from their “Beyond Dragons” album (with Savannah Harris on drums rather than Salem). The movement between composition and improvisation was quite fluid and full of engaging surprises. This was an excellent set that highlighted the strong rapport between Niescer and Reid.
The following set featured a largely Berlin based septet, but with our own Percy Pursglove on trumpet. This group has the name Deranged Particles, and is led by bass player Felix Henkelhausen. Here again the writing was quite complex, but largely through the dense rhythmic patterns created by the combination of vibes /marimba, laptop, double bass and drums. The two horns, Pursglove on trumpet and Philip Gropper on tenor saxophone plus Elias Stemeseder on piano and keys often interacted with each other in duo format. There was one particularly impressive short passage where Pursglove duetted with a sample of his own playing on Valentin Gerhardus‘ laptop.
The trumpet and piano duo of Wadada Leo Smith and Vijay Iyer brought the evening in the Haus der Festspiele to a stunning conclusion, playing compositions from their “Defiant Life” album. The music had a beautiful lyricism touched with a sense of melancholy, particularly when Iyer moved to the Fender Rhodes. This was part of what is said to be Wadada’s final European tour and the audience showed its appreciation for his major contribution to music with a standing ovation.
The timing of Wadada Iyer set overlapped with Tim Berne’s Capatosta set in the Quasimodo venue, making it impossible to attend the latter gig. Reports are that the set went down a storm; see John Watson’s review of the Birmingham concert.
Day 2 – Friday 31 October
Jazzfest Berlin has often had a political orientation. In early years, this was more to do with controversy about trends in the music leading to a situation where Sarah Vaughan was booed for not being contemporary enough. This year the festival asks the question ‘Where will you run when the world’ s on fire?’ taken from a track on Marc Ribot’s latest album. In the Artists Talk Peter Margasak asked three musicians, Luke Stewart, Ingrebrigt Haker Flaten and Jonathan Horne, for their reaction to the turmoil in the world. Stewart, in particular, spoke movingly of his anxiety but also of the strength of the musical community.
Two of the sets in the Festspiele continued this political theme. Signe Emmeluth’s BANSHEE drew on the Irish tradition of the Banshee whose screaming warned of a death in the family. Here it became a protest against world events. The music moved between very loud passages including the dramatic Banshee screaming from Maja Ratkje and Emmeluth herself, and much gentler passages. Sadly, the quieter passages did not project in the large auditorium, resulting in a loss of cohesion in the set.
More overtly political was the final set of the evening by. Kidambi announced herself as an activist, and introduced each number with a political statement about the situation in Palestine, USA or the world generally. The actual music reflected this concern with powerful vocals from Kidambi and equally powerful contributions from saxophonists, Alfredo Colon and Matt Nelson.
In between these two sets David Murray‘s relatively new quartet made its German debut. In it, Murray has returned to his strengths as a soloist, the fast intricate runs, the use of the upper register of the tenor saxophone and the unique sound of the bass clarinet. Murray fronts a strong quartet with Marta Sanchez on piano, Luke Stewart on bass and Chris Beck on drums. The quartet was joined by Murray’s wife, Francesca Cinelli, for one song.
Also making its German debut was a new quartet led by drummer Makaya McCraven with Marquis Hill on trumpet, Matt Gold on guitar and Junius Paul on bass. This was an enjoyable set of music led by McCraven’s high energy drumming.
