The deliriously squat-like club complex of Z-Bau in Nürnberg hosted the Friday night at the heart of the three-week NUE JAZZ festival with a programme that typifies the twelfth year of the festival with a blend of sounds that are both accessible and credible enough to engage a diverse audience.
The post-rock of Dresden quartet Anima made for a restrained opening, with the collective Àbáse fronted by Hungarian Szabolc’s Bognár picking it up a bit with their blend of light afrobeatific groove ahead of the main party band. Jazzanova are mostly known as a Berlin-based remix collective beloved of Gilles Peterson. Performing live they work as a remarkably precise soul band with club-cultural inflections. Featuring charismatic guest singer Wayne Snow they brought an affable vibe with plenty of lyrical affirmation. You have to blame them for Groove Armada, but in their thirtieth year they are still fondly held and formative in the nu-soul paradigm.
The way it worked at NUEJAZZ at Z-Bau was to have free admission gigs in the Gallery space at the same time as the main gig in the Hall. Slightly confounding, but it afforded a certain relief to leap out to catch a bit of krautrock in the form of forty minutes of Embryo in the middle of Jazzanova’s eighty-minute set. Embryo was originally founded by Christian Burchard and Edgar Hofmann. At Z-Bau the quartet led by Marja Burchard on vibraphone and organ was tightly in the pocket with Johannes Schleiermacher on saxophone and lyrically motorific work by Maasl Maier on bass and Jakob Thun on drums in a satisfying blend of repetition and variation with knotty motifs.
Photo Helene Schuetz/ NUEJAZZ
The Saturday night was more “one for the heads” as they say, presenting nominees and award winners from the 2025 German Jazz Prize held in Cologne six months ago. The Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra are as cosmic as their name suggests, a huge wallop of proggy big band in the fashion of Flat Earth Society.
Photo credit Helena Schuetz/NUEJAZZ
This was in triple clash with the compellingly strange and wonderful Jelena Kuljić & Fundamental Interactions featuring Olga Reznichenko, and the melodious songs of Mongolian-born Munincher singer Enji, then overlapping with quality modern jazz from Peter Gall Quintett: all pursuing excellent contemporary directions in jazz, a programme that beat Friday’s bunch hands down even if it required a slightly frustrating use of juggling skills.
Photo credit Helena Schuetz/NUEJAZZ
The one group I couldn’t afford to miss, being a limey myself, was the “Exhaust” trio of Kit Downes, Camila Nebbia and Andrew Lisle, three of the best free players around playing with heart and head in a raw and passionate format. After these intensities, the energy folded naturally into the directness and playful sonorous appeal of Berlin singer Sera Kalo.
On Sunday in the more conventional concert hall format of Kulturwerkstatt Aug AEG, Sharon Mansur’s post-classical blend of jazz with middle eastern rock couldn’t have found a warmer audience for such rich and generous music. Grammy-winning American neo-soul singer Bilal tends to let the song speak for itself with a pleasing soul voice and a style modestly flavoured with diverse influences.
The “NUEJAZZ for Kids” concert at 10am on Monday (with affable festival director Frank Wuppinger on guitar) entertained a hall full of schoolchildren for an hour of jazzy edutainment that rounded out what was for me a rewarding weekend of music and tourism. It turns out Nuremberg is an amazing place to visit, with the best food I’ve ever had in Germany or Austria (the tasty Franconian snack Drei Im Weggla showcases the signature small-size Nuremberg sausage).
The medieval architecture of Nürnberg is pleasingly chocolate-box. The long list of museums chronicles the town’s artistic pedigree with the Albrecht Dürer House, a history of toy making with the Toy Museum and a conceptual dive into technology at the Zukunftsmuseum. The darker history can be remembered at the sprawling site of the Nuremberg Rallies. The original courtroom of the Nuremberg Trials makes for an overwhelming experience. The weight of history can be grim, but the aftermath points to a brighter future—one that I’m grateful to the music for letting me glimpse. Clearly something very good is coming out of Nürnberg.
AJ Dehany was the guest of NUEJAZZ
