Nov. 24, 2012

We are now looking forward to a great year end: Orvieto Jazz Festival in Umbria, Italy. We will be there from Dec. 29 to Jan 1 and at least we received now the tickets for a gospel concert and the concerts of Gregory Porter and Kurt Elling. The capital city of crooners will be Orvieto this year end! 

We will keep you updated ....

Richard Galliano

The most interesting concert this year  of this years Jazztage Dresden was from our point of view the performance of RICHARD GALLIANO! Richard is the best accordionist alive and explores with his project so many different music styles and crosses all musical borders with elegance and depth: Tango, Film music, Classical Music (Bach) and of course Jazz, where the list of collaborations is getting longer and longer, e.g. Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Charlie Haden, Gabriele Mirabassi, Wynton Marsalis or Gary Burton. For us the most impressive document of music is his support in developing European Jazz together with Paolo Fresu and Jan Lundgren (Mare Nostrum).

We had the chance for a short interview and for the first time you can see also some professional fotos of our friend Hans-Joachim Maquet, one of the official photographers the Jazztage Dresden. Have a look. --> 

Orvieto Jazz - GREGORY PORTER

Dear friends, the last big event of this year is taking place in Orvieto, Italy. Less than 100 km north of Rome the Winter Festival around the year end will host this year Gregory Porter as "artist in residence". Gregory will perform several concerts from Dec. 28, 2012 to Jan. 1, 2013. 

It will be a great chance to spend holidays in the lovely Umbria area combined with the most probably best Jazz male artist alive! We will be there and if you would like to join - just let us know.... more details about the trip will follow. 

The final schedule and full program will be announced on Nov. 8, 2012! We will keep you informed.

A-TRANE Birthday

The famous A-Trane Jazz Club in Berlin is celebrating its 20th birthday from September 11-30. The grand opening will be an open air concert in front of the club on Sept. 11 with the Till Brönner Band. A lot of interesting guests will perform in that month to celebrate this tiny club where a lot of real superstars already performed, e.g. Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Benny Green, Enrico Rava, Brad Mehldau, Roy Hargrove, Kenny Barron, Randy Crawofrd & Joe Sample and many, many more.

Get the details on the A-Trane-Webpage.

Selen Gülün

Already the headline of our last newsletter we now added Selen to our Artists section with some news about her and some links which could help you to dig deeper in her music! Enjoy! ->

CD Review: Vienna Naked - Wolfgang Muthspiel

“I’ve been searching all my life/for a way to see/Guru-hopping, without stopping/All I found was me” (another round) ... that’s how the recent and extremely interesting project of the Austrian Jazz guitarist starts. Many experts describe him in the meantime as the European answer to Pat Metheny - but this would reduce the creative power of Wolfgang - he cannot be  subordinated to any specific style. The power of innovation is in any of his projects and from his starts in NY until his last years “drumfree” project with Larry Grenadier and Andy Scherrer he shows always his versatility and creativity. This time he surprises us with an intimate album - only his guitar and for the first time - his voice (!). This creates something completely new and we wonder why he didn’t use his voice before. It’s simply great!

Chick Corea - Return to Forever

One of the most innovative fusion projects in jazz history will release a new album on Jun 15, 2012 - Return to Forever. This project of Chick Corea started in the early 70s and celebrated 1983 and 2003 glorious comebacks. This new release consists of live performances of classical songs performed in 2011 and a bonus DVD called "Inside the Music" and a trailer for the film "Return to Forever Story" which will be released soon, too.

Additional good news: there is a free track available in internet to get some appetite for the whole album ... listen to it, it's great ....

Get your free track ->

Where to buy CDs?

Are you also that oldfashioned as we are? Instead of downloading new songs to the computer you want to keep new CDs in your hands to check the cover, to read the liner notes and to get more information about the musicians or to read the lyrics of the songs? 

Where can you get the best service? Should be a place where you find a reasonable sortiment, where you can hear the latest releases and most probably the most important thing: where you get specific advice by a staff who is really interested in your music. Where do you get this advice?

Not easy to answer at the beginning of this century where normal CD shops are getting larger while the Jazz section is dramatically reduced and you get only the mainstream.

Maybe you can give us advice where you buy your CDs. In the last years we had the pleasure of only two shops which fulfilled our wishes and we would like to name them now:

LALE PLAK, Istanbul: in the heart of the city located directly at Isteglal Caddesi you can find this wonderful small shop. You get there all the latest releases, rarities you cannot find elsewhere in the city, get a focus on local jazz music on top and the best: the staff is very helpful and at the end you will have an overview whats going on and you will waste much time with a perfect purchase at the end. The staff is helpful, care taking and often you can meet there local musicians or radio hosts.

EGEA, Perugia: maybe the best place to shop for CDs. I entered there twice and it took me always a long time to get out again. CDs - also focussed on local Jazz but also with a huge international selection. The staff is recommending continuously interesting products with an enormous knowledge in Jazz and at the end its difficult to decide. You feel there like being with friends not to be in a shop. Simply great.

So, which shops can you recommend - we would like to add to our page, too. Give us hints under -> 

Sightseeing & Jazz: Worms Jazz&Joy

Another interesting festival - in Worms, Germany, part of the Metropol Rhein-Neckar region offers this year a great international Jazz festival. Superstars like Dee Dee Bridgewater, italian trumpet star Paolo Fresu with his Devil Quartet and many others will meet German stars like 85year old legend Paul Kuhn or Dick Brave (!). 

The festival can easily be combined with a lot of culture and art in the region: Worms and Heidelberg are giving the perfect backing to spend some relaxed days in the region.

UNESCO Jazz day II - THE Show

The biggest party with respect to the  first UNESCO Jazz day has been held in Paris this year. For all Fans who couldn't join this live event ARTE published the whole concert in the internet ..... you can see stars like: Dee Dee Bridgewater, her daughter China Moses, Manu Katché, Lionel Loueke, Klaus Doldinger, Barbara Hendricks, Antonio Hart and many, many others. The host of that evening: HERBIE HANCOCK......

Just have a look at THE Show - press the link

UNESCO JAZZ DAY - April 30, 2012

In November 20122 the international community proclaimed April 30 as "International Jazz Day". The day is intended to raise awareness in the international community of the virtues of jazz as an educational tool and a force for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people. "Jazz has been a force for positive social transformation throughout its history, and it remains so today" (Irana Bokova, Director General). Lets have a look if it will help to boost the ideas of Jazz in the society - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

PORI Jazz Festival - Finland

Pori is located in the west of Finland, 240 km away from Helsinki and a hot spot for this summer holidays. Cool weather but hot music everywhere. I didn't know this festival but it seems to be phantastic.

Beside a lot of local stars and the main act Norah Jones there are especially two gigs which are drawing our attention.

RADIO.STRING.QUARTET.VIENNA - a string quartet? Jazz? Both, yes. Different music than you might expect but simply great. We saw them two years ago solo and with Rigmor Gustafsson. This experiment is unexpectedly great - music and art .. just look at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jadyhof2fBg 

The second act is the ÖNDER FOCAN GUITAR BAND - Önder Focan from Istanbul is the most well known turkish Jazz guitarist - powered by traditional jazz guitar history and his turkish roots ... always great to listen to him.