Roy, Gregory, Chick and Bobby In Berlin This Week

Roy, Gregory, Chick and Bobby In Berlin This Week

This upcoming week, Berlin has several top live acts as guests. Starting on Monday, Roy Hargrove and his Quintet will grace the stage at A-Trane for three consecutive nights. Roy is bringing his current group with Justin Robinson (sax), Sullivan Fortner (p), Ameen Saleem (b), and Quincy Phillips (dr). Everybody’s darling Gregory Porter returns to…

Kevin Mahogany – In Munich with The Vienna Affair

Kevin Mahogany – In Munich with The Vienna Affair

The Kansas City-born singer with the strong baritone voice and versatile scat singing style is performing in Munich this week. Kevin will perform tracks from his brand-new album “The Vienna Affair”, which includes eight songs written by himself and the Hoagy Carmichael/Ned Washington standard “The Nearness Of You” plus a Joe Williams-penned blues number based…

BigBand der Deutschen Oper Berlin with Gershwin

BigBand der Deutschen Oper Berlin with Gershwin

This year’s concert of the BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin focuses on George Gershwin. “Summertime – The Fadcinating George Gershwin” is the title of the programme for this upcoming Monday, June 22nd. Since nine years now, the musicians of Berlin’s Deutsche Oper have taken breaks from playing Verdi, Wagner, Mozart, or Puccini to dig…

Ornette Coleman Dies At 85

Ornette Coleman Dies At 85

The man who invented free jazz music with his groundbreaking 1960 album “Free Jazz”, a controversial saxophonist and composer who released many innvovative records over several decades like “This Is Our Music” (1961, notable at least for the brilliant “Beauty Is A Rare Thing”), “Science Fiction” (1971, with poetry recitations by David Henderson and vocals…

Vision Festival Celebrating 20th Anniversary

Vision Festival Celebrating 20th Anniversary

New York’s Vision Festival for Free Jazz, Dance, Visual Art, and Poetry, celebrates its 20th year from July 5th-12th. In various special concerts, there will be a lot of experimental, free, avantgarde, whatever-you-want-to-call-it Jazz at the Historic Judson Memorial Church at the beautiful Washington Square South. The opening night performances are dedicated to the AACM,…

North Sea Jazz Festival 2015 – 40th Anniversary with Special Treats

North Sea Jazz Festival 2015 – 40th Anniversary with Special Treats

It’s festival season in Europe and each year, there are more and more coming up – even in the smallest cities and towns you’ve never heard of. One of the biggest and oldest celebrates its 40th anniversary this year: the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. I’ve been visiting this one since the late 80s…