XJAZZ Festival: Trio Music with Olivia Trummer and Omer Klein

Olivia Trummer
Olivia Trummer on Friday evening at FluxBau during the XJAZZ Festival.

One of the nice things about the XJAZZ Festival is the fact that almost all participating clubs are in walking distance to each other and that most of the shows actually start on time (is that really a German habit?). The cozy FluxBau with direct access to the Spree was hosting young singer, pianist, and songwriter Olivia Trummer on Friday night. And what a nice revelation she was. She wasn’t seriously on my radar up until yesterday when she performed songs from her most recent album “Fly Now”.

Her very personal, poetic and unique storytelling combined with her sympathetic, very inartificial voice and imaginative piano playing made up for a truly entertaining sixty minutes. Her beautiful “Watching The Moon” was a dreamy, lyrical, and brilliantly unhurried love song. A tune made for repeated listening. Olivia was aided by bassist Paul Kleber and drummer Rainer Winch, both prominent figures on the Berlin scene and she changed to keyboard on a couple of tunes. She has really found her own niche with haunting tracks like “All Is Well” and “Precious Silence”, both executed here with pristine subtlety.

Olivia Trummer
Olivia Trummer on Friday night at FluxBau/XJAZZ Festival

Israel is one of the main focuses for the festival this year and there are actually a lot of musicians from Israel playing in Berlin, living here, or using the city as their base. Pianist Omer Klein combined his own arresting compositions with his virtuosic playing which sometimes hinted at his native country. Tracks came from the recently released “Fearless Friday” album and together with bassist Haggai Cohen-Milo and drummer Amir Bresler, he came up with a pretty energetic and shining set. When I arrived at the venue (Privat Club), only a 10 minute walk from FluxBau, there was already an impressive line of people waiting to get in. I think you can already tell that the second edition of the Festival is another success story for the organisers and Berlin.

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