A New Jazz Festival For Berlin

There simply can not be enough live music in town so here comes a very welcome new little festival at a location which is one of the nicest and charming in the city.

Diversity and equality is the name of the game for Berlin Jazz Experiment, to be held May 31st to June 2nd at Holzmarkt, the ever-changing and evolving alternative living and working space with its open structures along the Spree river which has hosted a lot of interesting little concerts and showcases in the last couple of years at its cozy Säälchen hall with acts such as Jordan Rakei playing there.

The programme will feature performances from Duendita, Emma-Jean Thackray’s Walrus, Rayana Jay, LIUN & The Science Fiction Band, Lucia Cadotsch “Speak Low”, Max Graef presents 2Morph Live, The Elliot Galvin Trio, Moses Boyd Exodus, Melanie de Biasio, Meshell Ndégeocello, Binker Golding & Elliot Galvin, SHALOSH, and Sun Ra Arkestra.

So there you go. Lots of artists who have played different jazz festivals in recent months, like the Winter Jazz Fest in New York earlier this month where Meshell Ndégeocello was artist in residence and where Lucia Cadotsch, who resides in Berlin, played last year as well. Thackray, Madlib-inspired and Gilles Peterson-promoted multi-talent from the UK, is as much in-demand right now as is drummer, composer and producer Moses Boyd, also from the UK, who has been hailed by many as one of the next artists to watch out for in the near future. Rayana Jay, 23-year old singer from Richmond, California, would be my personal highlight to check out at the festival. Her smooth and sultry vocal style is very far away from the current, unbelievably boring R&B scene, but still echoes some of its most delightful assets, like crisp and at the same time airy production skills and the use of 80s-sounding keyboards and synths.

All info can be found right here: http://www.berlinjazzexperiment.com/