JAZZDOR BERLIN 2024

The 16th edition of Jazzdor Berlin offered 10 concerts in four nights - most figurations chosen/put together by Philippe Ochem comprising next to excelling French musician German, Belgian, Swiss, Portuguese and US-American musicians.  This year Jazzdor Berlin for the second time was immediately followed by Jazzdor Dresden in. collaboration with the Tonne venue there. Half of the 10 concerts were premières chosen or arranged by artistic director Philippe Ochem.

Philippe Ochem

This article covers the four nights Berlin. It is a duo-text, written by two authors, Henning Bolte (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Stanka Hrastelj (Krsko, Slovenia) Additional personal comments of both of us are marked parts of the more general characterisations of the experienced musical performances.

Stanka Hrastelj is a poet/writer from Slovenia. This is her first time to cooperate in a music festival review. She (re)acted on the basis of her intuitions concerning the artistic impact and value of the experienced music not through a routinised, jargon-loaded filter of music writing. Her contributions turned out as quite lively and a rich manifestation of sense making of music unknown to her. This was quite inspiring and refreshing for the writing about music.



NIGHT 1

It started with the Tuba Trio, well-known accomplished musicians, coming up with something new here: Michel Godard on tuba and serpent, Florian Weber, piano, and Anne Paceo, drums. It revealed as the most surprising, lively and delighting act of this edition. After some initial routine runs, the music rapidly gained highly energised and energising quality, increasing density and an enormously flowing joy of playing of three musicians evenly matched: just stunning and delighting especially through their way of letting the audience participate in their enjoyable music making and their relaxed and eager musical journeying.

They carried and were carried all the way through: a working band in the sense that it worked just fabulously. A thankful bravo to them.

Stanka Hrastelj : Even before the concert began, the whispering of “Godard, Godard, Michel Godard”, full of the anticipation of a good performance, could be heard in the hall. At performances of respectable names expectations of the audience are high, and the musicians are burdened by the pressure to impress it. However, the Godard/Weber/Paceo trio apparently did not bother with this. Relaxed, unpretentious sovereigns came on stage, and they were just themselves. And they rocked!

I myself dismissed all external noises and indulged in their address. Spontaneously I fell into stories. I don't know if musicians strive to tell stories with their music, but every time I hear good music, stories are drawn in front of my eyes. Good music transcends itself, it is like multidimensional storytelling. Which stories did emerge? First the scenery of Raphael's fresco The School of Athens surfaced, with Plato and Aristotle engaged in a heated but respectful debate on the agora. In the next piece, I felt like I was watching the awakening of the day. Dew covered grass, the first rays of the sun, soft morning light, and the scene from nature was complemented by the sounds of civilisation – factories, machines, car traffic, action - both actually going hand in hand somehow. In the third piece things got human even more complex. The rains turned into devastating floods that washed away people’s homes. Many came to help from all possible places, and then from the background various companies and institutions joined the humanitarian campaign with their calculations, searching for their own benefit under the sophisticated pretext of help. People, who struggle with all the work, are increasingly exhausted, but institutions grease their moustaches. A conflict arises between well-meaning people and exploitative lobbies. And more, and more interesting stories…

The playing was very fluid, each musician had a clear line, decisive and sophisticated at the same time, clean and beautiful tone. I wondered how many different sounds Godard brought out of the tuba and serpent – the sounds of didgeridoo, Jew’s harp, bumblebees and flies. Weber literally danced with his feet to the piano, Paceo let us feel the primary power of the drums and upgraded it with her refined vision.

It was a joy to see the three of them acting playfully as if they had a relaxed party on stage while playing at top level. Communication between them was in good place, they did not fall into hierarchical patterns, but into dialogue of the kind where individuals show each other how much they appreciate each other. Unforgettable!


The other act of the night was the group of bassoon player Sophie Bernado with her carte blanche program “Celestine in the Clouds” and its exceptional line-up of Berlin vibraphonist Taiko Saito, Belgian bassist Joachim Florent and Canadian throat singing vocalist, film director and actor Marie-Pascale Dubé.

Due to sickness Bernado couldn’t realise the program last year and also this year the signs were not good: Marie-Pascale Dubé couldn’t come to sing. She was on short term replaced by drummer Francesco Pastacaldi. After a technics-induced troubled start, the group played some fine music that gave an idea of the great potential that it holds. It was however still lacking the inner glow and transcending force. It was still not ripe enough. It will for sure actualise in further performances.

Stanka Hrastelj : Bernardo is a strong and special person, which she definitely showed on stage. She was joined by three great musicians and each excelled on stage in his  /her own way, but I missed the ‘glue’ that would connect them into a single musical organism. Despite their efforts, not enough sparks jumped between them to create a sovereign current and allow the audience to swim out to sea with them. In addition to playing bassoon, Bernardo also sang. Her singing voice has a nice sound and would have come out even more if the lyrics were not so simple and cliché.

Sophie Bernado

NIGHT 2

The second night started with a strong polytonal storm of the collective voice of Prospectus, winner of the annual AJC selection that earns the group, called after a piece of saxophonist Steve Lacy (1934-2004), exposure at a series of festivals among which Jazzdor.

   
Henri Peyrous - Julien Ducoin

Their music was rhythmically intricate, intense, bright and interlocking in superior way. All members, Henri Peyrous (saxophones/clarinets), Julien Ducoin (b) and Florentin Hay (drs) are excellent musicians and Léa Ciechelski on saxophone and flute was simply exceptional. Her voice was shining strong and far above all permanently. She should be counted to the splash making series of forceful and young saxophonists as Camile Nebbia a.o.. The group as unity is clearly a force majeure qua dynamics and switching between wild and soft sides in significant and organic ways.

  
Léa Ciechelski

Stanka Hrastelj : the musical ‘message’ was very clear and strong here. the signal that reached me, was how important people’s voice is and that you have to keep your voice strong: your independent voice must be persistent in the chorus of many many voices. Ciechelski made people listen to HER message. There was a lot of optimistic vibe. The whole group “spoke” in a distinctive way and really reached people.


The second part of the night was reserved for the 19-piece version of the Orchestra National de Jazz under the lead of Frédéric Maurin and Steve Lehman. The contrast with the first couldn't be greater in size, signal, focus, manoeuvres and extensions. The program EX MACHINA is a twofold explorative project: on one side applying the sound language of the spectralists, a French direction in contemporary composed music, to the instruments and the world of jazz big big bands. On the other hand let sound sampling and transformation machines intervene on this music to generate different music in and through the live played music by two electronic musicians from IRCAM, Jérome Nika and Dionysios Papanikolaou.

The first aspect is a practice as old as jazz has been existent and has been played in a great variety of fusions and e-fusions whereas the electronic thing has entered and changed jazz during the last few decades.

Stanka Hrastelj : I myself find it difficult to talk about their concert, because the type of orchestral jazz music does not address me. In addition, when listening, I could not shake the feeling that I was listening to the creation of nerds from a closed circle, who created something – for other nerds. It seemed very hermetically and even somewhat sublimely. Unfortunately, I could not connect with the music myself. The musical arrangements were meticulously crafted but as such didn’t leave much room for surprises, which I appreciate and which had made it less sterile.

However, it was certainly interesting to see the conductor that was also involved as composer of the music acted more as a supervisor and only rarely intervened with gesturing hints. Certainly also because he trusted the musicians, not least because he had exceptional instrumentalists in front of him.

Henning Bolte : There were surely fascinating parts but drama(turgy), dialectics and transcendence was missing. It was turning around its own axis (with no escape) = ex machina and in the long run, it ran dead. It came over as smithery, heavily calculated steel production.



NIGHT 3

Night 3 had to offer a German-French-Swiss-US-American group, Dejan Terzic’s Axiom, and a French-Belgian-Portuguese group, Bonbon Flamme and a Swiss-German-French group, Marie Krüttli Trio, starting.

Swiss pianist Marie Krütli treated us on luxuriating, bourgeoisified piano trio music old style. No announcements, her back turned towards the audience etc.  An old format was served in an uninterestingly gushing way where everything floated in an undecided lengthened middle zone. It was a void, inflated, not to the audience related show fallen out of time and context.


Happily the Axiom unit of drummer Dejan Terzic with Bojan Z on piano, Chris Speed on reeds and Swiss bassist Bänz Oester subbing for Mat Penman, brought back some marked tangible energy: edgy, pointed, raucous, crashing and rushing with fiery turns and twists in a swirling ocean of sound.

  
Chris Speed - Chris Speed and Dejan Terzic

Henning Bolte : the music making felt very earthy, sometimes I had the association of the displacing, moving of stone walls. Chris Speed’s playing time after time created clarity in the rumbling turmoil layers. The consonance of his clarinet with Bojan Z’s piano re-defining the space, was a great delight.

Stanka Hrastelj : They are experienced cats, they are aged wine. They had something to say and did not babble in vain. A real refreshment compared to the previous trio and at the same time, it is a shame that they left the audience with a bad aftertaste. It is difficult to switch to another energy.

Bojan Z

Axiom played its way through a great variety of textures, temperatures and temperaments in sovereign way. In the meantime, a heated debate between the drums and the piano ignited, which worked perfectly. In my view, they would even been better when they would have managed to arrive at a more fine-grained use of  the Balkan ‘Hauruck’ approach in cases the music roughened and drowned out its finer dimensions.

The minimalist screening of abstract circles on the stage’s background, which nicely complemented the audible, was also welcome. Prior to this concert, the organisers did not use or take advantage of the screening which is a shame, as visual elements can be a welcome addition to the music, especially when three different musical universes follow one another the same evening.

The final performance by the quartet of cellist Valentin Ceccaldi, pianist Fulco Ottervanger, guitarist Luis Lopes and drummer Etienne Ziemniak left limitations behind it in a grandioso dialectical manner with incredible dynamics leading into a firework of amazement. By retarding and speeding up in breakneck pace and a masterful alternation of quietening and extremely raucous bursts, they opened up a free playing field to throw in splinters, motifs and tunes from everywhere in sentimental mood, absurd twirls, hilarious marching, odd waltzing, kicking rockin’ rollin’ attacks. By this they created an ever dramatical shifting sound field that they crossed in unpredictable but always greatly hitting way.

  
Valentin Ceccaldi - Luis Lopes and Etienne Ziemniak

Their ideas of sound shifting and mood injection seemed to be limitless and were always liberating the material they worked with. At the core was their sheer playfulness of throwing popular musical pattern in the dramatic field and go through hilarious, grotesque, sentimental tints and textures to mine and exhaust the dormant tensions and explosive potentials. The fictitious Mexican framing allowed and triggered them to go hot and bright as well as dark, garish, gaudy, überbunt and greatly kitschy. What happened there was/is a theatre of sounds der extra Klasse with Tom der Waits as hovering godfather.

Fulco Ottervanger

Stanka Hrastelj : Even if everything goes wrong, Bonbon Flamme will save the day. They have a wide range, different spectra, a strong charge and high voltage. They are brave and bold, passionate and sovereign. Their playing is at a high level, the stage presence is strong, and they enjoy and have fun producing music. They incorporate a special kind of humour into the music, but far from any triviality. They dare to provoke, throw a handful of chilli into the pot, go to the edge and walk along the edge – without the risk of faltering, because their balance is downright tightrope walker. Excellent music and excellent theatre! (I am sorry I can't find more grounded and “normal” words for their performance, but the magic experienced is hard to pour into words.)



NIGHT 4

When something is labelled as ‘premiere’, then you can expect a new fragrance of sound, a new approach, a revival of sounds etc.. The opening two horns - of the two-horns trio of pianist Bruno Angelini - was without doubt a nice surprise with the greatly soaring horns effect shadings by Sakina Abdou (tenorsax) and Angelika Niescier (alto sax) - just very beautiful, touching music. Niescier is an already blessed sky stormer (see her latest album on Intakt Records with cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Savannah Harris), Abdou an extraordinarily strong upcoming voice that set burning example with her recent album “Goodbye Ground” on Relative Pitch Record.

Angelini has a strong, lyrical and extraordinarily imaginative musical signature of his own witness also his recent album “Nearly nothing, almost everything” on the ECM associated Label La Buissone with violinist Régis Huby, bassist Claude Tchamitchian and drummer Edward Perraud. And, it turned out that these three, Angelini, Abdou and Niescier, are also evenly matched for gorgeous flights of a kind. Experiencing their wonderfully fulfilling music it is surprising that Bruno Angelini is not that well-known way east or north from France. It’s definitely time to pay attention to his music and his groups. And, with this trio he easily gets across the (gender) balance barrier.

  
Sakina Abdou - Angelika Niescier

Stanka Hrastelj : At first glance, an unusual name for the fiery trio we have seen on stage, but it captures the subtlety and multilayeredness that characterises it so strongly. It was a true experience to listen to them. If you closed your eyes (and even if you didn't), the alto saxophone (Niescier) seemed like a street brawler who is all over the place and constantly provokes conflict and confrontation, than the martial arts master tenor saxophone (Abdou) cajoling with deep inner composure, and finally the Zen master (Angelini, piano) stood next to them and spoke of openness, acceptance, harmony and above all the preciousness of poetry. There was an extraordinary harmony and narrative inventiveness among them. They perfectly combined fire, water, earth and air and did much more than just put on a great performance.


The quintet La Main / The Hand / Die Hand of French guitarist Gilles Coronado with Olivier Laisney (tr), Catherine Delaunay (cl), Sarah Murcia (synth) and Christophe Lavergne (dr) formed a good bridge and step up to the finale with the celebration of the 20th birthday of the Emile Parisien 4tet. Coronado is a conjuror who can transform his music pieces unobtrusively and plays his games with his own compositions in performances. It is always a bit what it is not and that can the next moment also be different.

Stanka Hrastelj : La Main acted as the strawberry pick of the Orchestra National de Jazz. In the ONJ they were like in a safe cocoon, but now they have evolved into a vivid butterfly and flown off into a world full of dangers and pitfalls. Bold, determined, clear, strong, colourful, creative. A fantastic (rock) spice to the jazz festival.

And, then the grand finale on the occasion of 20 years (already) of the working band of musical animal Emile Parisien. You can have opinions about him, appreciate in different degrees what he is doing and offering with his great talents, he is a master musician of a kind. It seems that music making is like normal breathing for him. And this he did now for 20 years with his long time dedicated and loyal band members: pianist Julien Touéry, bassist Ivan Gélugne and drummer Julien Loutelier. Astonishing it is, no doubt! It was no gemütliche Rückschau, but there was a lot intricate and challenging Neuzeug of the best kind. We can be happy to have such a musician and can only wish him much more curving from the ground up to the sky and in between.

Stanka Hrastelj : It’s hard to believe that a group with a 20-year tradition of existence would approach things so freshly and fully. They showed all the advantages of musicians who know each other well and know what to expect from each other, but at the same time the stage glowed with their strength and courage to surprise: Musical beasts in the full sense of the word. The organiser could hardly have chosen a better band to close the Berlin leg of this year's Jazzdor edition, as the taste for the "real thing" stayed with them for quite some time.


AUSBLICK

The stage at the Kesselhaus in the Kulturbrauerei (culture brewery) is on breast height which induces a greater distance from the audience. It is not optimal but still bearable. Jazzdor Berlin is a one-stream festival which is one of the greatest advantages of the festival for an enjoyable reception of music. I once compared Jazzdor’s artistic director Philippe Ochem to a gardener, [LINK] which makes him a class apart in the field.

That characterisation, still applies and has drawn an exquisite trail through the years. He doesn’t make up packages or baskets with groups as program. He carefully plants musicians or groups placing them in a fruitful surrounding that can make them flourish in new colourings and forms. It is a longer term affair that has lead into quite memorable results and moments as well as new discoveries.

The text clearly shows what impressed the writers and what according to them deserves special attention: it is the Tuba Trio, Bonbon Flamme, Prospectus and concerning individual musicians it is saxophonists Sakina Abdou and Léa Ciechelski as well as pianist Bruno Angelini.

Text © Henning Bolte/Stanka Hrastelj  -  photos © FoBo