 |
|
|
|
|
| JazzFest Berlin 2003 |
|
The JazzFest 2003 will take place from 5 - 9 November, main
venue will again be Haus der Berliner Festspiele. The Festival’s start-off
will be dramatic: La Grande Illusion is what 12 musicians from ARFI (Association
à la Recherche d'un Folklore Imaginaire), Lyon, and one magician call their
quest for an imaginary folklore, possessing all the poetry, sense of humour and
magic that can be inherent in jazz music.
A focus on Japanese music has been developed in cooperation with Tokyo composer
and trumpeter Jun Miyake, who will perform with his band in Europe for the first
time.
Peter Schulze, former musical director of Radio Bremen 2 and new aritistic
director of JazzFest Berlin, wishes to focus this year’s attention on the
dialogue within and between smaller bands - which is really all that is needed
to achieve an intense musical exchange, a rich musica povera. The Tunesian/Algerian
duo “DuOud“ from France, recently nominated for the prestigious BBC
Radio3 Award for World Music, may serve as one example here.
According to Schulze, the conception of jazz should generally be a very open-minded
one. After all, jazz has been a result of acculturation from its very beginnings;
and as such, it is pronounced dead at least once whith every new and at first
glance surprising result. But:
Jazz is not dead, it has only moved to Europe.
The JazzFest will encompass a lot of topical music - expressions of transcultural
fusions, presented in highly individualist styles - as it is currently developed
particularly in Europe, a continent with a high rate of migration.
New music from old Europe, as it were.
And:
“The music I play after dinner is not a relief from the silence but something
like its substantiation: listening to music for an hour or two every evening doesn’t
deprive me of the silence - the music is the silence coming true.“
(Philip Roth in: The Human Stain)
What does silence sound like in a metropolis?
How can something inaudible be rendered audible?
Question upon question.
Some of the answers forthcoming soon. |
|
