Pierre Favre Ensemble // Günter 'Baby' Sommer // Manu Katché

Swiss drummer Pierre Favre incarnates a piece of festival history: In 1964 – the founding year of Berliner Jazztage, as the festival was called back then – he played in the very first concert and eight years later he had his first appearance as a soloist on a big a big festival stage at the Berlin Philharmonic hall.
He is a master of the psycho-acoustic chain reaction on the drum set and changes playfully between jazz and contemporary music. The rhythmical logic of his play transfers to the chemistry of his big ensemble, and together they ignite a sparkling magic of rhythm and sound.

Pierre Favre will be performing another concert with Irène Schweizer on Thursday Nov 1, 10:00 pm at the Akademie der Künste.

PierreFavre homepage

Supported by Pro Helvetia

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Günter Baby Sommer is one of the stylistic masterminds of jazz. Over the years he has developed a highly individualistic musical language coming along with a unique set of percussion instruments. Sommer has always been aware of social and historical issues. His newest project that will see its German premiere in the frame of Jazzfest Berlin broaches a war crime from WW2: In 1943 the German Wehrmacht killed 317 civilian residents of the small Greek village of Kommeno. Together with an all-Greek line-up, Sommer reflects the traumatic incident and his songs invite the audience to commemorate and reflect.

Günter Baby Sommer homepage
KommenoMemorial

Supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

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One of Manu Katché’s fortes is his keen sense of keeping all musical elements balanced. Peter Gabriel discovered him in 1986, and since that time stars like Sting, Joni Mitchell, Youssou N’Dour, Jan Garbarek, Nigel Kennedy and many more have turned his talent to account. But Manu Katché is also a band leader in his own right; 2005 saw his break-through with a widely noticed solo album, helped by Tomasz Stańko and Jan Garbarek. On his new record, he merges influences from funk, jazz and pop into a holistic statement.

Manu Katché homepage (French)