Jazzfest Research Lab
Six decades of Jazzfest Berlin means six decades of contemporary history, Berlin history, German history, European, transatlantic and intercontinental history and, of course, 60 years of music history. With the Jazzfest Research Lab, initiated in January 2023, Jazzfest Berlin has welcomed academics and students to take a critical look at the festival’s archive, its programmes, creators, musicians and – last but not least – its myths.
This international research project will analyse the history of Jazzfest Berlin with regard to various aspects such as gender and race, its ever-changing curation in the course of socio-political developments and the visual language of the festival. Seven academics from Germany, the USA and Australia as well as students from the Berlin University of the Arts and the University of Hildesheim are working with the digitally available Jazzfest archive.
The results will be presented as part of the festival’s supporting programme in November and will be included in the 2024 anniversary magazine. Poster and photo exhibitions, a film programme with concert recordings from the early decades, panels with contemporary witnesses and oral history accounts will give various in-depth perspectives into the 60-year history of the festival – which began as the Berliner Jazztage in the Philharmonie Berlin and was also broadcast live on television for many years.
Video “Introducing: Jazzfest Research Lab”
Programme
Participants in the Jazzfest Research Lab:
- Prof. George E. Lewis – Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology at Columbia University; musician
► Opening speech “60 Years of Jazzfest Berlin” on 31 October 2024
► Jazzfest Berlin and the AACM, 1973 – 2023 - Nora Leidinger – lecturer and researcher in Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Groningen
Prof. Dr. Kristin McGee – Ass. Professor of Popular Music at the University of Groningen and Senior Lecturer in Jazz and Contemporary Music Performance at the School of Music at the Australian National University
► Breaking boundaries in festival programming: Gendered and cultural transformations at the Jazzfest Berlin
► Interview with Kris Davis and Terri Lyne Carrington: an inclusive approach to performing, touring and teaching - Dr. Harald Kisiedu – historical musicologist, author, musician
► Analysis of aspects of race, politics and the aesthetics of the early years (1964 – 1970) of Jazzfest Berlin and its reception - Dr. Ursel Schlicht – musician, researcher, author, educator
► Multiplicity of perspectives of and from women participants of the Berlin Jazzfest over 60 years - Prof. Dr. Priscilla Layne – Professor at the Department of German Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
► Echoes of change: The Jazzfest Berlin’s response to societal transformations (1980 – 2000) - John Corbett – journalist, curator, former curator of Jazzfest Berlin
► Analysis of the visual language of Jazzfest Berlin 1964 – 2024 with additional attention to the Total Music Meeting
And two seminars in the 2024 summer semester on “60 years of the Berlin Jazz Festival”
- University of Hildesheim
► „60 Years of Jazzfest Berlin: Festivals as Crystallisation Points of Musical and Social Life“
Dr. Bettina Bohle, Director of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt and lecturer at the Institute for Music and Musicology at the University of Hildesheim - Berlin University of the Arts
► “60 Years of Jazzfest Berlin – Festival Studies and/as Musicology”
Prof. Dr. Matthias Pasdzierny, Department of Musicology, Music Theory, Composition and Sound Engineering at the Berlin University of the Arts
Teaching Jazzfest Berlin
In the summer semester of 2024, two seminars were held at the University of Hildesheim and the Berlin University of the Arts on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Jazzfest Berlin. The starting point for this was the festival management's decision to digitize the Jazzfest archive and make it available for research purposes. Being able to use these sources pragmatically and without much red tape in the seminars was a great gift for university teaching. Selected contributions provide insight into the results and findings of the seminars.
Posters of Jazzfest Berlin
© Berliner Festspiele / Jazzfest Berlin
Photo exhibition
50 photographs by Anno Wilms (born in Berlin, 1935-2016), which she took at Jazzfest Berlin between 1967 and 1993, will be exhibited during the festival in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. Some of her pictures are also part of the anniversary magazine.
With the kind support of the Stiftung Anno Wilms.
Interview: Dr Kristin McGee with Terri Lyne Carrington and Kris Davis
For the Jazzfest Research Lab, Dr Kristin McGee spoke with Terri Lyne Carrington and Kris Davis about their perspectives on the jazz scene and how it developed, as well as the impetus for founding the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.
Dr Kristin McGee with Terri Lyne Carrington and Kris Davis
Anniversary Magazine 2024
60 Years of Jazzfest Berlin
120 pages, German and English
In celebrating 60 years of Jazzfest Berlin, the anniversary magazine takes a multilayered look at the festival’s history – without claiming to be exhaustive. At its heart are the research findings of the academics and students of the Jazzfest Research Lab, who have examined the festival archive. In addition, contemporary witnesses have offered anecdotes and highlighted unique aspects from throughout the festival’s history. Pictures by photographer Anno Wilms provide insights into Jazzfest Berlin between 1967 and 1993.
Musician and artist Damon Locks has designed the magazine cover for the festival anniversary.
Idea and Concept
Christopher Hupe – Dramaturg Jazzfest Berlin
Nadin Deventer – Artistic Director Jazzfest Berlin
Dr. Harald Kisiedu – Historical musicologist, author, musician (Consultancy)
Isumi Rögner – Coordination