Programme 2.11.
The third night of Jazzfest Berlin kicks off with the final piece of this year’s focus on Swedish artists, with the long overdue debut at the Jazzfest Berlin of saxophonist and composer Anna Högberg’s Attack in a new, extended version, playing all new material.
The ensemble returned to the stage last year at the Jazzfestival Saalfelden after a three-year hiatus, and the experience inspired the leader to conceive of this thrilling project. Their sure-to-be intensity is followed by the more contemplative approach of veteran German jazz legend Joachim Kühn, the recent recipient of the German Jazz Prize for Lifetime Achievement. He performs with a new trio featuring the French rhythm section of drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq and bassist Thibault Cellier, who impressed last year’s Jazzfest Berlin audience with their band Novembre in the moving “Apparitions” project. The Sun Ra Arkestra closes out the mainstage programme, and while 100-year-old alto saxophonist Marshall Allen – who has led the band since the mid-1990s – no longer tours internationally, the showmanship he learned first-hand from the band’s namesake founder has now been transmitted to his excellent combo of seasoned veterans and exciting young voices.
Following the Arkestra, John Hollenbeck presents his new quartet GEORGE, with reedist Anna Webber, conveying its playful take on his complex, time-fracturing compositions at the Seitenbühne. For those interested in something different, the masterful bassist and Berliner-by-choice Antonio Borghini salutes his late friend and mentor Tristan Honsinger – a vital force on Berlin’s improvised music scene, where his influence is still felt in the monthly Klub Demboh performances at PAS Berlin. Borghini has organised a stellar string quartet to perform the world premiere of some of Honsinger’s final compositions in a special concert at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche. Berlin-based drummer Devin Gray leads a trio with veteran trumpeter Ralph Alessi and the young French pianist Myslaure Augustin within the intimate surroundings of A-Trane, while over at Quasimodo the New York quartet Wrens promise to bring the house down with its bracing collisions of underground hip-hop and electronics-heavy improv, with drummer Jason Nazary and cellist Lester St. Louis, two trusted colleagues of Jazzfest Berlin favourite Jaimie Branch, joining forces with the sublime keyboardist Elias Stemeseder and trumpeter and rapper Ryan Easter.
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