Stars like guitarist John McLaughlin, plenty of room for up-and-coming artists and great hope: “I’m expecting an Elbjazz that feels as relaxed as it did in 2019,” says festival director Alexander Schulz.
The festival (June 3rd and 4th) is also better prepared for bad weather than in previous years: the concerts are open air at some venues, but take place indoors at others, such as in the Katharinenkirche or in the Elbphilharmonie. Both day tickets and two-day tickets are still available for the festival.
When the weather is good, a unique festival atmosphere should be created, especially on the Blohm+Voss shipyard site. The areas for concerts are created between cranes and docks, in front of the main stage and in the shipbuilding hall. In addition to ongoing operations, there has been busy clearing and relocation for weeks. When the festival restarts, more than 50 international soloists and bands are at the start. The varieties range from swing and funk to hip hop and folk to soul – that’s how broad the organizers define their jazz concept. For them, jazz is more a matter of attitude than a genre.
After a two-year pandemic break, Schulz is “longingly and looking forward to being able to share live music intensively” with the audience and the artists. In fact, live jazz is something different than pop, rock or classical music. Because jazz is created anew every time it is played.
Without pandemic restrictions, says Alexander Schulz, you can now “let yourself drift within our two festival centers, the Blohm+Voss shipyard and around the Elbphilharmonie”. On June 3rd and 4th there will be performances on a total of six stages. The concert event is rounded off by a supporting program with workshops, round tables and an after-show party in the Mojo Club.
One of the highlights of this year’s program is guitarist John McLaughlin, who is now 80 years old. He plays with the band The 4th Dimension, with band members Gary Husband (keyboards, drums), Ranjit Barot (drums) and Étienne M’Bappé (bass) (Saturday 4 June, 8.30pm, Main Stage). Also on the main stage, Melody Gardot gives her concert at 9 p.m. the day before. Gardot says: “Blues is not a style, it’s a feeling” – and hardly anyone proves it like she does.
On Saturday in the Elbphilharmonie: Lady Blackbird
What: PR
Other well-known names in the scene also perform: Nils Landgren with his Funk Unit, US singer Judi Jackson, the Moka Efti Orchestra feat. Severija (known from “Babylon Berlin”, concert after Melody Gardot), Thomas D & KBCS as well as Web Web & Max Herre. The NDR Big Band is once again on the main stage, this time playing together with Silvan Strauss. The drummer of the Toytoy Quartet won the Hamburg Jazz Prize last year. The Israeli jazz pianist Omer Klein and the Portuguese singer Maria João are also part of the NDR Strauss party.
The program in the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie (one concert each is included in the day ticket, but must be booked separately in advance) will be performed on Friday by Zarah McFarlane, the Londoner with Jamaican roots, who is firmly anchored in reggae and ska, in front of Mathias Eick & The Norwegian Wind Ensemble and Web Web & Max Herre. On Saturday, the big stage belongs to two great jazz singers. Youn Sun Nah from South Korea at prime time (8 p.m.) is followed at 11 p.m. by Lady Blackbird, who landed her first big hit “Boomerang” under her real name, Marley Munroe.
Judi Jackson will be performing for the first time in front of a large audience and a large crowd on the Am Helgen stage on Saturday evening. In England it has long been a concept. Brit soul singer Myles Sanko presents his fourth album “Memories of Love”, which he has dedicated entirely to love, on this stage. Born in Ghana, raised in Great Britain, the musician, producer, designer and director now lives permanently in the south of France.
But what makes the festival special are the “many fresh talents that you can also discover here on the smaller stages,” says booker Ina Lieckfeldt. One of their favorite venues is the main church of St. Catherine north of the Elbe. There, on Friday, the Canadian folk noir singer Wendy McNeill enchants with idiosyncratic, partly spherical loop sounds. Her latest album is entitled Hunger Made You Brave. Lieckfeldt raves about the “special cast with vocals, accordion, bass and cello”. A day later in the Katharinenkirche, Yasmin Williams plucks the folk guitar with feathery finger movements (9 p.m.), which she sometimes places on her thighs like a zither and continues to play from above.
In the Schiffbauhalle, the venue for the core competence of jazz, Bobby Rausch is just as recommended on Friday as the Simon Oslender Super Trio feat. Lee & Haffner. Ranky Tanky from the USA ends the first festival evening here with her great mix of blues, funk and jazz. The band is now quite successful at home, in Europe they are just taking their first steps. Donny McCaslin shines here on Saturday ahead of Cats & Breakkies.
At the Elbjazz Festival, the University of Music and Theater independently curates the “HfMT Young Talents” program on an open-air stage in front of the Elbphilharmonie. There, on the Friday of the festival at 4 p.m., the quintet Knollektiv will kick off, followed by Clémence Manachère Unterwasser. On Saturday, Vincent Dombrowski (4 p.m.) and the Richie Beirach Trio, among others, will appear in front of the audience – hopefully sitting in the sun or in the shade of the Elbphilharmonie next door, but in the dry.