Jazz awakens to new festival life – and how. After all the major events that were canceled due to corona and well-intentioned streaming replacement concerts in the past two years, one looks almost incredulously at the lush cast lists in Berlin, Hamburg, Montreux on Lake Geneva and Rotterdam between the beginning of May and mid-July.
Big names like John McLaughlin, Archie Shepp, Bill Frisell and Herbie Hancock can be read there – and in all four festival programs a new miracle voice of jazz can be found.
Four times Lady Blackbird in Europe
Marley Munroe alias Lady Blackbird performs in Germany at the XJazz! Berlin (May 4-8) and ElbJazz Hamburg (June 3-4), as well as the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland (July 1-16) and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam (June 8-16). -10th of July). The concerts of the young African American from the US state of New Mexico are awaited with particular excitement: Her debut “Black Acid Soul”, released on CD/Vinyl at the end of January, received phenomenal reviews worldwide, it effortlessly reached number 1 in the jazz charts in Germany and a completely unexpected eleventh place on the pop hit list.
Of course, “Black Acid Soul” doesn’t fit into a narrow category. Munroe casually uses folk, soul or gospel in cover versions and his own pieces, but always with the means of a very reduced, warm vocal jazz. “It doesn’t matter to me what that is exactly,” she says in an interview with the German Press Agency in Berlin. Often cited role models such as Billie Holiday, Amy Winehouse or Nina Simone – from whose song “Blackbird” she was inspired to her stage name – are just as important to her as Coldplay or Jay-Z. “I’m passionate about music, I listen to all kinds of music and have sung them all. I’m not jazz or soul – I’m just a singer.”
Some live videos on the Internet already give an idea that Lady Blackbird with her exceptional voice and the brightly colored afro will also be an event at the European festivals from May. And the venerable, serious “Times” cheered at the end of April after Munroe’s London appearance: “A star whose time has finally come.”.
“Whenever I step onto the stage, that’s the place where I want to be. That’s where I find my freedom, that’s where I never want to leave,” says the lady, laughing in the dpa interview. Their discoverer and producer Chris Seefried announces that the band’s sound in Berlin, Hamburg, Montreux and Rotterdam could be fuller than on record. So with drums and the renowned keyboardist Kenneth Crouch – “but it’s still the same idea, with a great singer at the center”.
After the extensive tour in 2022, Lady Blackbird will release a second album next year – probably with more self-composed songs than on the debut. “I’m also a songwriter,” says Munroe. “Therefore there will be more of my own songs in the future.”
In Berlin, which has been held since 2014 with the club festival XJazz! starting this Wednesday (May 4th), Lady Blackbird will perform on Friday evening. Most recently, the increasingly popular concert series in Kreuzberg had almost 20,000 visitors (2019). The new program mainly offers younger, up-and-coming jazz musicians such as José James, Nubya Garcia, Timo Lassy Trio or Emma-Jean Thackray and dozens of still relatively unknown acts.
John McLaughlin in Hamburg
In addition to many talents, there are also famous names in jazz such as John McLaughlin & The 4th Dimension, Melody Gardot and Nils Landgren Funk Unit at ElbJazz at Pentecost. The traditional two-day music festival in the Port of Hamburg and in Hamburg’s HafenCity has been around since 2010.
The program of the Montreux festival classic is always particularly diverse – this time it includes numerous rock and pop artists from a-ha to Björk to Van Morrison, alongside jazz greats such as Gregory Porter, Herbie Hancock and Jamie Cullum. Stylistic openness is just as typical of the Rotterdam North Sea Jazz Festival – this year with a colorful and dazzling spectrum from Alicia Keys to Fatoumata Diawara and Hiromi to the Vijay Iyer Trio and Charles Lloyd.
The festival dates: XJazz! Berlin 4th-8th May; ElbJazz Hamburg 3./4. June; Montreux Jazz Festival 1.-16. July; North Sea Jazz Festival 8th-10th July. (dpa)