jazz@jazzinstitut.de

21 June 2016

Kamal Musallam / Miles Davis
Rob Garratt talks to the Lebanese oud player Kamal Musallam about performing with Sting, about the World Peace Trio in which he plays along Israeli saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and Indonesian pianist Dwiki Dharmawan, as well as about meeting guitarist John McLaughlin ( The National). --- Seeing Don Cheadle's film "Miles Ahead" makes James Parker reflect about Miles Davis' trumpet sound, about his "electric period", finding that this music "grabs us in three ways: musically, symbolically, and politically", channeling some of the popular music of its time, while never giving up on ultimate creativity and insisting on Miles' musical statement as being the statement of a "militantly autonomous black artist", connecting Jimi Hendrix' Woodstock concert and Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" recording session - "There's the summer of 1969 for you" -, sketching the road taken to be able to arrive at this album, and the power of Miles being able to reorient the music completely with a single phrase ( The Atlantic).

22 June 2016

... what else ...
Michael Brake and Felix Denk report about the St. John Coltrane Church in San Francisco ( Fluter). --- The Swedish trombonist Nils Landgren will receive the Art Award of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein which comes with 20,000 Euro prize money ( Kieler Nachrichten). --- Reiner Michalke will remain artistic director of the Moers Festival ( Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger ). --- Fatima Bulla talks to the former Zimbabwean Afro-jazz singer Dudu Manhenga who since became a pastor ( Nehanda Radio). --- Aarik Danielsen talks to the guitarist Horace Bray ( Columbia Daily Tribune ). --- Juan Martin Koch reports about the concept of the Bavarian Jazz Festival as well as about discussions about improved funding of jazz in the German state of Bavaria ( Mittelbayerische Zeitung ). --- For the 50th anniversary of the Montreux Jazz Festival , the Swiss daily newspaper Blick asks its readers to choose their favorite among the festival posters ( Blick). --- The saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa was appointed director of jazz studies at Princeton University ( Princeton Music Department ). --- Erin Lebar talks to the saxophonist Kamasi Washington ( Winnipeg Free Press).

Obituaries
We learned of the passing of the pianist Sir Charles Thompson at the age of 98 ( Washington Post), the pianist Paul Tillotson at the age of 51 ( Idaho Statesman), the German pianist Ralf Butscher ( Rheinische Post), the bassist Stephen Jones ( Examiner), as well as the guitarist Earl Wilson (info from Vernard R. Gray).