from jazz@jazzinstitut.de

1 May 2018

Eberhard Weber / International Jazz Day

René Zipperlen talks to the German bassist Eberhard Weber about his health, about the stroke he suffered 11 years ago after which he had to quit playing the bass, about always having seen himself as technically inadequate on his instrument, about his decision to change from the acoustic to the electric variety of his instrument, about wanting to make music and not just play the bass, about how expression is more important than technique, about having discovered new sounds on his instrument, about his 25-year collaboration with saxophonist Jan Garbarek having been based on mutual respect more than friendship, as well as about the surprise he always felt when he realized people actually liked his music ( Badische Zeitung). --- 30 April 2018 was International Jazz Day, and while the main celebration took place in St. Petersburg, Russia (International Jazz Day ), the day was acknowledged all over the world. Pritha Banerjee, for instance, tells about the impact of jazz in India ( Free Press Journal); Corey Connelly reports about how Tobago hopes that jazz might help revive tourism to the Caribbean island ( Trinidad and Tobago Newsday); Nseobong Okon-Ekong and Vanessa Obioha talk to some Nigerian jazz event promoters ( This Day Live); Jonathan deBurca Butler talks to prominent Irish jazz fans about their love for the music ( Irish Examiner); Moses Opobo reports about the rise of jazz in Rwanda ( The New Times); and Jeremiah Ndjoze looks at IJD events in Namibia ( New Era). On the occasion of International Jazz Day, Sandee LaMotte talks to the neuroscientist Charles Limb about how jazz helps understand how the brain invents, how the creative process in jazz improvisation "is very different than the process of memorization" ( CNN).

2 May 2018

... what else ... 

Bobbi Booker acknowledges the connection between jazz and political activism (Philadelphia Tribune). --- Christina Hertel talks to the German amateur trombonistWerner Riedel ( Süddeutsche Zeitung ). --- The Swiss trumpeter Franco Ambrosetti will receive this year's Swiss Jazz Award ( Neue Zürcher Zeitung ). --- Marcus Crowder talks to the trumpeter Terence Blanchard about jazz as protest music ( Sacramento News-Review). --- The Birmingham, Alabama, pianist Raymond Reach was arrested on a child porn charge ( Alabama). --- Bill Turque ( Kansas City Star ) and Alana LaFlore ( Fox4KC) report about a city council meeting in Kansas City discussing the future of the American Jazz Museum. More here ( Kansas City Star), and here ( Kansas City Star). --- Martin Möller talks to the German trumpeter Helmut 'Daisy' Becker ( Trierer Volksfreund). --- Matthias Wegener talks to the South Korean singer Youn Sun Nah ( Deutschlandfunk Kultur ). --- Jazz Tangcay talks to the film director Gregory Caruso about his film "Flock of Four" about Central Avenue and the history of jazz in Los Angeles ( Awards Daily). --- The German journalist Hans Hielscher remembers his youth in East Germany, his love for jazz and his escape to West Germany just in time before the wall ( Spiegel Online). --- David Wallace talks to the poet, critic and theorist Fred Moten ( The New Yorker).

 

Obituaries 

We read further obituaries about the saxophonist Nathan Davis who had died at the age of 81 ( New York Times, PittNews). --- We learned of the passing of the jazz journalist Lee Jeske ( Jazz Promo Services), the pianist and singer Bob Dorough at the age of 94 ( New York Daily News, NPR, New York Times), the saxophonist Charles Neville at the age of 79 ( New York Times, New Orleans Times-Picayune), the pianist Brooks Kerr at the age of 66, the pianist Howard Williams ( Jazz Promo Services), the Russian-German bandleader Alexander Erpilev at the age of 57 ( Mitteldeutsche Zeitung), as well as the Australian pianist Dick Hughes at the age of 87 ( Sydney Morning Herald).