Upcoming Gigs

While the world of jazz might not seem to the casual outside observer like the most glamorous of music fields to work in, it certainly has its perks. I've recently returned from Berlin, where I attended the annual general meeting of ACT, the German-based label responsible for putting out some of the best jazz Europe (and occasionally further afield) has to offer.

Last year's meeting was particularly special, not least because of the location - Schloss Elmau, a beautiful castle-cum-spa resort in the Bavarian highlands. The postcards purported it to be classic Sound Of Music territory, complete with rolling verdant hills and nuns defying assorted fascist regimes via the medium of Rogers and Hammerstein (okay, so I made that last bit up), but we were surrounded in mist for the three days Joe and I were there. That was my first ACT trip, and set the bar pretty high.

Berlin, however, is very cool. Had I more time to spend there, I would devote a lot more of this blog to reiterating that sentiment - BERLIN IS VERY COOL, PEOPLE. The architechture is a mixture of old and new, East and West, and the echoes of the city's past and divide are still evident in the 45-minute train ride in from Schonefeld airport. Aside from anything else, there is some of the best looking graffiti I've ever seen, and German graf artists know how to make their mark. I either need a slower train or quicker camera reactions, so unfortunately I can't put up evidence but all I can suggest is that you go and check it out for yourself.

However, I digress. This is a work blog, and therefore the focus is on the jazz. Sie jazz, possibly, if we're being language specific. Being only able to stay for one night, I just got the chance to see one evening of concerts at Berlin's A-Trane club, the city's premier jazz venue. ACT veteran and veritable trombone deity Nils Landgren was curating a week of gigs with his amazing Funk Unit group, alongside a selection of other ACT artists. On the Thursday I was present, we were treated to a performance by Swedish bassist/cellist Lars Danielsson in collaboration with Polish piano legend Leszek Mozdzer. The two had worked together previously on 2007's "Pasodoble" album, a fantastic collection of duo pieces that trod a delicate but wonderfully defined line between chamber music, jazz, contemporary classical, and Mozdzer recently appeared on Danielsson's "Tarantella", released earlier this year.

I can scarcely put into words the impact this concert had on me. Aside from the fact that I was given the opportunity to sit around four feet away from one of Europe's greatest bass players and gawp in amazment at his ability, I've rarely seen two musicians work together so well. Their harmonic and melodic interplay was out of this world, and the subtlety with which their lines intertwined and complemented each other was incredible. While I've got a little bit better at retaining my composure and professional demeanour in the face of musical excellence since starting this job, I may well have spent a large portion of the evening with my jaw on the floor doing a fair impression of a 12-year old girl in the front row of a Justin Timberlake concert. Without all the screaming, naturally. This is jazz, after all...

Nils Landgren's Funk Unit was a totally different animal. An 8-piece, two drummer band (including the brilliant Wolfgang Haffner sharing kit duties and Magnus Lindgren's fantastic flute playing), they powred their way through a set of serious grooves that had the A-Trane bouncing until the small hours (well, my corner anyway - shout out to ACT's office manager Katja Rothe for representing the dance floor with me). A stunning player, Nils finished the set with a solo trombone piece that started off as accomplished and funky as one might expect, but quickly turned into a showcase for instumental innovation of the sort that I've never seen before - halfway through the tune, he started to dismantle his instrument, first disconnecting the bell, then the slide, until he was left with just the mouthpiece with which to play the tune. After a short trombone-scat solo with no part of his horn involved at all, he then started to put the whole thing back together, all without missing a note of beat throughout. Needless to say, we were all blown away and I think it's fair to say the roof was somewhat raised...

The following day, the meeting itself was held in the Ellington Hotel, home to a former jazz club in the 1940s were all the jazz cognescenti of the day performed, including Duke himself. As the only PR representitive there - the meeting is mostly focused around distribution - it was interesting to see how the other side of the business works; what effect good PR has on CD sales, how distribution works in other territories, exchanging ideas for promoting the music in various different types of media, etc. We were also give the opportunity to hear some of ACT's latest projects - new material from gloriously mental death-metal-jazz crew Panzerballett, new signing Vijay Iyer's latest record "Historicity" (which includes a fantastic version of M.I.A.'s "Galang"), and Young German Jazz stars max.bab, whose "Inner Orbit" album will surely go down a treat with fans of the label's recent forward-thinking output.

With a host of new releases to look forward to, as well as some great concerts coming up in the next few months - look out for UK performances by radio.string.quartet.vienna, Vijay Iyer and Michael Wollny before the year's out - ACT continues to put out some of the most exciting and innovative music in the jazz world, and I'm already looking ahead to 2010 and more of the same. If there's more funky dancing involved, so much the better...