Elbjazz

Jason Moran doesn’t need sheet music when he sits down on a piano stool. »My repertoire has developed from the moment I started playing the piano. It’s growing and growing inside your head and becomes one with you. During a concert I merely retrieve these compositions,« the Afro-American jazz pianist says. They might be pieces by his teachers Jaki Byard and Andrew Hill as well as classics by his honoured model Thelonious Monk or his own compositions. He has played together with many international stars of modern jazz – with Dizzy Gillespie as well as with Art Blakey, Clifford Brown and Lionel Hampton. Born in 1929, Benny Golson can easily look back upon a career of almost 70 years; as an 89-year-old the tenor saxophonist is still active as a musician and a teacher. Most of all Golson wrote jazz history in the 1950s and 60s with the jazz band that he founded together with trumpeter Art Farmer and trombonist Curtis Fuller. Jazz pianist Julia Hülsmann’s works are known for being based on literary, usually poetic, works. Tasked with reinterpreting the songs of the Beatles, the musician, who was born in Bonn in 1968, found herself in something of a dilemma. On the one hand she had always been a Beatles fan – but on the other hand she was concerned that all attempts at a new interpretation were doomed to fail due to the overpowering presence of the originals. The solution lay in her colleagues. In addition to the established trio, the Hülsmann turned to vocal acrobat Theo Bleckmann, who she says understands how to »sing the Beatles’ songs in new ways«. The guitar sound that is so vital for the Beatles is provided by Werner Neumann.