Graewe / Jones / Drake // ganavya // Globe Unity Orchestra

In the mid-1970s, his quintet released two remarkable albums on the legendary FMP label – both criminally overlooked gems that document the pianist’s dual interest in structural rigour and boundless improvisation. In the decades that followed, he led a wide variety of projects, including a pioneering chamber trio with cellist Ernst Reijseger and drummer Gerry Hemingway, as well as a series of large ensembles that increasingly incorporated the principles of free jazz into contemporary music.

In both the GrubenKlangOrchester and the more recent Sonic Fiction Orchestra, Graewe is increasingly focusing on expansive compositions in which elaborately crafted scores are brought to life and expanded through carefully planned improvisations, without the musicians adhering to established stylistic languages.

Yet however much the pianist has devoted himself to more complex, composition-based works:

he remains an impressive improvisational musician. This was also demonstrated by his first collaboration with the Chicago-based drummer Hamid Drake and the US bassist Brad Jones, who lives in Lisbon, at the Konfrontationen festival in Nickelsdorf in 2024. This session, recorded at 35 degrees, was later released under the title *More Than Anything*. Graewe had already worked with the drummer when he lived in Chicago for a while in 1997 and founded a remarkable band there:

a quartet featuring Drake, Frank Gratkowski and Kent Kessler. When he reunited with Drake on that hot July day in Austria and met Jones for the first time, the trio hit their stride straight away. The group delivered a captivating performance that meandered through breathtaking highs and lows – a prime example of masterful free-jazz intensity.

18:30

Graewe / Jones / Drake

(DE, US)

German premiere

Line-up

• Georg Graewe – piano
• Brad Jones – double bass
• Hamid Drake – drums, frame drum, vocals

8.00 pm

ganavya

(AT, DE, US)

There is scarcely any other musician who pays greater tribute to the artistic legacy of the magnificent Alice Coltrane and develops it more consistently than the Indian-American singer ganavya, who is now based in Berlin. Recognising that improvisation is the unifying element of both musical traditions, the singer and composer has for some time been breaking down the boundaries between jazz and South Asian devotional traditions. Over the years, she has combined her studies in ethnomusicology and critical social analysis – including under Vijay Iyer at Yale – with performances alongside a wide variety of musicians. However, a joint performance with the enigmatic British R&B band Sault in London in December 2023 marked a decisive turning point in her career. By this point, she had already caught the attention of Shabaka Hutchings, who released her breathtaking 2024 album *like the sky, I’ve been too quiet* on his label Native Rebel. Two further albums followed on LEITER, the label run by pianist Nils Frahm.

ganavya’s voice defies analytical categorisation. It is a warm, flowing energy that gently caresses the soft contours of her songs and moves back and forth between them. A host of outstanding musicians can be heard on her albums; in a live setting, however, she is accompanied only by harp and double bass, which trace the slender structures and airy harmonies with cascading arpeggios. This gives ganavya’s voice and stage presence the space to unfold to their full effect. The musician seems to lose herself entirely in the music: melodies emerge gently and generously from her imagination. At the same time, the sounds are inextricably linked to the audience. ganavya speaks of her music as if it were a close friend to everyone who has gathered round her to listen.

Line-up

• ganavya – vocals
• Miriam Adefris – harp
• Sebastian Singwald – double bass

21:20

Globe Unity Orchestra – 60 Years: Apocalyptic Introspection

(DE, DK, GB, IT, JP, NO, PL, US)

Pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach looks back on a glorious history with the Jazzfest Berlin, spanning several decades. In fact, as early as 1966, he was commissioned by Joachim-Ernst Berendt, the first artistic director of the festival – then still known as the Berliner Jazztage – to found a multi-member improvisational group.

This request led to the formation of the Globe Unity Orchestra. Ever since, the ensemble has sought ever-new ways to give tangible form to the indescribable – the elusive creativity of free improvisation. The pianist has time and again gathered musicians from all over the world who share his quest for a ‘choreography of spontaneity’. This tireless dedication has helped him to capture flashes of sound for 60 years. Over the course of this long period, members have come and gone, with new talents taking the places of those who have left.

The line-up for this rare occasion is something quite special, as it features three musicians who have been part of the group since the 1970s: saxophonist Evan Parker, drummer Paul Lytton and trombonist George Lewis, who now rarely plays his original instrument, having devoted himself largely to composition and teaching. Of course, some of the ensemble’s younger members, such as bass clarinettist Rudi Mahall and trumpeter Axel Dörner, remain an integral part of the Globe Unity Orchestra. And for the first time in the band’s history, Schlippenbach will be accompanied on the piano by the magnificent Aki Takase, with whom he will perform a four-handed piece.

Line-up

• Alexander von Schlippenbach – piano, composition, conductor
• Aki Takase – piano
• Evan Parker – soprano and tenor saxophone
• Daniel Erdmann – tenor saxophone
• Henrik Walsdorff – alto saxophone
• Rudi Mahall – clarinet, bass clarinet
• Tomasz Dąbrowski – trumpet
• Kasper Tranberg – trumpet
• Axel Dörner – trumpet
• George Lewis – trombone
• Christof Thewes – trombone
• Gerhard Gschlößl – trombone
• Antonio Borghini – double bass
• Paul Lytton – drums
• Dag Magnus Narvesen – drums

With the kind support of the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation