Camila Nebbia Large Ensemble // Amir ElSaffar New Quartet // Immanuel Wilkins Quartet

Her DIY vigour is imbued with a certain punk spirit, which is also reflected in her openness towards collaborators and her unwavering commitment to pushing herself to the absolute limit at every performance. Furthermore, Nebbia is a community-builder – a key aspect of her new project, which is celebrating its world premiere at the Jazzfest Berlin. She leads an exciting ten-piece international band, largely drawn from Berlin’s extremely vibrant improvised music scene, with video artist Andro Manzoni adding a visual dimension to the performance.

As part of her journey to Europe, Nebbia explored the story of her great-grandfather, Abraham Breide. She drew inspiration from his unpublished memoirs, in which he recounted his experiences of emigrating from his homeland, Lebanon, to Argentina. Manzoni works with 8 mm and 16 mm film footage shot by Nebbia or sourced from her family’s archives. She has treated the film prints with colour and acid, giving the material a more abstract quality and thus allowing the audience to ascribe their own meaning to the images.

“In both music and film, I use destruction as a creative tool,” explains Nebbia. “It’s as if we are constantly trying to resist forgetting – something that is ultimately impossible.” The high-calibre line-up of her ensemble includes Weston Olencki on trombone, Julia Biłat on cello, Nick Dunston on double bass, Maria Reich on violin, Joanna Mattrey on viola, Arne Braun on guitar, Kit Downes on keyboards, Lesley Mok on drums and Ludwig Wandinger on electronics.

18:30

Camila Nebbia Large Ensemble: ‘The darkness, overwhelming and imposing, compelled me to light my own fires’

(AR, DE, FI, GB, HR, PL, US)

World premiere

Line-up

• Camila Nebbia – tenor saxophone, composition, visuals
• Weston Olencki – trombone
• Maria Reich – violin
• Joanna Mattrey – viola
• Julia Biłat – cello
• Nick Dunston – double bass
• Arne Braun – guitar
• Kit Downes – piano, organ
• Ludwig Wandinger – electronics
• Lesley Mok – drums
• Andro Manzoni – interactive visuals

With the kind support of Musikfonds e. V.

8.00 pm

Amir ElSaffar New Quartet

(GR, IQ, NO, US)

Whilst ever larger sections of the jazz world are exploring microtonality and unconventional tunings, it should not be forgotten that the American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar has been pursuing similar approaches for over two decades. Having devoted himself to jazz and classical music in his youth in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, he only began to engage with his own Iraqi heritage relatively late in life. Shortly before the start of the Iraq War in 2003, he travelled to Baghdad to study the Iraqi maqam in depth, focusing in particular on the santur and vocal music. Upon his return, he began to develop a remarkably original hybrid form by enriching post-bop with Iraqi maqam with impressive consistency.

Over time, ElSaffar expanded his artistic practice to include compositions for contemporary music ensembles and engaged intensively with electronic sound generation. Nevertheless, he has not turned his back on his past, as evidenced by his collaboration with pianist Cecil Taylor and tours with his maqam mentor Hamid Al-Saadi.

His current band was formed as a commissioned project during a short-term residency at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, where the group recorded their impressive debut album, released in 2025. This effectively assembled quartet offers the most compact and focused realisation of ElSaffar’s musical vision, seamlessly blending the keys and moods of Iraqi maqam with a post-bop style of extraordinary sophistication. On the front line, he is accompanied by saxophonist Ole Mathisen, a long-standing collaborator. Together, they have forged an almost telepathic connection. The music is driven by drummer Tomas Fujiwara, who balances drive with sonic detail. At the same time, the harmonies are refracted through the prism of Greek pianist Tania Giannouli, who uses a retuned instrument to do justice to the bandleader’s vision.

Line-up

• Amir ElSaffar – trumpet, vocals
• Tomas Fujiwara – drums
• Tania Giannouli – microtonal piano
• Ole Mathisen – tenor saxophone

9.30 pm

Immanuel Wilkins Quartet

(US)

In 2024, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins broke new ground with the album *Blues Blood*, which is inspired by his childhood in Philadelphia and explores discrimination and violence against Black people in the USA: he brought in a line-up of expressive singers to engage with previous generations through the lens of memory. It is an impressive studio production from a musician whose work thrives on spontaneity.

It is therefore no surprise that his next project was the release of his first live recording:

a three-part set with his regular band at New York’s Village Vanguard. It is widely recognised that the Philadelphia-born musician is one of the most exciting and, at the same time, most thoughtful figures in the world of jazz – an ‘old soul’ with a deep passion for the music that came before him, and yet an artist who, whilst rooted in the past, looks firmly towards the future.

Backed by an outstanding, perfectly attuned band – pianist Micah Thomas, bassist Ryoma Takenaga and drummer Kweku Sumbry – the saxophonist wanted to share with his audience the quartet’s journey through their repertoire at one of music’s most hallowed venues: the very jazz club where saxophonists such as Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and Dexter Gordon – to name but three – gave some of their most important performances.

The live album features a number of tracks from his debut album *Omega*, though no recordings have yet been made of most of the tracks, some of which are up to ten years old. ‘Eternal’ is a hymn of praise that plays out its delicate theme in hypnotic repetitions and has the power to transport the audience into a trance-like state. DOLLA$’s soul-jazz influences demonstrate that this band is committed to the old school, yet does not give off even the slightest hint of nostalgia. The album also features a performance of Alice Coltrane’s ‘Charanam’ that is as rousing as it is soulful – a track from her late work *Turiya Sings*, which has since become a classic. Yet even more than any individual composition, the recording as a whole highlights just what a dynamic unit this quartet forms on stage.

Line-up

• Immanuel Wilkins – alto saxophone
• Micah Thomas – piano
• Ryoma Takenaga – double bass
• Kweku Sumbry – drums