10th Darmstadt Jazzforum - Conference, Festival, Workshop

The theme of the 10th Darmstadt Jazzforum, from October 4th to 7th, 2007, will be “Encounters. The World Meets Jazz." The Jazzforum's subject, though, is not so much “world music" as the fact that jazz was a productive music from its beginning and that musicians all over the world who took up jazz had to know and respect its roots as African-American music as well as had to contribute some of their own traditions.

A three-day public conference (in German and English, no simultaneous translation) will focus on the subject theoretically, in papers by and discussions with scholars, journalists and musicians.

Three concerts will provide the musical perspective with a concert “In the Spirit of Don Cherry (Karl Berger Sextet), music with Persian sound colors (Cyminology), a saxophonist who looks at his Israeli and Arabian roots through the eyes of a bebop musician (Gilar Atzmon Quartet), and an evening with Ben's Belinga, the Paris-based Cameroon saxophonist whose music refers to Rollins, Coltrane as well as his West African home.

The Darmstadt Jazzforum is organized by the municipal Jazzinstitut Darmstadt. The public conference can be attended free of charge and without registration. A registration is needed, though, for the workshop with Steven Bernstein on Saturday ([email protected]). For the concerts at the Centralstation (Friday, Saturday) and at the Bessunger Knabenschule (Sunday) tickets can be ordered at www.centralticket.de. Extended program notes can be found at the website below.