In the organizer's words:

Ernst Reijseger & Mario Forte

The French-Italian violinist Mario Forte, who was born in Algeria and now lives in New York, and the Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger form an extraordinarily exciting duo. Forte studied with the French jazz violinist Didier Lockwood, among others, and teaches as a professor at the University of Lausanne, where he founded his orchestral project "String Lab Ensembl". In 2015, Forte co-founded the Artempo Festival as artistic director, composer and performer. Reijseger has released more than 50 albums to date, including with major Dutch and international jazz avant-gardists such as Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink and Steve Lacy, as well as with classical performers such as Yo Yo Ma, Giovanni Sollima and the Dutch Wind Ensemble. As a composer, he has written film music for Werner Herzog and Shakespeare's "Hamlet", directed by Sam Gold. On their joint album "Fata Morgana", they experiment with acoustic-traditional sounds and electronic alienation, with jazz, baroque music, minimal music, improvisation and conception.

Ernst Reijseger - cel
Mario Forte - viol

Ambrose Akinmusire solo

"I mean, maybe I had all the aces in my hand, but what kind of game was that?" This quote from the writer Joan Didion from her 1970 novel "Play Your Game" was the title of US trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire's first solo album "Beauty Is Enough", which was released last year. He recorded the 16 pieces, some of which are just over a minute long, in the 16th century parish church of Saint-Eustache in Paris in 2022 - completely unaccompanied, with just the reverberation of the church and the atmosphere of the room. In his liner notes, he wrote that he sees the album, which is entirely improvised, as a kind of rite of passage: so many of his role models on the trumpet had made solo albums at crucial points in their careers, and he had found himself at such a turning point. The result is a calm, deeply felt work that demonstrates Akinmusire's virtuosity without sounding artificial. The title "Self Portrait" is also very sensitive: unprotected, searching, devoting himself entirely to the music, playing his game.

Ambrose Akinmusire - trp

More info on jazzweek.de