Debacker // Arkbro / Graden // Threadgill's Zooid / Eberhard’s Potsa Lotsa XL

Marlies Debacker, a key figure in Cologne's jazz and contemporary music scene, opens the evening with a solo concert. Afterwards, Swedish composer and Berliner-by-choice Ellen Arkbro and pianist Johan Graden present the German premiere of their delightfully somber and sensitive collaboration project. The grand finale of Saturday's program on the Big Stage is for Henry Threadgill with a large-scale composition commission from Jazzfest Berlin: Threadgill presents a concert-length piece for a combination of his quintet Zooid and Silke Eberhard's highly regarded Large Ensemble Potsa Lotsa XL.

18:00

Marlies Debacker solo

(BE)

Belgian pianist Marlies Debacker represents a new generation of musicians* who are equally committed to the art of improvisation and composed music. Since moving to Cologne for her master's degree at the University of Music and Dance, she has deftly moved between both worlds. In 2016, she formed Trio Abstrakt with saxophonist Salim Javaid and percussionist Shiau-Shiuan Hung, which reinterprets music by Peter Ablinger, Mark Andre, and Clemens Gadenstätter, among others, and has since collaborated with some of the most influential ensembles in new music, such as Ensemble Musikfabrik. Over the years, Debacker has established close ties with Cologne's vibrant improvisation scene, leading to collaborations with musicians such as Carl Ludwig Hübsch and Etienne Nillesen. But Debacker also knows how to convince solo, as her 2022 album "Shimmer" demonstrates: In an impressive way, Debacker weaves diverse musical threads into a multifaceted texture and complements her piano playing with imaginative variations on the clavinet. While in some pieces she continues to spin the motivic design, in others she seems to let the sound decide which direction the piece takes. In the process, Debacker experiments and prepares the inside of the piano to alter the timbre and create percussive effects or sound fields of electronic-like tones. Thus, each individual performance is based on an extensive body of knowledge, translated into abstract portraits of sound that never draw from just one tradition or practice.



Line-up

Marlies Debacker - piano

18:30 / German premiere

Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden "I get along without you very well"

(SE, UK, BE, JP)

For her musical minimalism, which captivates with harmonic depth, the Berlin-based composer Ellen Arkbro has been receiving increased attention for several years. She brings together church organs and brass instruments in a variety of ways, using what is known as pure tuning - a musical tonal system common in Western Europe from the second half of the 15th century onward that was not yet based on the tempered tuning common in Europe today.

But her musical oeuvre is far more extensive: as part of this year's Jazzfest Berlin, Arkbro and her longtime collaborator, Swedish keyboardist Johan Graden, will present their 2022 collaboration project "I get along without you very well" - a breakup album that reveals not only music of profoundly sad beauty, but also Arkbro's skills as a singer and songwriter. Floating yet melancholic rhythms accompany Arkbro as she sings, wrestling with her loneliness in soaring melodies in her lyrics, seeming to regain a sense of herself. Her voice combines with the weightless sounds of the brass*s, which lay over Arkbro's vocals like another soft layer. The latter has a narrative quality often found in pop music, while her nuanced articulation and tonality hint at her jazz imprint. With the appropriate degree of tact, Graden adds only what is necessary to the arrangements with masterful skill, underscoring their lightness. For the project's German premiere, the duo will be joined by a number of musicians who are sure to find equal appeal: cellist Lucy Railton, bassist Petter Eldh, trombonist Nabou Claerhout, clarinetist Michiko Ogawa, and Konrad Agnas on drums.



Line-up

Ellen Arkbro - vocals, trumpet

Johan Graden - piano, synthesizer, clarinet

Lucy Railton - cello

Petter Eldh - double bass

Michiko Ogawa - clarinet

Nabou Claerhout - trombone

Konrad Agnas - percussion



20:00 / World premiere

The Creative Music Universe of Henry Threadgill: Zooid meets Potsa Lotsa XL

(US, DE)

When the planned performance of Henry Threadgill's quintet Zooid at Jazzfest Berlin 2020 had to be cancelled due to a pandemic, Berlin-based saxophonist Silke Eberhard was commissioned to perform a tribute to the legendary Chicago musician instead. With Threadgill's approval, she rearranged a selection of his pieces for her big band Potsa Lotsa XL, which this year won the German Jazz Award as Large Ensemble of the Year. Threadgill was so taken with Eberhard's interpretation of his music that he unceremoniously agreed to write a concert-length piece performed together by Zooid and Potsa Lotsa XL for a world premiere at Jazzfest Berlin 2023 as part of a commission.

Henry Threadgill has always combined intellectual curiosity with vivid imagination. Over the past five decades, these qualities have informed his highly influential, original, and timeless oeuvre. As detailed in his recently published book, Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music, which will be presented at an Artists' Talk the day before, Threadgill joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in Chicago early on and has since led a host of innovative ensembles, beginning with the now legendary Trio Air in the 1970s. In the process, his music has always moved beyond the boundaries of jazz. Inspiration has come not only from other musical traditions, but also from other art forms and sciences. The metaphor for the compositional system of his long-term project Zooid - a technical term for an organism that moves independently within a larger organism - is also borrowed from the latter.

Silke Eberhard's Large Ensemble, in turn, traces its roots to a group originally dedicated to the music of Eric Dolphy. The ensemble will take up Threadgill's zooid system: the musicians are assigned certain intervals within which they can move freely. This creates a lively, at times very dense polyphony. In this storied concert - commissioned by Jazzfest Berlin - Threadgill's ensemble meets some of the most exciting improvisational musicians on the Berlin scene. An evening that is further proof that even after 79 years, Threadgill not only remains active, productive and enthusiastic, but also continues to search for new ways to share his humanistic vision with listeners*.

Line-up

Zooid

Henry Threadgill - alto saxophone, flute, bass flute, composition

Liberty Ellman - acoustic guitar

Christopher Hoffman - cello

José Davila - tuba, trombone

Elliot Humberto Kavee - drums, percussion

Potsa Lotsa XL

Silke Eberhard - alto saxophone

Jürgen Kupke - clarinet

Patrick Braun - tenor saxophone, clarinet

Nikolaus Neuser - trumpet

Gerhard Gschlößl - trombone

Johannes Fink - cello

Taiko Saito - vibraphone

Antonis Anissegos - piano

Igor Spallati - double bass

Kay Lübke - percussion

Commissioned by Berliner Festspiele / Jazzfest Berlin

Supported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds