Jazz in Köln

"And then there was jazz - a documentary about jazz in Cologne", Director: Matt Fox, 60 min.

Twenty years ago, 25-year-old music lover and record collector Matt Fox asked himself how the local Cologne jazz scene had developed over the decades since the end of the war and what remained of it. He went in search of contemporary witnesses such as Gigi Campi, Peter Herbolzheimer and Jaki Liebezeit and also found a lot of exciting archive material in the course of his research. In terms of content, there wasn't much to add to the musicologist Robert von Zahn and his great book "Jazz in Cologne" at the time, so the idea of producing his own - somewhat more personal - account of jazz in Cologne quickly developed. It is more about the individual characters and their descriptions than a scientific treatise, which is what makes the film so charming and lively. In 60 minutes it was not possible to produce a complete list of the hustle and bustle of the Cologne jazz scene (for that you would probably have to shoot a whole series), but it offers a nice overview with many anecdotes of individual representatives of that time, which is exemplary for the development - from swing to fusion to what the scene was up to in 2003. The second part deals with the jazz scene of the 2000s and its problems, such as the lack of venues for live gigs. What was intended as a "contemporary" part at the time is now, two decades later, another station that has lived through and survived the development of jazz in our city. The film, a diploma thesis, was only shown twice in Cologne after its completion: once at Café Storch and shortly afterwards again at Studio 672 (now JAKI - Klub im Stadtgarten), after which the film disappeared for 20 years until King Georg found out about it by chance and is now presenting this piece of Cologne music history to you, including a short talk before and after.

Admission: 7 Euro (box office only)