Back out on and up the street, heading to Bi Nuu, passing by McDonald’s. What do you say to a jazz musician with a steady job? Two Big Macs and a large order of fries, please. EMILIANA TORRINI, the fairy eyed singer from Iceland wears feathery earrings. They look soft and harmonize her dark-red dress. Ethereal clouds of voice and ambient pour over into the sold out venue. Several people brought not jet unwrapped flower bouquets. In the back, a group of friends talk about clothing and gadgets for babies. The beer: Carlsberg or something German.
While some people don’t complain about esoteric hover and whining. The four-piece ADHD start their set back at Privatclub. It’s a first highlight. An eccentric mix of jazz and rock from Reykjavik. The bands interplay is gorgeous and gives space for expansive improvisation. Saxophone or guitar take on an avantgardistic lead, while drums, Hammond, Moog or Rhodes lay a bed for every twist and turn. Some technical difficulties later, and some people already leaving Bi Nuu, the impressive trumpet player and composer NILS PETTER MOLVAER serves an old cliché. The Scandinavians affection for the atmospheric pile of sound.
The U1 up to Uhlandstr. stops at Kottbusser-Tor, while THE MOP MOP SOUNDSYSTEM loops weltmusik, jazz and anything with a groove to dubby textures. People were about 50 years of age five hours ago, here they are about 22. An evolution? In the sweaty Monarch club beer is tossed around in jars. Consequently the shacks interior is wooden handcraft of finest pine.
The festival follows quite a smart concept to stand out and save money at the same time. Bands or artists not being from Berlin don’t bring their regular staff. They collaborate with local musicians mostly. Every performance corresponds in some way to the city’s scene and gets a unique character. Probably only possible in a jazz context EMILIANA TORRINI, for example, supposedly met her band a day before the gig.
Samúel Jón Samúelsson Big Band playing live at the XJAZZ Festival
Marvellous curly haired pianist FRANCESCO TRISTANO, no matter what, enters stage, sharing a touch of lofty genius, all alone. Radialsysten V is a venue for performance and modern dance. TRISTANO interludes classical with modern composition, placing Bach next to Detroit Techno, without using electronic device. His grand piano, it shatters under rhythmic bravado and nuances virtuous interpretation. While the clock hits this fridays 23rd hour, Bi Nuu hosts several laptop wizards to be gazed at by a hip crowd. The smell of weed, sweat and cheap deodorant express their power. But further down Skalitzer Str. inside a protestant church, KATHRIN PECHLOF and CHRISTIAN WEIDNER prepare for their Poèmes de la Nuit. On Harp and Saxophone they reflect on compositions by Debussy, Schubert and Schönberg. The dark lit show is attended by probably fifteen people. The crackle of a candy-wrap: an interrupting sound.
Elsewhere and in total ecstasy the crowd at Monarch begs for their daily whip. CHRISTIAN GÖBEL spins soul and funk music on his turntables. The windows on the clubs left side are wet from condensed sweat. It resembles the already reported scenario.
While drinking juice of the cranberry seems to have great effect on agility, PETER FESSLER moves his rapid fingers. At a venue by the Spree (water), saturday starts with comedic expression. FESSLER, wearing leather pants and top, plus round sunglasses, uses an improvised language to sing. Not forming words, but vowels and sounds imitating those. Like a melodic skatter. His repertoire covers own compositions, as south-american classics, played on acoustic guitar. Weirdly original and another hemisphere away from what people are used to around this part of town.
Cruising along the timetable most elegantly, Monarch is already stunned in veneration. QEAUX QEAUX JOANS (read: CoCo Joans) sitzt behind her e-piano. Though being gifted with great voice, dynamic and wide ranged, she tells dull and probably pretentious stories about her songs and character. Her compositions lean towards traditional blues, as to modern forms of r&b. She thanks the crowd repeatedly for attending in silence. A lot of people are really happy here. Though at Privatclub, some others are not. KURT ROSENWINKEL: sold out show. The famous jazz-guitarist in deep concentration. Solo after Solo. Fast and precise.
For a grand finale the crowd waiting for NIGHTMARES ON WAX to play has two reasons for being in a hurry and pushing to get inside the venue. A spectacular show to attend and horrible weather outside. Musicians get up and off: sometimes eight, sometimes fourteen artists work on stage. A quintet of violins, a horn section, drums, bass, laptops, singing, rapping and shouting up the crowd morph into a jazz infused trip. Bi Nuu is a comparatively tiny venue for a set-up like this. The string intro of Les Nuits brings the crowd up to a tension, it almost snaps. If the people here hadn’t smoked such high amounts of narcotics (the smell) you’d have thought we were deliriating the whole way around.
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XJAZZ FESTIVAL