xjazz

Once again, we have the pleasure of covering one of Berlin’s festival gems: XJAZZ!. This year, the festival returns for a bold new edition, running from May 14 to 18 at Festsaal Kreuzberg and surrounding venues. With a finger always on the pulse of boundary-pushing sound and community-driven energy, XJAZZ! 2025 promises to be a week-long celebration of everything that makes Berlin’s music scene so electrifying — and so globally relevant.

This year, the Berliner XJAZZ! Festival premiered their first album. "Entangled Grounds" is a collaborative effort, much in the spirit of the event. Each song features a different artist from the local jazz scene and their (re)interpretations of the genre. Anna Grubauer experienced the festival and spoke to artists and organisers about the recording process.

The singer and performer Sanni Est embodies the essence of artistic self-expression. Her boundary-breaking, multi-disciplinary album "Photophobia" explores themes like posthuman worlds, vocal expression and music beyond the Western binaries, and the possibilities of decolonized music-making.

Berlin-based sound artist and singer Dumama has a special relationship to XJAZZ!. Following the event in May, Dumama now shares a live video of their performances. Working with the body and voice as modes of tapping into ancestral vibrations, Dumama collaborates with many artists across Berlin's boundary-pushing music scene. Read her personal reflections on the festival below.

The alternative jazz singer muva of Earth graced the stage at Berlin's XJAZZ! festival with their voice and tranquility of their harp-playing. Based in London, the artist draws on their Yoruba roots and embraces serenity and spirituality in their music. With only a few releases so far, muva of Earth crystalises a distinct artistic voice incorporating afrofuturistic rhythms and horns.

One of Britain’s rising jazz musicians, the acclaimed London act delivered one of the most brimming shows at this year’s XJAZZ! edition in Berlin. We caught up for a quick chat with the artist after the show to talk about the British scene and what it means to honour the legacy of jazz music.

A Song For You is a Berlin-based choir project that unites more than fifty singers. Centering BIPoC voices, the choir provides a space for connecting and exploring the joys of communal singing. Anna Grubauer met Noah Slee, who is part of the founding team, and choreographer Stephanie Ilova for a chat in Berlin after their sold out debut show "The Matriarch".

The Berliner festival, XJAZZ!, is known for bending definitions of jazz. Considering it a word of freedom rather than a narrow genre description, its line-up features international artists with different takes on jazz. We spoke to headliner and South Londoner Rapper Nadia Rose about her music and its connection to the genre.