Jazzfest Berlin 2024 – Part I ~ The Free Jazz Collective

By
Paul Acquaro

It is always a marker of success when a concert confounds expectations, even
if those same expectations had been set by a recording from the group on stage. At
Jazzfest Berlin this year, it happened at least twice for me. 

Joe Lovano Trio Tapestry. Photo by Fabian Schellhorn

The first time was on the second night of the festival, as saxophonist
Joe Lovano’s Tapestry Trio with pianist Marilyn Crispell and
drummer Carmen Castaldi worked up an inexplicable magic. Perhaps
this should not have been entirely unexpected, after all,Crispell had
performed a mesmerizing solo set on the opening night of the festival,
stitching her own quilt of romantic melodic lines that unraveled unhurriedly
into subversive dissonances and unusual abstractions. 

Marilyn Crispell. (c) Cristina Marx/Photomusix

When Crispell’s voicings, however, were laced into the fabric of the
trio, the interconnecting strands of Lovano’s lines, which shifted between
hushed introspection and broad melodic arcs, along with Castaldi expressive
percussion work, resulted in a hour long set of intellectually captivating and
emotionally gripping music. The group snaked through diffuse passages, where
each strand was seemingly taking its own direction, only to quickly erupt into
colorful bursts of collective sound. Their music, which has been captured on
the ECM recordings Trio Tapestry (2019), Garden of Expression (2021) and most recently
on Our Daily Bread (2023), is flowingly
expressive, however on the stage of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, the
music seemed to reach a whole other connective level.

Joachim Kühn (c) Cristina Marx/Photomusix

Then, Joachim Kühn’s French Trio on the third night of the festival
that was able to eliminate the distance from the stage to the audience. The trio, aside from the German pianist, featured the French
musicians Sylvain Darrifourcq on drums and Thibault
Cellier on double bass. The trio released The Way on another Munich based label, ACT, this past year. The
album is excellent, but it took this unexpectedly engaging concert to
introduce me to it properly. On stage, the sounds simply flowed from the 80-year-old pianist’s fingers. The show began with Darrifourcq’s drums and Kühn introducing, with a light touch, a series of melodic snipped and parts of
chords. Add in Cellier’s wholly appropriate response on bass an soon the
tension began to build. A run of arpeggios in the middle range of piano seemed
to trigger a whirlwind of activity from the bass and drums. After an abrupt
stop, the trio began their next tune, picking up with the same amount of
energy that they left off with. Build ups, followed by ebbing intensity only
to rebound moments later, kept the audience enthralled and the musicians
equally attentive. A heartfelt story from Kühn about being called out for an
encore against the organizer’s wishes when he played with his brother Rolf’s
group at the Berlin Jazzfest 58 years ago led to the audience in 2024 making
sure he had the chance to reprise the moment.   

Kris Davis (c) Cristina Marx/Photomusix

Between these two shows, in the middle of the second night, pianist
Kris Davis’ Diatom Ribbon’s took the core of her expansive group from
their 2019 recording, namely Val Jeanty on turntable and Terri Lyne Carrington
on drums, and added bassist Nick Dunston to bring the angular music to life.
The smaller group created a sound that both reflected and went beyond the
recording. The set began with Dunston playing a rhythmic figure on electric
bass, complimented by the sweet sounds of Davis’ Fender Rhodes and
Carrington’s lithe drumming, resulting in a bit of an early 70’s fusion
brilliance. The following tune found Dunston on upright bass, Davis on
acoustic piano and Jeanty adding hypnotic electronics. Their repertoire pulled
a composition from Wayne Shorter, as well as from Davis’ rich portfolio with
tunes like ‘Rhizomes,’ which on the recording featured Nels Cline guitar but
here was recast successfully here with the different instrumentation. So, in a
sense, this was a third instance of a transformation between recording and
stage, though what was presented on stage was a radical rethinking of the
music into something entirely and sublimely different.

It goes without saying that there was plenty more to hear an see on all the
overstuffed nights of the festival – which began during the daytime with
concerts and collaborations with students from the Moabit neighborhood of
Berlin working with the likes of Berlin’s Michael Griener and Joel Grip (among
many others) and spilled out in the evenings beyond the Festspiele hall to the
nearby jazzclubs A-Trane and Quasimodo and even to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial
Church. 

At the Jazzfest proper, groups like audience favorites, the Sun Ra Arkestra,
performed sans their 100-year-old leader Marshall Allen. Decked out in
retro-future costumes and leading a parade through the audience, the group
delivered a set of big-band tunes, the most interesting being the ostinato
based ‘Lights on a Satellite,’ a new arrangement of an older Sun Ra tune that
also happens to be the title track from the group’s latest album. 

Decoy with Joe McPhee. Photo by Fabian Schellhorn

On the opening night, Decoy with Joe McPhee was a pleasure to see and hear.
The group, which has Alexander Hawkins on Hammond B3, John Edwards on bass and
Steve Noble on drums, is a powerhouse of groove and improvisational titillation. McPhee looked youthful at 85 years old decked out in an AC/DC sweat-shirt and
bright red sneakers. The saxophonist relied heavily on his poetry this evening
as it seemed like playing the sax was a bit of struggle. Leaning on expressive
squawks and slow bluesy melodies, he provided a contrast to the churning power
of the band behind him. 

BIDA Orchestra (partial). Photo by Fabian Schellhorn

Edwards also appeared later the BIDA Orchestra, a large group led by drummer
Sun-Mi Hong, providing both a root for the band as well some of the more out
parts of the their set. With powerhouse saxophonists Mette Rasmussen and John
Dikeman, along with trumpeter Alistair Payne and keyboardist Josef Dumoulin,
the group could – and did – stretch out in many directions. A memorable moment
began with synth, bass and drums creating a slow moving molten lava groove
that Rasmussen channeled into a steadily erupting solo. Rasmussen played again
on Friday night at the Quasimodo jazz club, particularly packed and sweaty
this evening, for the electronics-laden group The Sleep of Reasons Produces Monsters. Heavy, dense and pulsating with
energy, Rasmussen again applied her volcanic saxophone to great
effect.