A few days ahead of International Jazz Day 2025 (30 April), the Hanseatic city of Bremen was once again, for a few days, an international capital of jazz as it hosted the 19th edition of Jazzahead! Having featured various partner countries since 2011, the aptly named “Reconnect Edition” blended three vintages of previous featured countries, namely Spain (2012), France (2015) and Switzerland (2016). Aside from projects from those countries, Jazzahead! featured faraway lands with bands from newcomers Paraguay and Kenya. Indeed, since last year, the African continent is being spotlighted by Götz Bühler, Jazzahead!’s newish artistic adviser.
Kicking off on Thursday with Portuguese double bass player Carlos Bica, the afternoon’s red thread (or shall we say “red string”?) was sewn around the central role played by bass leaders in no less than three projects. Following Carlos Bica’s 11:11 release showcase, a less adventurous project than what we are accustomed to from him, such as with his Azul trio, German bassist Carl Wittig presented his second album with his Aurora Oktett. Cleverly knitting the links between classical chamber music and jazz, Wittig’s compositions are the fruits of a deep reflection on today’s world where we are doomed to balance between hope and fear.
Drawing her main inspiration from new motherhood, Italian-born bassist Ilaria Capalbo proudly represented her adopted Swedish jazz scene with her quintet. Pushing the world of strings further, Juanjo Corbalan’s quartet invited us to the remote jungle of Paraguay with his Paraguayan harp, a quintessential folk instrument of a country that remains to this day unknown to many of us though I have actually been there on one occasion. Since its 1992 constitution Paraguay has two national languages, Spanish and Guarani, the latter serving the harpist as the basis for his compositions.
Coincidentally, the harp was featured again that day with a very different distinctive approach. Adventurous Hungarian vocalist Veronika Harcsa is never afraid of new challenges, as her current project with saxophonist Tom Bourgeois focused on the composer Lili Boulanger demonstrates. No wonder therefore that she premiered in Bremen her 21st century take on Schubert together with harpist Anastasia Razvalyaeva and electronic magician Balint Bolcso. Schubert Now! is a brand new release on BMC Records (reviewed JJ February 2025). Their bold exploration of Schubert’s repertoire was deeply moving and highly captivating.
Thursday’s highlight though came from yet another string instrument, the kora with its 21 strings. Since his debut album NIO, released in 2022, the young Senegalese kora master Momi Maiga has been blending West African sonorities with flamenco and jazz. With his Spanish quartet, Momi Maiga looks set for a great career ahead just as will be another upcoming artist, French cellist Adèle Viret. The daughter of double bass player Jean-Philippe Viret is impressively talented as are the other members of her crew: pianist Wajdi Riahi, drummer Pierre Hurty and her brother Oscar Viret on trumpet.
Among other examples of siblings performing together it is worth mentioning the Mathisen brothers, who illuminated Friday’s Club Night. The Club Night itself is an event taking place across many locations in and around Bremen, allowing more musicians to be part of the festivities than just the 38 official showcases spread over the three-day festival – rather like the Edinburgh Fringe.
Located close to Bremen Central Station, the Achat Bremen City Hotel was the venue welcoming the Scandinavian Club Night by Norwegian saxophonist Hans Mathisen and his brother Per, himself nicknamed the Bass Viking. Performing three consecutive sets, the brothers exchanged their leadership roles in front of a small but thrilled audience. Before grabbing one of his signature electric basses, Per Mathisen performed a tribute to the late Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (better known as NHØP) with simply the best arrangement of Ellington’s Caravan. The Danish double bassist was best known for his collaboration with Oscar Peterson and it is exactly to that period that Per Mathisen referred to during the second set of the evening. The Bass Viking is one those rare musicians able to equally perform with an acoustic or an electric bass and he could, with justification, be considered as the best European bassist.
Following in the footsteps of the late Vienna Art Orchestra, the relatively new 19-member Oumuamua Orchestra does not refer to a band originating from the Pacific as it is actually a Nuremberg-based ensemble led by the energetic pianist and composer, Evgenij Zelikman. Borrowing the name of the band from Hawaiian, where Oumuamua means “a messenger from afar arriving first”, their showcase featured fine original tunes, one of them inspired by a French traditional song, renamed Sous Le Pont d’Avignon (under the bridge instead of on – the dance was, apparently, originally under the bridge). The young big-band conductor was also inspired by William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch when he wrote his eponymous title of the album.
If asked about his inspiration, another young band leader, Louis Matute, will immediately say “Latin America”, the Swiss musician having dreamt of the faraway continent since his childhood. After sharing the stage with various guests for the Jazzahead! grand opening on Wednesday, he was back on Thursday night with his own large ensemble, performing this time at the Schlachthof. Louis Matute managed to capture the essence of a genuine jazz club with his second performance being more energetic and appealing as a showcase should be. Such was also the case for Poland’s Unleashed Cooperation, a free-jazz influenced quintet that strongly believes in the importance of cooperation.
The Schlachthof itself is clearly the audience’s favourite venue, since, while the other showcase venues, built temporarily inside the conference hall, provide more seating capacity, they fall short of delivering the authentic jazz atmosphere that the Schlachthof offers.
Cooperation is what matters most when, during the day, you walk through the various booths spread in the Exhibition Hall, either representing countries (including, for the first time for several years, one from England which stood next to, but apart from, that of Scotland), regions, musicians’ associations and a few record labels. That of newcomer Jojo Records, a Luxembourg-based label founded in 2020 by guitarist Simon Belelty who named it after his father, drummer Jojo Belelty, is worth following. It notably features Kirk Lightsey and Yotam Silberstein’s latest work.
Breaking the 20,000 visitors threshold for the first time in its history with more than 23,000 attendees and 130 concerts, Jazzahead! 2025 was indeed quite a good vintage and we can now look forward to next year. In 2026, not only will we celebrate its 20th anniversary but we shall also finally witness Sweden as a partner country, the two other Scandinavian countries having been featured respectively in 2014 (Denmark) and in 2019 (Norway).
ECN Music has a one-hour jazzahead! debrief on Zoom tomorrow, Thursday, 8 May at 5pm, to share experiences, exchange tips and discuss how to follow up and nurture new contacts. Registration is here: ecnmusic.com/jazzahead2025-recap/.
Jazzahead! 24-26 April 2025, Bremen, Germany (jazzahead.de)
