Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
Trumpeter Mathias Eick will perform during the April 26 jazzahead! gala concert in Bremen, Germany.
(Photo: Colin Eick/ECM Records)
Solveig Slettahjell is set to perform during the April 26 jazzahead! gala concert in Bremen, Germany.
(Photo: Jørn Sternersen)Returning for its 14th iteration, the jazzahead! Festival in Bremen, Germany, aims to highlight distinctive scenes across Europe through its trade show and music programming.
This year, as the music festival runs April 25-28, Norway’s set to be the festival’s partner nation. In 2018, it was Poland.
“We chose Norway because of the large scale, the high level of individuality and the sheer level of interest of its jazz scene. Norway has had a determining role in Scandinavian jazz,” trumpeter Uli Beckerhoff, a member of jazzahead!’s artistic direction team, said in a press release. “Ever since the 1970s, the Norwegian style of jazz has reached out far beyond just jazz aficionados and found its way to a new and broad audience. People are familiar with the clarity of this music, its ethereal and often elegiac soundscapes.”
Norwegian Night, held on the first evening of the festival at Kulturzentrum Schlachthof, is set to feature performances by saxophonist Karl Seglem, Frode Haltli’s ten-piece Avant Folk, as well as singer Kristin Asbjørnson, Gard Nilssen’s Acoustic Unity and the Hedvig Mollestad Trio.
For the festival’s April 26 gala concert, the Mathias Eick Quintet and Trail of Souls—led by vocalist Solveig Slettahjell—are set to perform at Bremen’s Glocke Concert Hall.
“Mathias Eick is one of the truly original talents of the Norwegian scene and is in his prime,” said Peter Schulze, another member of the artistic directors team. “He has found his own unmistakable voice as a trumpeter and composer.”
For more information on the festival and trade show, visit the jazzahead! website. DB
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
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