jazzahead! Looks to Broaden Representation at European Jazz Meeting [Sponsored]

News, The Rite of Trio, Makiko Hirabayashi Trio, Marilyn Mazur

By DownBeat I Feb. 27, 2019

Makiko Hirabayashi (left), Marilyn Mazur and Klavs Hovman are set to perform as The Makiko Hirabayashi Trio at jazzahead!’s European Jazz Meeting on April 26 in Bremen, Germany.
(Photo: Karolina Zapolska)
The Rite of Trio (shown here) and The Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble, two ensembles from Portugal, are set to perform at jazzahead!’s European Jazz Meeting on April 26 in Bremen, Germany.
(Photo: Raquel Lemos)

As part of the annual jazzahead! Festival and trade show—which hosts scores of musicians, producers, label and media representatives, distributors, as well as festival bookers and club promoters—The European Jazz Meeting is planned for April 26 at Kulturzentrum Schlachthof in Bremen, Germany. The showcase is set to host 16 acts from France, Portugal, Iceland, Germany and Italy, among others.

Uli Beckerhoff, a jazzahead! artistic director, singled out France-based Naïssam Jalal from among the field, saying she’s a performer “whose beguiling voice and improvisations on various flutes with a wonderfully varied range of timbres carry us off into distant worlds.” He went on to praise The Makiko Hirayabashi Trio, which includes percussionist/drummer Marylin Mazur and bassist Klaus Hovman in addition to the troupe’s namesake, Copenhagen-based pianist, who Beckerhoff said has “a very personal, dynamic and truly poetic way of expressing herself.”

Recently, festival organizers have worked to include representation from a wider range of European nations. And for the 2019 installment, Bulgaria will host a stand at the trade show. But Sybille Kornitschky, jazzahead! project manager, still sees more work to be done.

“At the present time, we are also concentrating more on Southern Europe, which is clearly under-represented in terms of its national scenes,” she said in a press release, while also noting that Greece, Portugal and Turkey don’t yet have representation at the trade fair.

“We would definitely like to change that,” Kornitschky concluded. DB