Let's talk about jazz... and interaction
There is a lot of talk in the music and culture industry about what happens on stage. That's all well and good. But we should not forget that this is only one side of the coin. Culture is not a one-way street; it thrives on interaction and participation. Streaming concerts during the pandemic have shown what happens to it when the audience, and therefore the resonance chamber, is lost: It loses its luster, and sometimes fizzles out.
In this respect, the question of who sends and receives in a concert hall cannot be answered so clearly. The act on stage broadcasts music, but at the same time receives resonance from the audience, which is what drives them to musical excellence in the first place. The audience, in turn, sends its impressions, associations and emotions out into the wider world, thereby explicitly contributing to an exchange between art and social space.
It is therefore no coincidence that the 48th Leipziger Jazztage is taking place this year under the motto "Tell Me...!". After all, culture is also about narratives - about spinning ideas that can sometimes be contradictory, provocative, quirky, fantastic, associative or stubborn. This is how art and culture become a reflection of the many.
Anyone who has already taken a look at this year's Jazztage line-up will have noticed that this multi-perspectivity is also at the forefront this year. This is impressively underlined by the opening evening on October 19 at the Opera, where the 80-year-old old master Joachim Kühn will meet his 34-year-old younger colleague Michael Wollny, before the three-time Grammy winner Cécile McLorin Salvant will add a US-American jazz perspective to the European one with her performance. The fact that this memorable evening will be the subject of lively discussions for a long time to come is guaranteed not only by a full concert hall in the opera house, but also by the fact that ARTE will broadcast the Wollny & Kühn concert live.
In order to help build a bridge between the established specialist audience and young journalists, we have decided to organize a media workshop for young journalists again this year. Jazz nerds will meet jazz newbies to spin the discourse of the present into the future. Together, they will attend Jazz Days concerts, interview festival acts, produce radio and podcast contributions and write texts for our festival blog. With this in mind: happy reading, listening, watching - and discussing!
See you soon,
Luca
Jazz calendar editorial team
