Let's talk about jazz... and supergroups
What do bands as different as The Firm, The Law, SuperHeavy and Audioslave have in common? Apart from their tasteless band names, not too much, you might think. But one thing stands out: they are all listed in music history as so-called supergroups. But what does that actually mean?
Basically, the term covers projects whose members have previously played in other successful bands. The term became popular in the late sixties in connection with bands such as Cream or Blind Faith. In the seventies, there was a real supergroup boom - record companies had discovered the concept as a marketing hit at the time. Over time, bands such as Rock Star Supernova, Asia and Hollywood Vampires proved to audiences that supergroup did not always mean supermusic.
However, bands such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe and Crosby, Still & Nash avoided the problem of creative band names in a less subtle way. The situation is different with formations such as Boygenius, The Good, The Bad & The Queen or The Travelling Wilburys, who, incidentally, can undoubtedly be counted among the more interesting representatives of their genre.
This also includes - and this brings us to the essentials - the super supergroup Lord Of The Amazing Panther from Berlin: its members have been active in the past with Seeed, Peter Fox, Dendemann, Casper, Drangsal and Marsimoto - to name just a few. You wouldn't necessarily have expected this superclash to result in a hybrid sound monolith somewhere between anarchic free jazz, experimental electronics and hyper-precise neo-funk, but it only makes things that much more exciting. On May 22, the band will be performing at Neues Schauspiel as part of the Jazzclub.
But that's not our only concert this month: two days earlier, you can experience the phenomenal Jakob Maes Big Band at UT Connewitz. If you don't want to wait that long, we recommend our 38th Flashback concert on May 8 at the koko café-bar: Johannes Enders and his trio will be paying the tribute to his great role model Pharoah Sanders that he undoubtedly deserves.
You can find all the other dates on the following pages. As well as the review of our third "Album of the Month" album, which - this much can be revealed at this point - contains more creative energy than the back catalog of many a supergroup. But read for yourself!
See you soon,
Luca
Jazzkalender-Editorial office
