Billie Holiday would have turned 100 this year - singer Maike Lindemann, pianist Flo Kästner and double bassist Pepe Berns perform a program with pieces by the jazz singing icon from the USA for the first time. In cooperation with Neue Musik Leipzig.

In our new concert series, young, contemporary jazz acts play the classics of the genre, i.e. what is called the "charts" in jazz. Once a month, in changing venues, an existing band or formation put together especially for the series will be presented in a unique concert. By turning to the jazz classics, a facet is created that the music city of Leipzig does not yet offer. Under the motto "No innovation without tradition", several generations of musicians as well as spectators can enter into dialogue with each other.
Flashback #2
Maike Lindemann, Florian Kästner & Pepe Berns celebrate Billie Holiday
December 14, 2015 New Music Leipzig 8 p.m.
After the big band opener, Flashback #2 presents a fine trio: singer Maike Lindemann, pianist Florian Kästner and bassist Pepe Berns dedicate themselves together to the music of Billie Holiday, who would have turned 100 this year. Maike Lindemann has already toured with Bobby McFerrin and enchants her audiences with her vocal loop station solo project likiam, the pop-jazz duo Plebeian Love and in several a capella formations. Florian Kästner released his solo debut "Gleiswechsel" in 2014 and has been performing for years as a pianist with the Spielvereinigung Sued, the Niklas Kraft Quartet or in his own duo and trio formations. Pepe Berns teaches double bass at the Universität der Küsnte in Berlin and at the HMT Leipzig.
Flashback #3
HMT Big Band plays Duke Ellington "Far East Suite"
January 28, 2016 UT Connewitz 8 pm
Jazzclub Leipzig, UT Connewitz, HMT Leipzig, Neue Musik Leipzig and Blüthner say: Refugees Welcome!
In the middle of the Cold War, African-American Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. launched the "Jazz Ambassadors" program, which sent jazz musicians all over the world as cultural ambassadors, including greats such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Benny Goodman or just: Duke Ellington. He toured Japan, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Egypt in 1963 and processed his musical and cultural travel experiences in the "Far East Suite", which he wrote with Billy Strayhorn (who would have turned 100 at the end of November). The last classic album the two collaborated on was recorded exactly 50 years ago and won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. The "Far East Suite" is a musical milestone that would be inconceivable without the encounters of people from East and West. Thus, this music is also a plea for an open approach to other cultures, for tolerance and humanism.
The Jazzclub Leipzig, UT Connewitz, HMT Leipzig, Neue Musik Leipzig and Pianofortefabrik Blüthner are jointly presenting this Flashback concert, where refugees are admitted free of charge, so that in addition to the concert experience, it can also be an opportunity for intercultural encounters.
© Jazzclub Leipzig, as of December 10, 2015. Subject to change.