TIP

today with Henning Sieverts Sextet, Alexander von Schlippenbach Sextet and Cæcilie Norby Vocal-Band - also on 18.3.

Every two years, the HMT Jazz Festival puts an indispensable exclamation mark on the educational scene in the field of jazz/popular music and is also a magnet for Leipzig's jazz fans.

The HMT-Jazzeleven are brought together by renowned guest musicians challenging and inspiring to exciting formations, this time primed by the deep-toned Prof Pepe Berns. Once again, they are all charismatic personalities from the international jazz stages who have already written their own chapters in jazz history, not least as composers and bandleaders.

Globe Unity pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, who will have completed his eighth decade of life a few days earlier, is an icon of German free jazz. Coming from the cello, versatile double bassist Henning Sieverts is at home in everything from bebop to free improvisation, from Bach to new music. Soulful blue note vocalist Caecilie Norby raises her voice Nordic-facetted. Sound aesthete Toni Lakatos on tenor sax is an authority on melody, phrasing with aplomb. Franco Ambrosetti's playing on the trumpet wanders between attacking virtuosity and serenely soulful beauty.

Whether as a sextet (Schlippenbach, Sieverts), a vocal ensemble (Norby), a small band (Lakatos), an eleven-piece large ensemble (Ambrosetti), or a rapping marching band (Marcus Kesselbauer's Moop Mama Hip Hop Band) - the sparks will fly when the ad hoc groupings get going on two evenings!