Book
Flamingos and Other Birds of Paradise — 40 Years Leipziger Jazztage
With text contributions by Bert Noglik, Heinz-Jürgen Lindner, Wolf Kampmann, Ulrich Steinmetzger, Peter Korfmacher, Andreas Kolb, Detlef A. Ott, Robert Mießner, Ketil Bjørnstad, Rolf Kühn, Joachim Kühn, Baby Sommer, Nils Wogram, Wolfram Dix, Erika Stucky ... and photographs by Matthias Hildebrand, Arne Reimer, Susann Jehnichen, Andreas Liebich and others
Heiner Müller sits at his desk, reading: “I stand among men I don’t know, in an old elevator with metal rods rattling as it ascends.” Metal rods do indeed rattle a little; they hold together the enormous circus tent in which Müller’s desk stands. A circus tent? But let’s continue: The text he’s reading gradually turns into music—German passages, then English ones, spoken in multiple voices; walls of guitar sound emerge; the saxophone and trombone wail; drums and bass reinforce the rhythm; piano and synthesizer carry the melodies. Two thousand people are seated in the Busch Circus tent; it’s 1988, and the 13th “ Leipziger Jazztage ” have been saved.
If you ask long-time visitors today—just before the 40th Leipzig Jazz Festival—about their memories from the past forty years of the festival, many will gush about that very day, September 22, 1988, when Heiner Goebbels’ “Der Mann im Fahrstuhl” was performed in Leipzig. This unique project epitomizes the festival’s colorful history like few others: After the Jazz Days nearly had to be canceled because the original main venue, the Congress Hall at the Zoo, was closed at the last minute, the festival’s organizers had to draw on the same courage and creativity that have shaped jazz on stage for over 100 years. Leipziger Jazztage moved into the circus tent, later to the opera house and to trendy clubs. Bridging the gap between popular and high culture, they have established Leipzig as one of Germany’s most important jazz destinations—a status it retains to this day—and play a decisive role in the appeal of Leipzig as a city of music.
To mark the 40th “ Leipziger Jazztage ,” the “ Jazzclub ” in Leipzig—the festival’s organizer—will publish the book *Flamingos und andere Paradiesvögel* on September 29, 2016. Across 368 pages, the book brings to life numerous stories surrounding the “ Leipziger Jazztage ,” ranging from personal memories and anecdotes to questions such as: What role did (and do) the “ Leipziger Jazztage ” play in the cultural landscape of the city of Leipzig? How was the festival able to continue and reinvent itself in the wake of the political and economic changes after 1989? And where does the festival stand today? Musicians such as Rolf Kühn, Baby Sommer, Ketil Bjørnstad, Nils Wogram, and Erika Stucky, as well as jazz club organizers, festivalgoers, and journalists like Wolf Kampmann and Peter Korfmacher—who have been covering the festival for many years—share their perspectives from a wide variety of viewpoints. Just like their texts, the numerous photos and reproductions of posters, programs, and much more have never been published before. The result is the first-ever kaleidoscope of the most significant jazz festival in the new federal states—a festival that was already an international gathering place even before 1989 and that today, more than almost any other jazz festival in Germany, also reaches a younger audience.
The book also lists all the festival's schedules, bands and individual musicians from 1976 to 2016. In addition, jazz expert Detlef A. Ott provides the first detailed overview of the diverse jazz events in Leipzig from as early as 1920. This also shows that "Flamingos and Other Birds of Paradise" and the Leipzig Jazz Days are not just about a festival or a musical genre, but always also about the special attitude of mind associated with jazz, it is about free spirits and rebelling against existing conventionsbut also about tolerance and dialogues across borders.
Jazz and Leipzig are virtually one.
German Radio Culture
