The FatJazz format at the JazzHall will feature a modern jazz band in the first set of the evening.
The second set, primarily made up of master's students from the jazz program, presents their own compositions. This JazzHall ensemble meets 10 times a semester and rehearses complex modern arrangements under the direction of Gabriel Coburger.
1st set
KAUFMANN GRATKOWSKI DE JOODE
Frank Gratkowski – alto saxophone, clarinets, flutes
Achim Kaufmann – piano
Wilbert de Joode – double bass
2nd set
JAZZZALL ENSEMBLE
The master's students of the jazz course
HfMT present their own compositions.
Achim Kaufmann, Frank Gratkowski, and Wilbert de Joode first came together as a trio in Amsterdam in early 2002. Since then, they have continually developed and deepened their music on numerous tours and concerts, as can be heard on five CDs to date – kwast (Konnex), unearth (nuscope), palaë (Leo), geäder (gligg), and oblengths, released on Leo Records in early 2016. Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode combine the transparency of contemporary chamber music – the inclusion of silence as well as the gliding into areas of noise, which are then reinterpreted and interrupted by relics of almost tonal piano chords – with the energy, poignancy, and unpredictability of jazz and other more rhythmically aggressive musics.
From the very beginning, the trio's music was freely improvised, born of the moment. There were and are no rehearsals or discussions, no prior conceptual considerations—a fact that has puzzled many listeners, reviewers, and fellow musicians, as much of the trio's music sounds "composed."
In 2007 and 2009, Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode undertook tours of several weeks to North America (including Roulette New York, Princeton University, Earshot Festival Seattle, Mills College Oakland, Umbrella Festival Chicago, New Orleans, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal) and in early 2020 to Australia and Southeast Asia. They performed across Europe on many important stages and festivals (BIMhuis Amsterdam; Porgy and Bess Vienna; Ars Nova Festival (SWR); Ring Ring Festival Belgrade; De Singel Antwerp; Musée d'art moderne Strasbourg; Exploratorium Berlin; Alternativa Festival Prague; Klangspuren
Festival.) In 2013, Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode invited three of their favorite musicians to expand the trio into an extraordinary electroacoustic sextet: SKEIN with Richard Barrett, Okkyung Lee and Tony Buck.
SKEIN's current lineup includes Richard Barrett, Liz Allbee, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, and Tony Buck. SKEIN has performed at venues including the dOeK Festival Amsterdam, the Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon, the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Nickelsdorfer Konfrontationen, and Klangspuren Schwaz. The sextet's recording from the 2013 SWR Jazz Meeting in Mannheim was released on Leo Records.
In a quartet formation with drummer Tony Buck, Kaufmann, Gratkowski and de Joode went on an extensive European tour in 2018 and released the CD Flatbosc & Cautery in 2020.
In spring 2020, the trio toured Australia, and their first vinyl album, Canberra, was released in 2023. The trio, with Achim Kaufmann, Frank Gratkowski, and Wilbert de Joode, continues to form the core of all these activities and can still be heard regularly in this lineup.
Venue:
JazzHall Hamburg
Harvestehuder Weg 12
20148 Hamburg
Admission 6:30pm
Tickets at:
With kind support from:
Hamburg Cultural Foundation
KS FISCHER FOUNDATION
