We don’t know whether the prestigious Swedish trombonist, Nils Landgren, sensed something special was going to happen when he woke up the day he first met Bengt-Annr Walling and Eje Thelin. It is often tempting to believe that on those days when our life changed course completely there were signs proceeding the fateful moment, signals in the air that we somehow felt but didn’t know how to interpret. But perhaps we just imagine these omens in hindsight as a way of ensuring ourselves that the decision was fated and inevitable.

Either way what we do know from jazz history is that on the day Landgren encountered these two legendary jazz pioneers he promptly chose to abandon his path in the world of classical music, a world he had trained for at the Conservatory of Karlstad and Arvika, and surrender himself to the uncertain journey of jazz improvisation. He found in this form a musical landscape that for the first time he felt he could embrace as his own.

On top of his long career as a soloist and much sought-after session musician, Landgren is the artistic director of the magnificent Berlin Jazz Festival, one of the largest in Europe. This, however, is his last year as director, giving a special and poignant flavour to the event. The programme http://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/aktuell/festivals/07_jazzfest/jazz_start.php includes over two hundred musicians, thirty-two formations and twenty-four different concerts.

For over forty years the German capital has been welcoming jazz musicians to come and ‘jazz up’ the melancholic month of November. This year these musicians will have the added inspiration of marking the farewell festival in honour of this indefatigable musician who has helped bring so many glorious evenings to the festival.

Landgren is not the only figure to receive tribute in this edition of the festival, however. The programme also pays homage to Nino Rota, the Italian soundtrack composer, whose centenary is this year.

And to add even more melancholia to the event, Polish jazz, with its surprisingly rich and colourful musical palette, is to play a large part in this year’s event, not only through the work of musicians like Tomasz Stanko, Leszek Mozdzer, Adam Pierończyk, and the Oleś Brothers but, also in the exhibition, Side by Side: Poland-Germany. 1000 Years of Art and History, being held at the Martin-Gropius-Bau.

Charles Lloyd, Ida Sand, Lizz Wright, Gregory Porter, Carla Bey’s Swallow Quintet and Collin Tomis’s Blue Touch Paper are just some of the names that make up the rest of the line up, which will be spread across such emblematic stages as the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, A-Trane, Quasimodo, Georg-Neumann-Saal or the Savoy Hotel.

Paul Oilzum

A wide-ranging and varied programme that illustrates the undeniable richness of jazz music. Come and rent apartments in Berlin and let yourself be seduced by this great festival and by the beauty of autumn in the German capital.

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Translated by: Ben Palmer
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