A tribute to John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman!
An album for eternity, which was even inaugurated in 2013 in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Two great artists of jazz history who could not be more different. Johnny Hartman himself was skeptical at first if he and John Coltrane would complement each other well musically, as he did not see himself as a jazz singer. But the result speaks volumes and Johnny Hartman is the only singer with whom John Coltrane has recorded a CD. One evening in January, during the break of a concert, the two Berlin musicians Finn Wiesner (ts) and Atrin Madani (voc) decided to pay tribute to this extraordinary album and the respective artists. But not only will songs of this album be heard, but also many other significant pieces from the repertoire of these great artists.

Lia Andes was born in Germany and grew up in London. Later she studied classical singing and jazz singing in Berlin. As a jazz and soul singer, she worked in various bands and won with her "Lia Andes Quartet" an audience award at the Jazz and Blues Awards in Berlin. She recorded several live and studio CD's with New York based producer Rudy Stevenson, who performed among others. also worked with the jazz legend Nina Simone. On 11.5.19 she gave a tribute concert with her band and his compositions in the Filmbühne am Steinplatz on the occasion of his 90th birthday. After interim appearances in various musical productions (including "Mozart" in Vienna), Lia performed several times with her jazz / soul pograms in the Philharmonie and in the Admiralspalast Berlin. In her concert series "Lia @ Sally's" she has performed every two weeks since 2019 with a varying program with different musicians. In 2015 her first Singer Songweiter CD was released under her own label Bluespirit Records in cooperation with Media Pool und Musik GmbH, as well as the music video "Silence is my Sorrow". On 21.8. they released Lia's latest album "Here and Now", most notably the song "Plastik" from the album as a music video and a making of video from the studio recordings. Tonight, Lia and her musician friends will present songs from this / their new album "Here and Now" in the B-Flat!

Slow Loris abducts into the Tim Burton-like cinematic universe of guitarist Carl Justus. His lyrical works cite a richly detailed world between surreal, imaginative fairytale film and morbid film Noir. Klangaffine ballads alternate with energetic, rhythmically complex pieces, with Kröning's music drawing in equal parts from various genres from modern jazz to drum'n bass. Minutiöse close-ups, parallel action levels, paralyzing slow-motion effects and fast action-packed cuts ... in their impulsive interplay explore the four musicians Carl Justus Kröning (Git), Christopher Lübeck (piano), Johannes Fricke (bass) and Claas Lausen (drums) the range of filmic design possibilities and bring a stirring story on the musical screen.

Lisa Hoppe's Third Reality is a musical bridge between modern jazz, improvisation and contemporary music: an experimental kind of chamber music, which the trio - consisting of saxophone, guitar and double bass - celebrates, almost performs. It does not hide behind intellectual walls, but entertains and challenges its audience with musical short stories. Sense and nonsense, art and comedy, science fiction and the sober insight of finitude plunge into the fray - in short, the band creates its very own reality.

Whether blues, jazz, RnB or gospel - Shanna Waterstown dominates them all. With her remarkable blues voice and her breathtaking stage presence, she enchants her audience. Born in South Florida, where she grows up with Country Music, Motown Sound, and Blues, she sings Gospel and Spirituals every Sunday at age 10. Then it's off to New York, where she appeared in various musicals "Off Broadway" and evolved as a singer. But it's in the Paris of the 90's where your career really starts. She thrilled the audience in many of the city's big clubs and cabarets. She interprets talent with jazz and blues standards and extends her repertoire with soul and rhythm and blues. She appears as a singer for Murray Head ("Innocent Album" released in 1993) or as a backing vocal for many artists. In parallel, several other titles were published under her own name. Then everything happens very fast. Discovered by a producer, in 1994 she sells more than 75,000 copies of her albums with her own interpretations. She has appeared in many venues in Paris, the Petit Journal Montparnasse, the Café Universal and the Habana Jazz Club ... Fascinated by direct contact with her audiences, she returns to her great love, the stage , She meets greats like Buddy Guy, Marcio Parker or Lucky Parker, the legend of Punk and Soul. Their presence at many festivals is increasingly valued, as recently at the Jazz Festival d'Enghien-les-Bains. Currently, she performs in many jazz and blues festivals in France and Europe, such as the Basel Blues, the Ascona Festival, Zermatt or Montreux ...

The "Vandojam" known from Paris and New York now also takes place in the B-Flat.
Supported by Vandoren / Paris. "
Under the direction of Robin Draganic and Reiner Witzel

British saxophonist Josephine Davies is at the forefront of the British jazz scene with her cross-genre jazz trio Satori. The word Satori comes from the Buddhist teachings and means to be present at the moment, while fading out the everyday. With her trio, the artist seeks to give her personal love for the Japanese philosophy of life a personal expression. The title of their new album - In the Corners of Clouds (Whirlwind Recordings) - points out. The trio was founded in 2016 with two greats of British jazz, drummer Paul Clarvis and bassist Dave Whitford. Without a chordal instrument, this approach creates a new level for your own creative experiments and the unique sound of the trio. In 2018, Satori returned to the studio, this time with drummer James Maddren.

Sokratis Sinopoulos is a contemporary master of the lyra, a bowed instrument that dates back to the Byzantine era. His playing is delicate and nuanced yet highly expressive, and his proficiency on the instrument has been widely acclaimed. Sinopoulos is equally comfortable crossing genre boundaries into jazz and classical, as he is staying true to folk traditions of Greece and Eastern Mediterranean. We’ve heard him playing live and on recordings with Charles Lloyd, Ara Dinkjian, Loreena McKennitt, Eleni Karaindrou and Jean Guihen Queyras among others, leaving his own expressive stamp on musical idioms ranging all the way from the traditional to the contemporary international repertoire. Born in Athens, Sokratis Sinopoulos studied classical guitar, Byzantine music and folk song before taking up the lyra at the age of 14, under the instruction of Ross Daly. Sinopoulos' remarkable talent was immediately apparent, and within a year he joined Daly's group, Labyrinth. He became highly prolific, contributing to recordings by countless musicians all around the world. Sinopoulos was awarded the Melina Mercouri award for young artists in 1999. In 2010, Sinopoulos started collaborating with American jazz musician Charles Lloyd and this experience had a profound effect on Sinopoulos, inspiring him to take his sound in new directions. It was then when he formed Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet. In addition to his activities as a musician and composer Sokratis Sinopoulos has been involved in research and production for the Domnia Samiou Greek Folk Music Association, and he is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Musical Science and Art at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki. Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet is consisting of pianist Yann Keerim, bassist Dimitris Tsekouras, and drummer Dimitris Emmanouil. The debut album of the Quartet, entitled Eight Winds was released in 2015, and received excellent reviews globally. Four years after, the Quartet returns with the aptly-named Metamodal. Both albums were produced by Manfred Eicher for ECM Records.

Jannis Zotos studied classical guitar at the Academy of Music "Hanns Eisler" Berlin, but also masters the playing of Bouzouki and Oud. His special interests are the Rembetiko, the Asia Minor and the traditional Greek music. He was a member of the formation percussion & strings and founded in 1990 together with his brother Thanassis Zotos the Rembetikoband Zotos Kompania. In 1980 it came to the first meeting with the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. It started a close artistic cooperation and personal friendship. In addition, there were joint projects with Barbara Thalheim, Maria Farantouri, George Dalaras, Petros Pandis and Dimitra Galani. Since the late 1990s, Zotos is increasingly concerned with the writing of their own songs. He sets in Greek tradition ancient Greek lyric u. a. by Giorgos Seferis, Kostas Karyotakis, Maria Polidouri, Jannis Ritsos, Mikis Theodorakis.

The SPIRIT of LIFE ENSEMBLE is in the great tradition of the freedom fighters Martin Luther King, Nelsen Mandela ... and of course the great jazz icons Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane and Miles Davis ... On the spontaneous request to the band whether they in Berlin "b "Flat" on the occasion of the fall of the Wall, came an email with "of course, a great honor for the SPIRIT of LIFE ENSEMBLE". There could not be a more beautiful musical contribution to the fall of the Berlin Wall than the concert of the 9-member group from the USA. The band will celebrate a vibrant and energetic JAZZ FAIR this concert night. Music for the heart, a peaceful world and respect for each other

NYC-based Saxophonist/Composer, Uri Gurvich, will present music from his latest release KINSHIP and premier music from his upcoming album. For his engagement at B-Flat he is joined by some of the leading voices on the European Jazz scene: Ludwig Hornung on piano, Josh Ginsburg on bass and Tobias Backhaus on drums. Based in New York for the past decade, Gurvich won great acclaim as a bandleader with his debut album The Storyteller (Tzadik), featuring some of the most prominent voices on the contemporary jazz scene: Leo Genovese, Peter Slavov, Francisco Mela, and special guest Chris Cheek. All Music Guide called Gurvich, “a major new voice in jazz”. Gurvich’s second album, BabEl, featured his quartet and Moroccan multi- instrumentalist Brahim Fribgane on oud and percussion.
The Los Angeles Times wrote that the music “transcends borders,” placing Israeli, Yemenite, East European, and North African music into a progressive jazz context. Gurvich and his quartet appeared at the legendary Village Vanguard, NYC Town Hall, Tel Aviv Jazz Festival, Washington DC Jazz Festival, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Atlanta Jazz Festival, Burlington Jazz Festival, Red Sea Jazz Festival, The Stone and more. "Organic, exotic and unpretentiously heartfelt" - JAZZ TIMES “Jazz is an indigenous American art form, but it is also a thoroughly global enterprise. And few of the music's practitioners embody its universality more completely than saxophonist Uri Gurvich" DOWNBEAT

In his music Hub Hildenbrand interweaves the most diverse sounds he gleaned on his travels through the music cultures of the world (India, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Ireland, Germany, USA). Virtuosic and with dreamlike ease he combines them to form a unique musical language. Hildenbrand's expressive and nuanced guitar playing reveals a colorful world of sound that both touches and impresses.

the legendary Jam Session with Robin Draganic'

The world-renowned bassist and composer Kenneth Dahl Knudsen is rooted in Scandinavian heritage. The native Dane has been living in the jazz capital of Europe Berlin for several years. Since then, he has been mixing up the scene enormously, playing in a variety of constellations right up to the big band. The cosmopolitan Knudsen has its feelers on all continents and the four cardinal points excited.
After his award-winning debut album (2010), bassist Kenneth Dahl Knudsen played and plays all over the world. This is his source of inspiration which he skilfully and easily combines with musical impressions from Asia, South America, Africa and Europe.www.kennethdahlknudsen.dk

Karl Seglem is a celebrated Norwegian jazz star and has created his own identity by mixing the sound of his tenor saxophone and his goat horns with the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. His music is unique. This sound fuses again to an instrumentation that sounds like ..... music by Karl Seglem. Music with raging power and beautiful melodies, jazz, beats and electronics. Seglem is inspired by the life and nature of Scandinavia, and the result is unique. It's not about Norwegian music itself; one can rather speak of a world-encompassing sound machine. More than 25 years ago he began his development by combining the sound of the unique Norwegian Hardanger fiddle (a fiddle with a total of 9-10 strings, including 4-5 sympathetic strings) with tenor saxophone and goat horns. An electronic and improvisational journey, a new approach to developing new Norwegian music. His numerous recordings (39) sound fresh, new, powerful and contemporary alive. So Seglem can ever ride on his saxophone or one of his numerous goat horns in the unknown, his band stays with him, because she knows from experience that he will certainly lead them to a new musical place, however that may look like. This confidence, this security in interaction, can only arise through many live performances.

Karl Seglem is a celebrated Norwegian jazz star and has created his own identity by mixing the sound of his tenor saxophone and his goat horns with the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. His music is unique. This sound fuses again to an instrumentation that sounds like ..... music by Karl Seglem. Music with raging power and beautiful melodies, jazz, beats and electronics. Seglem is inspired by the life and nature of Scandinavia, and the result is unique. It's not about Norwegian music itself; one can rather speak of a world-encompassing sound machine. More than 25 years ago he began his development by combining the sound of the unique Norwegian Hardanger fiddle (a fiddle with a total of 9-10 strings, including 4-5 sympathetic strings) with tenor saxophone and goat horns. An electronic and improvisational journey, a new approach to developing new Norwegian music. His numerous recordings (39) sound fresh, new, powerful and contemporary alive. So Seglem can ever ride on his saxophone or one of his numerous goat horns in the unknown, his band stays with him, because she knows from experience that he will certainly lead them to a new musical place, however that may look like. This confidence, this security in interaction, can only arise through many live performances.

Suh Soojin is considered one of the most promising drummers in Korea. She began studying piano at the age of five, and began to play the drums when she was seventeen. She studied at the City College of New York, then returned to Seoul after graduation and has since worked as a freelancer with numerous musicians. As a "side-woman" she has already worked on more than 20 albums and as a bandleader with "Strange Liberation" 2018 released her second album. With the song "Narcissus" she won a prize of the International Song Writing Competition 2018. She is a member of the group Near East Quartet (NEQ), which last year released an album with one of the most renowned German jazz label (ECM). With her Chordless Quartet Suh Soojin frees herself completely on "Strange Liberation" of polyphonic harmony instruments. In collaboration with Ko Daniel (titled "Rising Star" awarded by the Korean jazz magazine jazzpeople in 2018), Song Hachul and Kim Young Hoo (aka Hoo Kim), she gathers top musicians to explore the limits of freedom , However, Suh Soojin also points out that freedom brings with it responsibility and can turn back into violence without regard to others. The basic concept of all compositions of the Chordless Quartet consists in this consideration of freedom with mutual consideration.

With his virtuoso piano playing, band leader Johannes Mössinger makes as much of a stir as he does as a composer. "His works clearly show how strongly he thinks free of clichés and develops his own rhythm." Jazz'n'More, 11/2017. With his album "New By Two" together with the NYer Joel Frahm on the saxophone, he recently celebrated great successes. In 2018 he published his very independent and contemporary recording of the inventions of J.S.Bach and thus underscores his exceptional talent and his complexity on the piano. He collaborated with various formations and greats of jazz such as: Joe Lovano, Bob Malach, Enrico Rava, Seamus Blake, Karl Latham and Boris Kozlov. The reviews are full of praise and enthusiasm about this artist, who has acquired a very own, intriguing jazz style and now boasts a new line up in his ensemble.

Toms Rudzinskis Acoustic Quartet first gathered in 2011 and later formed the core of Rudzinskis’ debut recording “ABRA”, receiving critical acclaim and double “Latvian Grammy” nominations as Best Jazz Album and Best Debut, with National Radio naming it the “most impressive discovery in Latvian jazz in the past years!” in 2015.
Called a talent in finding the unbeaten path “where tradition meets extremely intellectual, free, complicated and interesting musicianship” Rudzinskis’ compositions and intense yet warm sound opens a musical conversation of powerful rhythms, expressive melodies, and exciting improvisation, truly highlighting Quartet’s musical personalities.
Toms Rudzinskis Acoustic Quartet show at B-Flat Jazz Club will feature a special lineup – award-winning Lebanese-American pianist Tarek Yamani and well-respected Berlin Jazz scene musicians and close collaborators Tom Berkmann on upright bass and Fabian Rösch on drums.


the legendary jam session with Robin Draganic

Maybe Beethoven is heard on this wooden path, perhaps Wayne Shorter recognized. Walking past Strawinsky, Berg and Parker, nobody arrives nowhere. Right here the Holzterzett moves together with the drummer Peter Funda and plays compositions and arrangements made by Andreas Bär.

Back in history, Beat Funktion was already the first Swedish jazz funk band to make it to the top of the American and Canadian jazz charts. Their record Voodooland (2013/2014) released under the legendary Japanese radio label "P-Vine" lasted 16 weeks in the US Jazz Charts and ranked # 1 in Canada for 8 weeks. The band acts as an instrumental musician collective composed of the crème de la crème of the Swedish music scene. Instrumental a band can not be better occupied!
Photograph: Palli Kristmundsson

This band will blow you over. The hip-hop would-be thugs, who deliver furious rhyme duels, can only smile tiredly from the Toughest Tenors. The five heavy jazz guys, steeled and trained in the club battlefields of Berlin and New York, do not hesitate long. They show what the "hard" in the "hardbop" means, how much muscle the blues have and make it clear where the so-called "battles" of rap really come from. And from the spirit of the noble competition, the genius tenor saxophonists of the 50s and 60s, legends like Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, Johnny Griffin and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, maintained. The Toughest Tenors have made it their mission to bring the long tradition of "saxophone battles" back to life. With original arrangements, but without false nostalgia. Currently, but without trend doping. With concentrated energy, unbridled joy of playing, quick-witted humor. And with the heart of a boxer. Live, the quintet, led by the two independent tenor characters Bernd Suchland and Patrick Braun, has already triumphantly won countless battles for the public's favor. Now the Toughest Tenors start the big eavesdropping with their debut CD "What's happening?" A fair affair. Full on the Twelve. And in the middle of the soul.

On January 27, 2017 Günter Baby Sommer invited the Leipzig saxophonist Antonio Lucaciu to a duo concert as part of the series "Erstbegegnung" in Dresden. Between 1943 Born Baby Summer and 44 years younger Lucaciu (Udo Lindenberg, Clueso) sparked it immediately and so the desire arose not to leave it at a "first meeting". The energetic and emotional play of the young saxophonist and the open sound and percussion rooms of the Dresden drummer produced a sensitive musical similarity. The Lucaciu is active in pop music and Baby Summer one of the most important representatives of contemporary European jazz, fertilizes the interaction in a special way.

The B Flat Jazz Orchestra stands in the tradition of the great New York jazz clubs such as Village Vanguard and the Jazz Standard with their own big bands, which are always performing on Mondays.

The members of the B - Flat Jazz Orchestra reflect Berlin's extremely lively jazz scene in a special way. The program includes the great American pioneers of big-band jazz as well as current European and American big-band compositions by Gil Evans, Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider and music by director Maria Baptist. 
Pianist, orchestra composer and multi-award-winner Maria Baptist from New York and Berlin has played her way to the top of Europe's current jazz scene. She has worked with numerous international acclaimed bigbands such as the Budapest Jazz Orchestra, Reykjavik Bigband or hrBigband.

The Argentine-born, grown in Cologne jazz singer Sabeth Pérez gathered in collaboration with numerous big bands, orchestras, small ensembles and outstanding solo musicians a lot of experience (including WDR Big Band, Big Band of the Hessian Broadcasting, Chris Potter, CCJO, Afra Mussawisade, Luciano Biondini, BuJazzO, JJO NRW). Some time ago the singer founded her own quartet with fellow students from Cologne; Own compositions, tailored to the three co-artists. The Sabeth Pérez Quartet tells the story of a growing puzzle through modern, lyrical, and instrumentalistic jazz with proportions of free improvisation. Her gentle voice is carried by three wonderful, enriching instrumentalists of the HfMT Cologne and the Jazzinstitut Berlin, which ia. learned from John Hollenbeck, Hubert Nuss u.v.m ..

the legendary Jam Session with Robin Draganic'

In the fourth year of its existence, the Berlin Cool Jazz Project (BCJP) with its full cast (13 musicians) and passion is dedicated to the sound of Cool and West Coast Jazz. In the meantime his own arrangements, arrangements and original compositions have been added. In addition, composers and arrangers from the Berlin (Cool) Jazz scene will be heard in this concert. It all started as drummer Michael Rowalska from Berlin, who has always been passionate about the sound world of the West Coast modern jazz scene with drummer Shelly Manne ... and New York's Cool Jazz starring Miles Davis, Lenny Tristano and Lee Konitz. In June 2014, well-known musicians from the Berlin jazz scene gathered around him, who love this chamber music swinging sound and always wanted to play it. Initially planned as a "rehearsal band", the regular rehearsals evolved into a continuously working ensemble with numerous concerts.

Intelligent, funny arrangements, big band quotes and a downright merciless groove - Night Train has not needed the artistic elite, to which the guild of jazz musicians occasionally pays homage and prefers to prefix the audience. Night Train takes the audience seriously: from the elegant stage presence to the charming announcements to the energetic music. Today with the great singer Atrin Madani as a special guest.

Roman Ott is an exceptional talent on the saxophone, you have to experience his unmistakable own sound and saxophone playing to feel the "good old magic". He will present his new album "If you lived here you're home by now" on the internationally acclaimed label Fresh Sound. The musicians, with whom Roman Ott will present us his new album, are invariably the elite of modern jazz. An intense music experience with honesty and depth.