Leipzig Jazz Days

The Leipziger Jazztage is an international festival for contemporary jazz in Leipzig and is one of the most traditional and renowned jazz festivals in Germany. The organizer is the Jazzclub Leipzig eV. The first Leipzig Jazz Days took place in 1976. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the festival, the book »Flamingos and other birds of paradise« was published in September 2016.

Content and goals

Since then, the artistic orientation of the festival has been based on the idea of presenting contemporary jazz in a variety of concise manifestations, including newer trends in the club scene. In addition to international stars, remarkable newcomers from a growing generation of jazz musicians will be presented to a broad audience.

Special features of the Leipzig Jazz Days are the projects initiated especially for the festival with newly compiled formations of outstanding artists who have not previously been heard, commissioned compositions and, above all, a thematic framework. In recent years, the Leipzig Jazz Days have been dominated by »Fine Arts« (40th Leipzig Jazz Days), »Cinematic Jazz« (39th Leipzig Jazz Days), »Sound of Heimat« (38th Leipzig Jazz Days) and »Siggi and the yellow shark «(37th Leipzig Jazz Days) and move with these demanding musical concepts far away from the mainstream.

Another feature of the Leipzig Jazz Days is the use of the most diverse venues, which in the opinion of many visitors and musicians creates a special flair. In addition to concert evenings in the opera house , in the Schauspiel Leipzig and in churches, there are also concerts in scene clubs and pubs, such as the Moritzbastei , naTo , Horns Erben, Werk 2 , the UT Connewitz or the Schaubühne Lindenfels .

The festival maintains close ties to the Polish jazz scene and has been working with the Polish Institute Berlin (Leipzig branch) for many years. There are intensive collaborations with the "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" University of Music and Theater , the US Consulate General in Leipzig, various embassies and music labels. In addition, the Leipzig Jazz Days are supported every year by the voluntary commitment of many members of the Leipzig Jazz Club. Together with the city of Leipzig , the Leipzig Jazz Club awards the Leipzig Jazz Young Talent Award sponsored by the Marion Ermer Foundation. It is presented annually at the Leipzig Jazz Days in conjunction with a prize winners' concert. For many years, an important part of the festival's program has also been »Jazz for Children«, which particularly appeals to young families.

Beginnings

The Leipzig Jazz Club was founded in 1973 and initially existed as a circle of friends within the Kulturbund der DDR, in the slipstream of the cultural policy of the time, so to speak. Thanks to the persistent commitment of jazz fans, it was possible to organize individual concerts and, from 1976, the Leipzig Jazz Days, an international festival: What began small in the basement of the College of Graphics and Book Art moved to the ballroom of the Deutsche Post as early as the next year the following year to fill the more than 1,000 spaces in the congress hall at the zoo. At the same time, the festival's musical spectrum expanded - also because it quickly succeeded in inviting bands from Eastern and Western Europe and the USA through numerous private contacts and networks. Thus the Leipzig Jazz Days became an important place for international musical encounters and a meeting point for the jazz scene in the former GDR.

The autumn of 1989 marked a major turning point for the East German cultural landscape, and even the end for many initiatives. The Leipzig Jazz Club is one of the few cultural institutions that have survived the fundamental changes brought about by reunification. The year 1991 nevertheless marked a new beginning: With the successful leap into the opera house and the promotion of the thematic orientation of the festival, it was possible to develop the Leipzig Jazz Days even under changed political and economic circumstances, to present big names in jazz, to introduce new trends and independent ones Initiate projects.

Today, the Leipzig Jazz Days are considered to be "one of the most prominent series of events of this kind in Germany and Europe" and see themselves as a cross-generational festival that offers offers such as "Jazz for Children" or the connection to the free club scene like hardly any other jazz festival in recent years was also able to attract a young audience.

A constant further development of the Leipzig Jazz Days was achieved with the support of long-term partners such as the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, the City of Leipzig, the Federal Center for Political Education , the Polish Institute and the US Consulate, as well as the voluntary commitment of many jazz club members.