Adventsblasen: Brecker Brothers Combo HfMT / Simon Nabatov & Frank Gratkowski / Space Shuttle

"Jazz has many faces: from the cotton fields to the music academies, from the hotel bar to the underground (I had my 1st concert in the underground in Cologne). I have always been more attracted to the subversive, risk-taking, boundary-exploring side than the philharmonic one. Fittingly, the program for the 10th anniversary of the one-day festival curated by Matthias Bergmann and me, a musician's get-together in the pre-Christmas season, without Christmas fuss, by select top talent from the local & international scene." Hinrich Frank

Brecker Brothers Combo HfM&T (Cologne)

Simon Nabatov & Frank Gratkowski (Cologne-Berlin)
Reeds player Frank Gratkowski and pianist Simon Nabatov, whose artistic careers have repeatedly crossed paths in various constellations over the past three decades, perform in the smallest, most intimate formation, the duo. Improvisations develop from a standing start, free and spontaneous. In a free field, improvisation and composition finally merge imperceptibly. The duo is of restrained brilliance and playful elegance. Despite all the sound work, it always finds its way to intense, precise interplay and illuminates the cosmos of long experience.

Space Shuttle (Leipzig)
Space Shuttle consists of guitar, keyboard, bass and drums. By mixing a wide variety of genres, they create intense soundscapes that take on different forms from concert to concert. Catchy melodies mix with jazz-influenced improvisation parts and strong walls of sound. Or in other words: spacy psychedelic indie kraut pop with a certain amount of free improvisation and shredding morality. The band's songs are about journeys on emotional, physical, mental, spiritual levels. Stories of losing oneself and finding oneself again. Diffuse states between sleep and awakening. The longing for endless space, love and the celebration of seemingly boundless energy.