Festivals Talking
Martin Longley anticipates festival performances around the globe, tracking down artists to quiz them on their advance strategies, observing their set-list mulling processes, assisting them in their wardrobe decisions and suggesting ridiculous backstage rider requests...
Moers Festival Interviews: Lakecia Benjamin
by Martin Longley
The last day of the Moers Festival is also the Monday holiday of Whitsun, still marked in Germany, even if it's dormant in England, but still technically observed in the USA, although not granted a public day off work. As a climax of both the five-day festival and the (Pentecost) holiday, the NYC alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin will storm the Moers castle, filling this main stage with extreme jazz hyperventilation, patterned with some elements of funk, hip-hop and poetic-narrative rhyming. ...
Continue ReadingMoers Festival Interviews: Evi Filippou
by Martin Longley
The annual tradition of the Moers Festival is to appoint and import an Improviser In Residence, who subsequently dwells in this German city's dedicated weirdo music apartment, right in the center of the community. Just a few years back, the housing was in a different parkside location, so this new venue has the advantage of being more accessible to its potential audiences when performances are organized. Moers is situated not so far from Cologne, and the festival has been running ...
Continue ReadingJazzkaar Interviews: Jason Hunter
by Martin Longley
Miles At 100 is now all-pervasive, as we celebrate the centenary of that shooting star pioneer of jazz trumpet. The currently-running Jazzkaar festival in Tallinn, Estonia, is also contributing to the retrospective rush, presenting a specially-conceived gig on Friday May 1st, assembled by the Stateside trumpeter Jason Hunter. Hunter was raised in Los Angeles, but has now become an honorary Estonian, moving to Tallinn around 15 years ago. He's become embedded on the scene, leading his own band ...
Continue ReadingJazzkaar Interviews: Donny McCaslin
by Martin Longley
Tallinn's nine-day Jazzkaar festival is one of Europe's finest, always strengthening its line-up via visiting Statesiders, native Estonians and a spread of acts from around the continent. One of its climaxes in 2026 will be the appearance of tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin, striking out with his powerful and stable quartet lineup, and concentrating on 2025's Lullaby For The Lost album, released by the mighty British label Edition Records. With records by Chris Potter, Dave Holland, Ben Wendel and Kurt Elling ...
Continue ReadingMoers Festival Interviews: Bart Maris
by Martin Longley
Bart Maris is a heroic Belgian trumpeter, deeply committed to the art of improvisation, treading a wilder jazz path, and possessing a mighty appetite for road-life, gigging prolifically and always seeking out unfamiliar collaborators, knowing that this act will force his own playing into a continual sense of vital change. Therefore, he is a fine choice for this year's Improviser In Residence, a position that's been connected to the Moers Festival for nearly two decades. The concept involves an artist ...
Continue ReadingJazzkaar Interviews: Kristjan Randalu
by Martin Longley
The Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu gave one of the best performances at the 2021 Jazzkaar festival in Tallinn. It was the premiere of a work-sequence for the New Wind Orchestra, and it blew the audience on a wayward journey. Once again, Randalu will be delivering a premiere piece for Jazzkaar, opening up this year's 36th edition with his “Marginaalid ja Dividendid" (Margins And Dividends). Your scribe and this keysman ended up with a most unusual interview setting: Longley ...
Continue ReadingMoers Festival Interviews: Zeena Parkins
by Martin Longley
The harpist Zeena Parkins is one of the key players on the New York City improvising and composing fronts, and indeed on the global scene generally. Most of her upcoming gigs are happening around Europe, although her 2024 datesheet is relatively sparse compared to her 2025 plans. She probably became known to most folks when playing with John Zorn in the late 1980s and beyond, particularly as part of his “Cobra" performances. Subsequently, she has developed her active solo trajectory, ...
Continue ReadingMoers Festival Interviews: Virginia Genta
by Martin Longley
There is a tradition in the small German city of Moers, although its aims are far from traditional in orientation. Unless we consider the already sixty-year history (at least) of jazz-derived free improvisation. The Moers Festival has run since 1972, originally bent on exploring the vitality of free jazz, and still resolved towards that direction today, although now acknowledging the input of rock, folkloric, electronic and moderne new music elements. Since 2008, the city of Moers has ...
Continue ReadingJazzkaar Interviews: Mingo Rajandi
by Martin Longley
The Estonian composer and acoustic bassist Mingo Rajandi has created a body of work that includes jazz, free improvisation, moderne art music and scores for theatrical productions. She moved to Brussels nearly four years ago, but still retains resilient links to her old Tallinn scene, with its regular roster of musicians who arrive from varied stylistic quarters. Rajandi is regularly invited by the Jazzkaar festival to write brand new conceptual pieces each year, taking a key place in its programme. ...
Continue ReadingJazzkaar Interviews: Kirke Karja
by Martin Longley
Estonian pianist Kirke Karja has regularly appeared at the Jazzkaar festival in Tallinn, customarily performing in surprising settings, always delivering a fresh band combination, or a new set of music, or altering ratios between improvisation and composition, acoustic or electric palettes. During the last two years she has a.) been discovered by the rest of the European jazz circuit and b.) formed a touring trio with a stable line-up. This band also features the French bassist Etienne Renard and the ...
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