The Kammgarn cultural centre in Kaiserslautern has been one of the top event venues in Germany for years and attracts internationally renowned artists of rock, pop, jazz and blues. An annual fixture in the worsted yarn is the International Jazz Festival. The festival is taking place for the 29th time this year and brings the audience an encounter with seven very different groups.
The Markus Stockhausen Group will kick things off on Thursday, April 18, 8 p.m., at the Cotton Club. The frontman is considered one of the most distinguished trumpeters in the world and has already won many jazz awards in his career. With his group, Stockhausen makes music between contemporary jazz and European art music, mixing composition and improvisation to create an intense sound experience.
A well-known name will open the second day of the festival, April 19, 8 p.m., in the casino: The dancer, actress and singer Ute Lemper, who now lives in the USA, will do the honors. Afterwards, under the "Focus on Scandinavia", we continue in the carpentry workshop with the Norwegian jazz musician Daniel Herskedal. His instruments are the tuba and the bass trumpet, and he performs solo in the cultural centre's newest venue. His music is characterized by spherical sounds that correspond to the vastness of his Scandinavian homeland.
Harold Lopéz-Nussa Quartet © Paulo Vitale
The third and final day of the festival will take place on April 20 at 8 p.m. in the Casino, where the Jakob Manz Project and the Vincent Peirani Trio Jokers from France will be performed. The young saxophonist and composer Jakob Manz (born in 2001) is considered an exceptional talent. Vincent Peirani is an accordionist from Nice who plays contemporary jazz in various formations. With his trio Jokers, he focuses on pure, suspenseful fusion jazz, but also finds his way to spherical ballads. Peirani was last seen at the 24th edition of the Kammgarn Jazz Festival. At the Cotton Club, the Harold López-Nussa Quartet, with its mixture of "classical" jazz and salsa, will probably bring this jazz festival edition to a spirited close. In any case, the Cuban pianist Harold López Nussa has so far been able to inspire an international audience, including the world-famous jazz festival in Montreux.
The Lautrer Festival promises to be one of the discoveries beyond the well-known scene greats with its program!
18 to 20 April 2024
