Fusion Festival

Fusion Festival, we had an amazing time! So much passion for detail – we were psyched!! There is a “no photo on the dancefloor policy”, so it looks like there was no audience, but there was! A very lovely one!

We just realized, that our last concert for this year (and next year?) in the Munich region will be happening soon – if you want to see us, better come now!
Next concert:
July 17: Alter Speicher, Ebersberg (close to Munich) (Tickets)

All concerts in 2024:
July 26: Burg-Herzberg-Festival (Tickets)
September 28: Das K, Kornwestheim (Tickets)
November 30: Z-Bau, Nürnberg (Tickets)
December 26: Leerer Beutel, Regensburg (Tickets)
December 27: Pavillon, Hannover (Tickets)

“JazzFacts” Interview Deutschlandfunk

Today, June 27, from 9 to 10 pm, you can hear me in a fun interview “JazzFacts” with Thomas Loewner at the radio broadcasting station Deutschlandfunk, tune in! (… only it is in German again, sooner or later I hopefully will be on a podcast in English!)

 here is the live stream
the recorded show is archived for one week, listen to it here

Photo: Emanuel Klempa

Podcast

It is podcast time! I’ve been invited to the german “Zwei Flaschen Wein – Dein Podcast” we talk about death metal, franconia (a region in bavaria where I am from), stage outfits and lots more! (And the franconian slang is increasing over time with the drinks ! )
Here you can listen!

Fusion Festival 2024 – let’s gooo!!

We are so happy to announce that we play at the amazing Fusion Festival on Saturday June 29!!Bring your tents, dancing shoes, witchy outfits and dragons, this will be epic, we are so excited!! Who will be there?

Ampere Munich Concert

We had a blast last Sunday at Munich, Ampere!! 💜
After a short break we will be back on the road for the summer dates, we hope to see you there!☀️ If you want to listen to us at home, visit our band store or Bandcamp, where you can find our music on vinyl or CD (we handle the packaging ourselves), and for even more updates follow us on Facebook or Instagram! See you soon!

Next concerts:
July 17 – Ebersberg, Altes Kino
July 26 – Burg Herzberg Festival
September 28 – Kornwestheim, Das K
November 30 – Nuremberg, Z-Bau
December 27 – Hannover, Pavillon

Photos: Emanuel Klempa

Jazzfest Bonn

Thank you Jazzfest Bonn, we had a wonderful time! And what an amazing crowd!!…you were on fire!! Now we are looking forward to May 5th, when we play at Ampere, Munich. We start at 8pm and will play an exciting set with a few specials. Some songs we haven’t played in a long while (though for the most part it is still the “Witchy” album). And we will bring a limited number of vinyls signed by the whole band. We can’t wait!

German Jazz Prize

We won the German Jazz Prize “Composition of the year” for our piece “8 Prinzessinnen”! What an honour! Thanks to the whole German Jazz Prize team, the Initiative Musik, the jury and Marieke Meischke for the wonderful laudation! Though I did write the compositon by myself, it is my bigband and its 18 musicians that make the piece come to life through their own sound, improvisation, creativity and passion! I love you guys, you make it all possible! 

Not all members could come to the award ceremony, but the four of us gave it all to represent the whole band! Writing the piece was a quite prolonged process. At the beginning there was a newspaper headline: “8 princesses stand trial”. What on earth could eight princesses have cooked up? In my imagination they turned into influencers who stole the fountain of youth, endowing them with eternal youth, beauty and life. But now they face the court, they glow and luminesce, denying all wrongdoing. As for the composition, I wanted to set in motion some kind of musical wheel that keeps on stumbling, but is also consistent in itself. Some kind of morse code. Out of it, another wheel materializes, clutching on to it, as if two bands were playing at the same time, continiously disjoining and re-aligning. In between we have two amazing soloists, Sebastian Nagler on baritone and Alistair Duncan on trombone, firing it all up.

To get all this recorded for the album we had an amazing team, and I want to thank them all for their great work! It is called “Witchy Activities And The Maple Death”, we released it in 2023 on our own label Zenna Records (the name is derived from the my hometown Langenzenn). Here you can order the album (CD or vinyl) and here you can take a listen. And of course, we will be playing the song “8 Prinzessinnen” live:
01.05. Opernhaus, Bonn ➜ Tickets (sold out)
05.05. Ampere, München ➜ Tickets here
17.07. Kulturfeuer Ebersberg ➜ Tickets here
26.07. Herzberg Festival ➜ Tickets here
30.11. Z-Bau, Nürnberg ➜ Tickets here
27.12. Pavillon, Hannover ➜ Tickets here
We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

May 5th at Ampere, Munich

Foto: Ludwig Olah

Burghausen Jazzfestival

Burghausen Jazzfestival, we had an amazing time!
Here is a great article about the whole festival by Oliver Hochkeppel in German newspaper “Sueddeutsche Zeitung”. In the “Passauer Neue Presse” Erwin Schwarz wrote: “Elfs and the voodoo queen – mystical stuff at cityhall between avantgarde and Big Band sound.” Next concerts are at Jazzfest Bonn on May 1, and at Ampere in Munich, our hometown, on May 5th. Hope to see you around! (Fotos: Frank Rasimowitz)

Tickets for 2024

Ticket sale is starting! This dates are confirmed and more are to come! Right now they are all in Germany. But if you know bookers from your home country that want to book us for a concert or festival, let me know, we are ready for adventures!🙌
16.03. Stadtsaal, Burghausen ➜ Tickets hier
01.05. Opernhaus, Bonn ➜ Tickets hier
05.05. Ampere, München ➜ Tickets hier
17.07. Kulturfeuer Ebersberg ➜ Tickets hier
26.07. Herzberg Festival ➜ Tickets hier
30.11. Z-Bau, Nürnberg ➜ Tickets hier
27.12. Pavillon, Hannover ➜ Tickets hier

We are looking forward seeing you!

Photo: Emanuel Klempa

“The Progspace” nomination

We have been nominated by The Progspace for “music video of the year” for “8 Prinzessinnen”! This was so much fun, with the video creators Juri Beythien and Lukas Bille and the actresses of my hometown’s theatre Hans-Sachs-Spielgruppe Langenzenn! Here you can watch the whole video.
And here you can vote here for us if you’d like and check out the other bands.
Next LIVE concerts:
16.3. Stadtsaal, Jazzfestival Burghausen
1.5. Opernhaus, Jazzfest Bonn
5.5. Ampere, München

Albums of the year by eclipsed magazine

We are so happy to be the no 4 of the albums of the year 2023 of eclipsed magazine! This means a lot to us, because this whole album “Witchy Activities And The Maple Death” was a tough nut to crack! It was like everything was jinxed, nothing was easy, everything needed detailed work and effort… sometimes we were wondering, are we going to keep this constant struggle up? But we managed to motivate ourselves all the time, and just kept calm and searched for solutions, it all took a little longer – this honour by the eclipsed magazine means a lot to us!:)

German Jazz Award: Nomination

We got a double nomination by “Deutscher Jazzpreis” !
We are so stoked to be nominated for album of the year “Witchy Activities And The Maple Death” and composition of the year “8 Prinzessinnen”! What an honour! Congrats to all the nominees! And thanks so much to the jury, Initiative Musik and all the people that were involved in the making of this bigband recording! This means a lot to us!

Concert announcement: 5 May in Munich!

We are stoked to play again at Ampere, Munich on the 5th of May!
Tickets are now available here!
Cheers!

Happy New Year 2024!

We wish you all a happy new year!
And we hope to see you live in 2024!

LIVE-Dates:
January 26, 2024 Saalfelden, Jazzfestival
March 16, 2024 Burghausen, Jazzfestival
May 1, 2024 Bonn, Jazzfest
May 5, 2024 Munich, Ampere
July 17, 2024 Ebersberg, Kulturfeuer
July 26, 2024 Fulda, Burg Herzberg Festival
November 30, 2024 Nuremberg, Z-Bau
December 27, 2024 Hannover, Pavillon

Foto: Helmut Dobratz // Foto Monika: Ludwig Olah