50 Jahre IG JAZZ

Angelika Nescier & Marta Warelis

Nescier and Warelis play without a safety net. Their music thrives on the risk of the moment: they embark on paths, abandon them, and pick them up again with an intensity that electrifies the room.

The boundaries between improvisation and composition are blurred; lines contradict one another; sounds come together; nothing is final; everything remains in motion.

Two musicians who know each other intimately and yet start anew every time. Music that breathes and that you experience as it unfolds.

Angelika Niescier is one of the outstanding musicians who have been redefining the contours of the international jazz scene for some time now—an artist on a mission, with boundless energy, a rich palette of colors, and virtuoso technique. As a bandleader and composer, she has received some of the most prestigious awards (including the German Jazz Prize and the WDR Jazz Prize). She lights up stages and festivals around the world, from Vancouver to Tokyo, alongside some of the most influential musicians of our time, such as Joachim Kühn, Tyshawn Sorey, Aki Takase, Nasheet Waits, Tomeka Reid, Ernie Watts, Sylvie Courvoisier, Gerald Cleaver, and Michio Yagi.

Marta Warelis is a captivating performer with a deep passion for improvisation and a love of experimentation across all genres. Through her spirit of experimentation and openness, she opens musical doors between jazz, avant-garde, free improvisation, and noise and sound exploration—and thus exemplifies a new generation of female improvisational musicians in Europe. After completing her studies in Poland and the Netherlands, she was based in Amsterdam for many years and now lives in Berlin. She collaborates with artists such as Dave Douglas, Ingekrikt Håker Flaten, Frank Rosaly, John Dikeman, and Nick Dunston.

Angelika Nescier (sax) / Marta Warelis (p)

Johannes Enders – “Sweet Freedom”
A Tribute to Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins, one of the last living icons of modern jazz, has been and remains a role model for countless generations of saxophonists.

This is also true for Johannes Enders, one of the most important European voices on the tenor saxophone. Reason enough, then, to dedicate an entire album to Sonny Rollins, the “Saxophone Colossus,” featuring arrangements of some of his greatest hits—and to go on tour with this program!

Joining him on this adventure are Munich-based bassist Henning Sieverts and master drummer Howard Curtis from Washington, D.C.

The title of the recording, “Freedom Suite,” says a lot about one of jazz’s central characteristics: the drive for musical freedom, but also the drive for freedom among African Americans. In 1958, the year of the recording, when the civil rights movement in the U.S. had gained momentum, the record label decided to pull the album with this title from the market for fear that the music would become politicized.

We can now finally enjoy these compositions—which are considered classics today—and their sophisticated arrangements live!

Johannes Enders – tenor saxophone
Henning Sieverts – bass
Howard Curtis – drums