Music: World Series

Music: World Series presents journeys ‘round the world that are full of surprises, spontaneity, and passion for musicians and the public. Leading musicians from the worlds of jazz and world music combine the centuries old and familiar with the new and untried. They draw up new land charts by making musical connections and in this way to create new sounds, rhythms and timbres. Their groundbreaking work can be heard at various venues in Music: World Series.

Cross over percussion with the piano as melodic midpoint
In Skins & Keys, three percussionists from Germany, Iran, and Bangladesh, and a jazz pianist from Cuba join together in a quartet. How different music sounds when percussionists merge Oriental, Caribbean, and other percussion traditions, while the piano takes the melodic lead. Nils Fischer, Afra Mussawisade, Niti Ranjan Biswas, and Ramón Valle meet each other in improvisations where the melodic piano sets up a sturdy framework for the rhythm section.

The brilliant and equally controversial jazz musician Sun Ra and Bollywood music don’t seem to have much in common on the face of it. Yet both have a groovy side and leave lots of room for improvisation. All this is grist to the mill of reed player Maarten Ornstein. He invites the audience for a ‘jazz trip’ through Punjabi Bhangra and asked Ranjana Ghatak (UK/India) to join him.

For this tour, Maarten Ornstein has composed new works for a line up of horns and voices. He was inspired by Bollywood soundtracks and by the rich tradition of Sun Ra.

The men of Knalpot (Vanoli/Jäger) don’t think in genres but in grooves. ‘Tripping grooves’ to be more precise. With special effect boxes, Casio’s and self-made electronic features to go with drums and guitar, Knalpot easily moves between the jazz scene and the pop and rock scene. For this project guitarist Raphaël Vanoli allowed himself to be inspired by the intense singing of the Senagalese Omar Ka.