Elbjazz 2013: Friday
Yesterday was the opening day of the Elbjazz 2013 festival, and I was invited to photograph. Wow, what can be better? Weekend, photography and live music — one of my favorite combinations!
Once again Elbjazz starts with a blast: 50 concerts over 2 days and 10 stages! So you better do your homework and make a plan who you want to see and when. Difficult, difficult…
Immediately after picking up my accreditation band I headed over to the south Elbe side, to see Mo’ Blow, and wow, these guys are cool and funny!
A short walk away was the Blohm + Voss main stage where Joshua Redman was heating up the crowd.
OK, he opened up with Sommertime even though the weather was all but summer-like. But the crowd was going strong nonetheless.
But enough about large stages and large crowds. So I took a boat to the north bank of the Elbe and went into the intimate club Golem where we experienced finest Scandinavian jazz with the five guys of Girls in Airports.
This was followed by the absolutely crazy Canadian Socalled. This guy… you’d never believe it unless you see it with your own eyes!! He sang, served up hot rhythms with his juke box and rapped, sang, joked and performed magic tricks. The concert brought the crowd to boiling and was over in no time.
And then, way after midnight, we went over to the Fischauktionshalle and experienced the calming and deeply emotional music of Nils Frahm. Perfect for the quiet hours of the night.
And here is Pascal Schuhmacher improvising with Nils Frahm.
Tonight Katja will be joining me for a longer evening of m.u.c.h. m.o.r.e. j.a.z.z…