POSITIONEN!

"Jazz is always political ..." What is left of the often claimed political impetus and social relevance in contemporary jazz? The 16th Darmstadt Jazz Forum in fall 2019 focused less on the motherland of jazz, where many jazz musicians made political statements long before #BlackLivesMatter, #Metoo and Donald Trump. Instead, the discussion in Darmstadt focused on whether music can make political statements at all and what concrete examples can be found in Germany of contemporary jazz musicians addressing issues such as growing populism, climate change, war, hunger, unequal distribution of wealth, xenophobia and nationalism. Lectures and discussions with musicians, journalists and experts from various fields also addressed the fundamental question of the extent to which improvised music might not deserve a particularly important place in the canon of contemporary music in 2020 and beyond due to the fact that improvised music is a seismographically quite sensitive reflection of the present.

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