Meschiya Lake - Vocals (USA)
Eldar Tsalikov - Saxophone/Clarinet (RUS)
Leo Forde - Guitar (UK)
Declan Forde - Piano (UK)
James Banner - Bass (UK)
The Zig Zag is proud to announce a brand new and fresh Sunday concert series that showcases a community of jazz artists responsible for bringing about an explosion of energy and life into the Berlin jazz scene. The series will feature some of the most in demand, highly skilled and exciting young jazz talents in the scene today. Going against the trend of complexity, abstraction and the “academization” of the arts, these young masters have taken the jazz scene by surprise by packing in the clubs and bringing back to life a love and passion for hard swinging music. Performances are completely acoustic with little to no amplification. Subtle interaction, melodic focus and soulful virtuosity is at play here. If you’re interested in listening to some of the finest swinging sounds of jazz this is not an event to miss out on.
SUNDAY 17.03.19
James Banner and Declan Forde have been ‘Practically Married’ since April 2015, a name proudly awarded to them due to their ability to spend time together almost every day with only minor frustrations, and the fact that they play almost every concert together.
Since 2015 they have collaborated with Vilde&Inga, Tobias Delius, John Hollenbeck, Max Andrzejewski, João Lopes Pereira, Eric Vaughn and many more, and have become a regular fixture on the Berlin swing dance scene, performing with Ugo Alunni and The Good Old Good Ones. They also perform as part of other acts including the award-winning Rachel Sermanni and James Banner’s USINE, and have performed sold out shows at Spiegesaal and Konzerthaus Berlin (with Fabiana Striffler and Mirna Bogdanovic) and Leeds Jazz Festival in 2018. Upcoming releases are planned for 2019 with Jordan Dinsdale & Will Howard (UK), as well as Toby Delius & Max Andrzejewski playing the music of Herbie Nichols.
For this concert they will be joined by two integral parts of the New Orleans Jazz Scene; Meschiya Lake and Leo Forde. As well as the great Berlin based Eldar Tsalikov.
“Meschiya Lake rocks back on her heels, lifts her chest, and opens her throat like an air raid siren to croon in a thrilling pre-microphone style that…can make you feel by turns as though you were shivering around a campfire in a railroad yard or drinking in a Budapest nightclub in 1938."
— DAN BAUM, THE NEW YORKER
"Close to the end of the set, she sang a Bessie Smith blues with the line, ‘I’m as good as any woman in your town.’ In New Orleans music, that’s a bold statement – but she is, and better, too."
— ALISON FENSTERSTOCK, NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE
James Banner und Declan Forde sind seit April 2015 "Practically Married" ("Praktisch verheiratet"). Ein Name, den sie stolz bekommen haben, weil sie fast jeden Tag Zeit mit nur geringfügigen Frustrationen verbringen können und dass sie fast jedes Konzert zusammen spielen.
Seit 2015 arbeiten sie mit Vilde & Inga, Tobias Delius, John Hollenbeck, Max Andrzejewski, João Lopes Pereira, Eric Vaughn und vielen anderen zusammen und sind mit Ugo Alunni und The Good Old Good Ones zu einem festen Bestandteil der Berliner Swingtanz-Szene geworden . Sie treten auch im Rahmen anderer Acts auf, darunter die preisgekrönte USINE von Rachel Sermanni und James Banner. Im Spiegesaal und im Konzerthaus Berlin (mit Fabiana Striffler und Mirna Bogdanovic) und dem Leeds Jazz Festival (2018) wurden bereits ausverkaufte Shows aufgeführt. Weitere Veröffentlichungen sind geplant 2019 mit Jordan Dinsdale & Will Howard (UK) sowie Toby Delius & Max Andrzejewski, die die Musik von Herbie Nichols spielen.
Für dieses Konzert kommen zwei wichtige Bestandteile der Jazzszene von New Orleans hinzu. Meschiya Lake und Leo Forde. Zusammen mit dem großen Berliner Eldar Tsalikov.
Meschiya Lake
Meschiya began her singing career at the age of nine, earning a regular gig and winning $500 upon winning an adults only singing contest in a South Dakota Steakhouse. In 2000 as a young woman, she met and began traveling with the Know Nothing Family Zirkus Zideshow and End of the World Circus - a troupe blending traditional circus arts with modern sideshow varieties where Meschiya honed her performance skills with such thrilling acts as glass and insect eating and fire dancing (dangerously twirling around on stage with flame-doused nunchucks). It was while touring with this troupe that she fell in love with and felt immediately embraced by the culturally rich and one of a kind city of New Orleans, her home base for the last decade and counting.
In the Spring of 2007, Meschiya began singing with the traditional jazz outfit the Loose Marbles on the French Quarters Royal Street. Joined by jazz dancers Chance Bushman and Amy Johnson, a new revival of traditional jazz and dance consequently blossomed:
Bringing the joy and vitality of New Orleans spirit, wowing audiences both young and old alike, they toured the United States and Europe, playing on streets, in clubs, and leaving a trail of write-ups in publications along the way. Dan Baum of the New Yorker writes "Meschiya Lake rocks back on her heels, lifts her chest, and opens her throat like an air raid siren to croon in a thrilling pre-microphone style that...can make you feel by turns as though you were shivering around a campfire in a railroad (yard) or drinking in a budapest nightclub in 1938."
Upon the tours return in the Fall of 2007, her acquisition for musical knowledge insatiable, Meschiya took up the guitar and banjo and, with singer Erika Lewis, formed The Magnolia Beacon, creating original, dark, melodic, minor keyed compositions focusing on vocal harmony. Taking their hit duo on the road, the two songstresses grew and solidified fan bases in New York and Berlin, on the streets and clubs of France and Latvia, and every spot along the way and in between, the success of their songs even finding their way into the German movie by writer Kerstin Hoekel "Peirogi".
Once back home in New Orleans, she delighted in participating in and watching the jazz revival unfold around her, with jazz and jazz dance fever bringing more and more musicians and dancers to town. Meschiya formed The Little Big Horns Jazz Band in the Spring of 2009 and, saving pennies from the street, she produced the first Little Big Horns album Lucky Devil to National Acclaim. On the 5th anniversary of Katrina, DJ David Kunian of WWOZ cited Lucky Devil as one of his four favorite releases of 2010 on NPRs All Things Considered.
Leo Forde is a guitarist from Glasgow, Scotland. He has been living in New Orleans since 2014 and can be found in the heart of the French Quarter every day playing with the best musicians in the city. He plays regularly with Meschiya Lake, Shotgun Jazz Band, Jazz Vipers, Aurora Nealand and many others.
Eldar Tsalikov
Born in 1993, in Rostov on Don, Russia. After finishing studying at the «Kim
Nazaretov Children’s Jazz School», Eldar moved in Berlin in 2011, starting his
studies at the «Jazz-Institut-Berlin» under the guidance of such artists as Peter Weniger, Greg Cohen and John Hollenbeck.
Eldar visited Europe for the very first time in 2005 taking a part at the «Glasgow International Jazz Festival», and since then has been traveling and performing in
such countries as Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Italy, Denmark, Greece etc.
Along with his own gypsy-swing group «Eldar Tsalikov FO’tet», Eldar has been
taking a part in numerous projects, collaborating with such great artists as Greg
Cohen, Joey Baron, Evan Christopher, Wycliffe Gordon, Irvin Mayfield, Anna
Webber, Dave Liebman, Jerry Bergonzi, Tommy Smith, Dennis Rowland.
Declan Forde is pianist based in Berlin and originally from Glasgow, Scotland. Since 2014 he has established himself as one of the city's most versatile and sought-after pianists. He has performed with John Hollenbeck, Tobias Delius, Max Andrzejewski, Rudi Mahall, Jan Roder, Michael Griener, Vide&Inga, plays in the duo ‘Unknown Ellington’ with legendary American bassist Greg Cohen and in various projects with bassist James Banner. He has also recorded and toured with singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni and was a finalist in the 2015 Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year competition.
James Banner was born in Dudley, England in 1991. He has studied in Birmingham, Paris and Berlin, and is now based between Berlin and the UK, working around Europe as a musician, educator and composer. In the UK he is composer in residence for Make The Paint Dance, workshop leader for Jazzlines (Town Hall Symphony Hall Birmingham), as well as double bass tutor at Leeds College of Music junior school. His debut album as bandleader will be released on 18.10.2018 by the Cologne-based label JazzHausMusik, followed by a tour of Germany in March-April 2019. As a composer he received a studio award from the Berlin Senate Department of Culture and Europe and the Elsa Neumann Stipendium 2018 from the Berlin University of the Arts/Hanns Eisler, which supports the ambitious choral/improvising ensemble project Voices of Berlin.
He is active as a co-leader and sideman in projects including the Birgitta Flick Quartet, The Good Old Good Ones, Mark Pringle, Double Double Bass (with Greg Cohen) and the trio Elias Stemeseder/James Banner/Ugo Alunni, as well as numerous other international collaborative projects. He also co-curates a monthly residency alongside pianist Declan Forde named Practically Married at Berlin’s Donau115, voted one of Europe’s best jazz clubs by The Guardian.
Konzert Beginn um 20:30 Uhr (Einlass 19:30 Uhr)
Eintritt frei – Beitrag erwünscht
EINTRITT
Einer der Gründe, die den Zig Zag Jazzclub so einzigartig machen, ist, dass er der erste und einzige Jazzclub der Welt ist, dem es gelingt nur durch freiwilligem Eintritt/Crowdfunding Events von Weltklasse zu finanzieren. Und wie machen wir das? Ganz einfach. Während der Konzertpause geben wir bekannt, dass wir Geld einsammeln werden. Bei den meisten Konzerten (außer Jam Sessions) informieren wir unsere Kunden, dass ein Beitrag von ungefähr 15 Euro es uns erlaubt die Musiker gerecht zu bezahlen. Manche geben dabei mehr und andere weniger... und das ist auch in Ordnung. Wir haben auf diese Weise schon Hunderte Konzerte organisiert.
ENTRANCE FEES
One of the reasons that makes the zig zag jazz club so unique is that it is the first and only jazz club in the world that manages to finance world class events through a crowd funding concept. How do we do it? Its quite simple… during the break of the concert we make an announcement regarding the collection for the evening. For most concerts (excluding the jam session) we inform our customers that a fee of around 15€ per person will allow us to fairly compensate the musicians. Some people give more and some give less… and that´s ok… we ´ve already successfully promoted hundreds of concerts like this!!!