Eldar Tsalikov - Clarinet (RUS)
Francisco Batista - Guitar (ARG)
Laurent Humeau - Guitar (FRA)
James Banner - Double 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.

An evening of jazz manouche, a style developed by the luminary gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1930s Paris. The classic swinging ensemble of two guitars and bass will be elevated by the addition of the ever popular Berlin-based clarinettist Eldar Tsalikov, playing select standards and pieces composed and popularised by Django, Stéphane Grappelli and others.

Eldar Tsalikov
Born in 1993 in Rostov-on-Don into a musicians family. At the age of eight Eldar began learning saxophone at the «Kim Nazaretov Children’s Jazz School». After graduating in 2011 he moved to Berlin, where he continued his studies at the «Jazz-Institut Berlin», where he eventually picked up clarinet as his second instrument. In 2018 Eldar successfully graduated from the institute receiving the Bachelor’s degree as an instrumentalist, as well as the Master's degree as an arranger and composer. Being himself a skilful and a versatile musician, Eldar has been expanding his knowledge of jazz music (and not only), collaborating with numerous European and Western performers of various kinds of this genre: from the deep traditional styles, such as «hot jazz» (or «trad jazz») and swing (Jon-Erik Kellso, Evan Christopher, «The EarRegulars», Meschiya Lake, «The Musicomaniacs», «The Echoes of Django», «The Jungle», «Moscow Ragtime Band») to the modern kinds of jazz and experimental music (Greg Cohen, Joey Baron, Laurie Anderson, Elias Stemeseder, Manlio Maresca, «The HAF», Anna Webber's «Percussive Mechanics»). With those and many other artists, Eldar got to travel around different countries, performing in worldwide recognised venues and concert halls such as «Birdland» (New York / USA), «Elbphilharmonie» (Hamburg, Germany), «Konzerthaus Berlin» (Berlin, Germany), «TivoliVredenburg» (Utrecht, Netherlands), as well as taking part in festivals such as «Copenhagen Jazz Fest» (Denmark), «Ascona Jazz Fest» (Switzerland), «French Quarter Fest» (New Orleans / USA), «Glasgow Jazz Festival» (Scotland).

Francisco Batista
Born in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Francisco Batista started playing the guitar professionally at the age of 19, when he decided to study music. Going from Jazz to Tango music, he participated in different projects such as big bands and orchestras in the United States and Argentina, as well as smaller groups. In 2013 he immersed himself into the world of Gypsy Jazz, and Tango music, in the search of his own voice. Francisco has played and toured around the US and Europe with worldwide famous artists in the Gypsy Jazz world, such as Stephane Wrembler, Sebastien Giniaux, Gonzalo Bergara, among others. In 2018 he recorded his first EP, which is purely Gypsy Jazz, with some intricate and fresh arrangements which depict a personal way of doing music, making old standards sound new. Having released his debut album as a composer, Francisco in collaboration with the great Argentinian guitarist Martín Tessa, arranged five original songs for a String Quintet format. The album titled 'De algún Lugar' mixes elements of Gypsy Jazz, Tango and Classical music, creating a personal way of expressing music.

Laurent Humeau
A self-taught multi-instrumentalist, Laurent has participated in a wide variety of musical projects across Europe. Active in the swing scene since 2009, he plays manouche guitar, traditional jazz clarinet, and trumpet in projects such as Django Lassi, Gypsy Gentlemen, Musicomaniacs, Dizzybirds, and The Jungle. 

James Banner
James Banner was born in Dudley, England and is now based in Berlin and the UK, working around Europe as a musician, composer and educator. His main project James Banner’s USINE has been described as “revelling in both avant-garde and swing”, “unobvious and unpredictable” as well as “intense and dramatic… gentle and beautiful… full of drama”, and has received support from both the Berlin State and Initiative Musik. As a composer he received the prestigious Elsa Neumann Stipendium in 2018 from the Berlin University of the Arts/HfM Hanns Eisler, supporting the ambitious project Voices of Berlin, interviewing residents of Berlin and reflecting their stories through music for improvising choir and ensemble. James has been featured in portraits by Der Tagesspiegel and Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and was recently selected to be a part of Making Music’s Adopt A Composer scheme, composing the collaborative piece Concertino For Concert Band with premiere performances in late 2019 and a BBC Radio 3 broadcast in 2020. James is a Lecturer at Leeds College of Music, composer in residence for Make The Paint Dance, and workshop leader for Jazzlines at Symphony Hall Birmingham, and active as a co-leader and sideman in projects in the jazz and improvised music scenes of Berlin, also regularly being selected to take part in collaborative projects further afield such as Fish and Chips at Leipziger Jazztage 2018 and Jazz Alloy at the Vortex, London. He also co-curates the monthly residency Practically Married at Berlin’s Donau115, voted one of Europe’s best jazz clubs by The Guardian.

Beginn um 21:00 Uhr (Einlass 20:00 Uhr)
Eintritt frei – Beitrag erwünscht

Sitzplatzreservierung (bitte gewünschtes Datum im Kalender auswählen)

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.