Enjoy Jazz

The Enjoy Jazz Festival is an over the six-week period in October and November organizing a yearly international jazz festival, which takes place in the cities of the Rhine -Neckar region of Heidelberg, Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.

History

The festival was created in 1999 from an idea by festival director Rainer Kern and was initially a series of events Karlstorbahnhofs Heidelberg and increased in the following years, both in terms of the number of events, the time length as well as in terms of the number of venues. In the second year, the festival expanded to Mannheim, since 2002 venues in Ludwigshafen also an integral part. During 1999, the game plan included all 15 concerts, while in 2007 more than 60 events, including more than 20,000 visitors flocked.

Idea

The festival from the outset was conceived as a project, the musicians also presented on the elusive boundaries of the genre Jazz of time, so it bears the words " Festival for Jazz and More ". Over the past ten issues played among other greats like Archie Shepp, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, Erik Truffaz, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, McCoy Tyner, Brad Mehldau, Heinz Sauer & Michael Wollny, Dianne Reeves, Wayne Shorter, Nils Petter Molvaer, Esbjörn Svensson Trio, Roy Hargrove, Jan Garbarek, Jack DeJohnette, Richard Galliano, Charles Mingus, John Scofield, Nils Landgren or Till Bronner. Also in the area of the "other " was always posted on the cusp of jazz to hip-hop or electronica Ludovic Navarre aka St. Germain, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Tosca, Turntablerocker & Tiefschwarz, Thievery Corporation, Nightmares on Wax, Phillippe Cohan Solal, DJ 's DJ Bigband Grazzhoppa, children Productions, Lychee Lassi, Guru or DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Established in 2005, recorded during the festival and later published under the name "Sound Grammar" album by Ornette Coleman gained a Grammy nomination as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Music. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 2007 was even carried away by noting that " not New York, Montreux or The Hague [ ... ] the most comprehensive jazz festival in the world [ offer ], but Heidelberg, Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. "

Financing

The festival is funded only to a small extent from public funds. The budget, which was about 700,000 euros in 2007, is composed mainly of sponsorship. In the early years, the software developer SAP acted as lead funder. When they moved their commitment to the Corporate Social Responsibility section on 2005 Sporty, took over SAS Germany - also a software company with headquarters in Heidelberg Germany - the main funding. In addition, Enjoy Jazz is for several years supported by the resident in Ludwigshafen chemical giant BASF, also held concerts of the festival in its proprietary event venues.

Enjoy Jazz is a member of the European Jazz Network and the Partners Festival Nancy Jazz Pulsations.

Venues

Main venues of the Enjoy Jazz Festival in Heidelberg the Karlstorbahnhof, in Mannheim, the old fire station as well as in Ludwigshafen Feierabendhaus BASF.