Internationales Jazzfestival Sankt Ingbert
The International Jazz Festival Sankt Ingbert was founded in 1987 in St. Ingbert by the musician George " hacker" Jacob ( † 2006). It takes place every year in March in St. Ingbert, Saarland instead.
The modest beginning regional festival has been growing through the dedication and skillful public relations Jacobs and now enjoys vast national and international reputation. Concerts of the festival are among others live broadcast by the European Broadcasting Union EBU in Europe. Involved is the event in close cooperation with the Saarland Radio as a media partner.
The festival was in the past, various subtitles, such as Encounters - Encounters. The motto in March 2011 was: Experience.
History of the Festival
Formation
Jörg Jacob and his friends, a circle of music lovers and jazz enthusiasts in 1986 continued intensively with the question of how one might organize a festival that dealt with a genre of music that was considered to be rather unpopular in the 80s. Venues for the participating groups were initially the Santa Ingberter youth center, the theater workshop by Wolfgang Kraus and the "Café K " of the " leaven". The artists of the first festival in 1987 came from the region. With over 600 visitors, the festival hit a on the part of organizers unexpectedly high response from the public.
Festival concept since 1988
In the following years the festival concept is still valid today, to bring regional artists with internationally known jazz musicians on a stage and thereby promote musical diversity and a lively exchange arose.
Guests at the 2nd Jazz Festival among others, were Remy Fillipowitsch, Wolfgang Engstfeld and Heinz Sauer Quartet. The town of Sankt Ingbert with the then Culture Office Elmar Peiffer announced a financial support of the event. Due to the great response, the third festival was held in the city of Halle Sankt Ingbert. Artistically the festival became in time a higher level, it made guest appearances such jazz greats as Albert Mangelsdorff (1989 ), Archie Shepp, Charlie Mariano and Jasper van't Hof (1990).
Cooperation with the City of St. Ingbert
The increasing dimension of the event led to consider how far the private festival organized by rising volume of organizational and financial tasks by cooperation with the city of Sankt Ingbert could be realized. The aim was to integrate the city mainly because of rising funding costs in the festival. Organization and financing took over in 1991, the Santa Ingberter Cultural Office headed by Elmar Peiffer. Artistic Directors were Clemens Bott and Franz -Joseph Rooms, who had already worked in previous years in the festival organization. Since 1995, Hartmut Oswald went to Botts place.
The Festival and SR2 Kulturradio
The International Jazz Festival attracted media interest, including the Saarland Broadcasting and its culture radio SR2. Concerts were first aufgeuzeichnet, later followed by live broadcasts. Since 2006 concerts directly from the EBU, the association of public broadcasters in Europe, transferred.
Experiments with the jazz avant-garde
The years after 1991 were marked by the fact, to raise the profile of the International Jazz Festival Sankt Ingbert, but also to change. The direction came on the one hand towards the avant-garde and popular musicians were invited, especially from the United States. The reactions of the audience were mixed. While originating from Europe avant-gardists such as the Moscow Art Trio, Peter Brötzmann or Wollie Emperor learned rather behaving audience response, concerts by stars such as Lester Bowie, John Lurie, Courtney Pine and Ginger Baker were sold out.
Development since 1999
Because the number of visitors of the two festival days fell year after year, has been taken, a new way to the 12th International Jazz Festival 1998. Peter Kleiß, jazz editor at Saarland Radio, became the new artistic director of the festival was connected as a moderator for many years. His concept was to introduce innovative jazz, which takes up the current trends of this music and it certainly could go beyond the narrow confines of the familiar Blue Notes.
In order to meet the wishes and needs of the audience, the festival was extended to several days, churches, museums and gastronomy were included as venues. The goal was the "hot" side of the blue notes to show and to bring closer the "pure head music " decried jazz also skeptics. With jazz workshops for clubs, this approach was expanded.
"Coal jazz " as a tribute to the industrial heritage
Under this approach, the idea of using "Coal Jazz" bring the music of the miners of the coal region Saar -Lor -Lux and the jazz was born. The project was developed year after year and in 2007 reached its conclusion and climax, as Luxembourg and the Greater Region European Capital of Culture were. Traditional formations from Luxembourg and St. Ingberter Bergkapelle met jazz musicians from France, Germany and the Grand Duchy. Guest of the project was the Swedish star trombonist Nils Landgren, who stood together with Esbjörn Svensson, Ulf Wakenius, Viktoria Tolstoy and in Sankt Ingbert on stage.
Old cultural melting
2008, the venue of the festival of the city hall was moved to cultural Old enamel. For concerts a former industrial building now was available that offered both by the interesting architecture, as well as by the dimension of the hall new possibilities. It could be committed Stars, for their performances the city hall would have been too small. In this context, the concerts with Paul Kuhn or Till Bronner should be mentioned that the festival brought many new visitors.
"Week of Jazz"
To use a new venue with the possibility of both the great hall of the so-called industrial cathedral, as well as the smaller rooms of the house event, not only changed the nature of the program, but also its scope. Thus, from the original two -day festival for a whole week of jazz, which comprises five to six days of the event.
The Jazz Prize
2008 was presented at the festival for the first time, endowed with 3,000 Euro Jazz Prize of the city of Saint Ingbert.