Am 16. März 2021, zu Zeiten des Lockdowns, durften offiziell keine Konzerte in der Stadt stattfinden, Galerien durften aber geöffnet haben. Wir luden zur Vernissage und beauftragten JOE HERTENSTEIN feat. MICHAEL MOORE & GREG COHEN mit der musikalischen Untermalung. Der spektakuläre Begleitband-Auftritt hat "große Spuren" hinterlassen. Es entstand ein Live-Album, welches vom Magazin "The New York City Jazz Record" unter die besten Jazz-Alben des Jahres 2021 gewählt wurde.
Die Produktion wurde vom Land Berlin gefördert. Initiiert wurde der besondere Abend von der Jazzwerkstatt und dem Kesselhaus in der Kulturbrauerei.
>"I think it sounds better than 90% of new jazz CDs." Greg Cohen
And yes, it happened like this, and tell me, if you have a better story:
From November2020 to April2021 there was a nationwide lockdown in Germany, and there where by law no public performances/gatherings allowed whatsoever. I mean, they're still trying to impeach Boris Johnson for partying then...in England.
But when the numbers came down a bit during early March, the German government allowed museums and galleries to open at 50% capacity for a couple weeks, and I found the one promoter in Germany, that quickly and briefly turned the venue into a gallery by hiring a local sculptor and billing my trio concert as a sound installation. He sold out the venue at 50% capacity, all masked and tested, and we probably, rather likely, played the only concert that day in Berlin, maybe in Germany? Maybe the only concert for a live audience that month/those months in all of Germany? Who knows? But we did it. It was the first meeting of this trio, and it got wonderfully recorded by Friedrich Stoermer and mastered at NY's SEAR Sound Studio by multi grammy winning Jeremy Loucas and was just awarded "BEST LIVE ALBUM 2022" by The NYC Jazz Record: LIVE DURING LOCKDOWN.
Then Ulli Blobel wanted to present his label jazzwerkstatt in New York and I could recommend Ulli to Roulette in Brooklyn, where he presented five ensembles in two nights in April of 2022 with support of the Goethe Institut. One of those sets became the record release concert of my trio with Michael Moore & Greg Cohen - our second meeting: LIVE AFTER LOCKDOWN.