Joe Lovano’s Paramount Quartet featuring Julian Lage, Asante Santi Debriano, Will Calhoun

Christian Sands Quartet

At the age of just 34, the American pianist Christian Sands can already look back on a quite picture-perfect career: he took up the piano at aged four, wrote his first compositions at five, and his first album followed at twelve. He went on to study with jazz ambassador Billy Taylor, played with bassist Christian McBride and has since recorded eight albums. Now Sands is bringing his quartet to the Elbphilharmonie. The New Yorker relies in his playing on a powerful swinging tempo combined with sophisticated technical finesse. His reputation as a superb live entertainer precedes him. Besides his own compositions, Sands also takes a look far back into jazz history – with Jonathon Muir-Cotton on bass, Max Light on guitar and his brother Ryan Sands on drums. He incorporates and transforms old and not-so-old heroes of piano playing like Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Brad Mehldau with incredible ease. The »Süddeutsche Zeitung« newspaper once coined this »entrümpelte Klassiker« (»decluttered classics«).

Edmar Castaneda Quartet

Edmar Castaneda has collaborated with a seemingly endless list of legends, sharing the virtuosic sound of his harp with giants such as Sting, John Scofield and Paco De Lucía, and playing with exceptional musicians such as the Japanese pianist Hiromi and the American banjo master Béla Fleck. The Columbian musician now comes to the Elbphilharmonie with his quartet led by singer Andrea Tierra. For Edmar Castaneda, who was born in Bogotá in 1978, his musical talent is a gift from god, which he wants to share with the world. But it is also a talent that was passed down to him from his father, a famous harpist and singer in Columbia. At the age of 13, Edmar Castaneda began playing the harp and the Latin American guitar cuatro, the standard instruments for joropo, a type of music and dance that originally comes from Venezuela. Since the mid-1990s, the Columbian musician has been living in New York, where he has made a name for himself with his symphonic harp sound and a blend of South American folk, flamenco and jazz.

Thomas Quasthoff Quartet

When Thomas Quasthoff brings his new programme »For You« to life, he is above all one thing – absolutely authentic. Quasthoff has a sure sense for the most suitable style of what he sings. This applies to opera arias, art and folk songs as well as jazz, pop and soul. He has long since proven that, as a classical singer with an enormously versatile bass-baritone, he can also master genres rooted in the African-American musical tradition. And so what one so appreciates about Quasthoff as a recital singer also becomes a golden rule for everything else. How the bass-baritone lives up to his claim of really touching people with his voice is made clear by the enthusiastic audience reactions and the praises of the press. He is joined by three excellent jazz musicians: Dieter Ilg is characterised by his electrifying vitality, intelligent curiosity, technical brilliance and total devotion to the moment. Wolfgang Haffner is Germany’s best-known drummer – with an unparalleled career that extends far beyond jazz. Simon Oslender is the youngest member of the band – once entering the scene as a »prodigy on the Hammond organ«, the now 24-year-old is considered one of the »rising stars« of the German music scene on piano, organ and keyboards.

Anouar Brahem Quartet

As a musician deeply rooted in the Arab tradition and at the same time open to various neighbouring worlds, Anouar Brahem has never ceased to forge new connections in his elegantly fused music, which combines the richness of his ancestral culture, the formal sophistication of Western chamber music and the expressive freedom of modern jazz.

Branford Marsalis Quartet

It goes without saying that The Concertgebouw and jazz & pop music make a perfect combination. The stages of both the Main Hall and the Recital Hall have borne witness to nearly the whole of jazz history. Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald have both performed here, as have Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong. Famous pop stars and bands that have graced the stage of the Main Hall include Frank Zappa, the Doors and the Eagles, to name but a few. Legendary concerts, in the present as well as the past.

Julian Rachlin : Chamber orchestra

Silk and Bamboo Quartet

Silk and bamboo – these are the fabrics used to produce the finely woven traditional music of south-east China. Pipa virtuoso Lingling Yu takes this fine art from her adopted home of Geneva out into the world with a young quartet of other traditional instruments. Lingling Yu comes from the nine-million-strong metropolis of Hangzhou, south of Shanghai, a centre of the silk and tea industry and also China’s own Silicon Valley. Even as a teenager, she was considered a child prodigy on the pear-shaped pipa, a necked bowl lute originally fitted with silk strings. In 1998, Yu moved to Switzerland in order to establish ties between Chinese and Western music, broadening her horizons by studying orchestration, counterpoint and composition. In addition to the pipa, her Silk and Bamboo Quartet brings together other traditional instruments: Wenqi Gu plays the guzheng, a 21-string, 2,500-year-old arched zither. The internationally experienced Guo Gan brings the erhu and gaohu violins to the quartet; he is also well versed in Western classical music and jazz. The quartet is completed by the young Hongze An, who has a command of the bamboo transverse flutes dizi and xiao, the mouth organ sheng and the bawu with its clarinet-like sound. Alternating between solo and ensemble performances, the group’s repertoire includes pieces from the south-east of China and the provinces of Canton and Yunnan as well as from the cities of Chaozhou and Hangzhou.

Branford Marsalis Quartet & Friends

Saxophonist and composer Branford Marsalis has been a fixture in jazz for decades. He is also a sought-after classical soloist with acclaimed orchestras around the world and his legendary guest performances with the Grateful Dead and collaborations with Sting have made him a fan favorite in the pop arena. The Branford Marsalis Quartet, formed in 1986, has established a rare breadth of stylistic range and is revered for its uncompromising interpretation of both original compositions and jazz and popular classics. The Quartet is now joined by 7 excellent Hungarian musicians to perform songs based on Hungarian Folk Music. Marsalis knew he was not interested in simply adding »jazz« chords to folk songs noting that »the chords, the harmonies are perfect as they are. They have just the right emotional impact.« The project was commissioned by Müpa and first premiered in Budapest, where it was immediately praised as a success.

Allison Miller & Myra Melford’s Lux Quartet

Anyone with vision should – make music! At least, as far as the Lux Quartet is concerned. With drummer Allison Miller and pianist Myra Melford, it combines two of the most visionary free-jazz musicians of our age. You could already experience both in the jazz series at the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle as a duo; now, they come to the Recital Hall at the Elbphilharmonie as the main act with saxophonist Dayna Stephens and bassist Nick Dunston. With Alison Miller, one of the most creative drummers and bandleaders is at its heart. She was picked up by »Downbeat Magazine« in their line-up of the »Top 20 Jazz Drummers« and the American radio station NPR Music rates her composition »Otis Was a Polar Bear« as one of the »200 Greatest Songs by 21st Century Women«. The title of their current CD project »Tomorrowland« hints that the Lux Quartet is pursuing its experimental approach on its new record as well and once again expands on its own expectations of the future. As an established team, the combo can steadfastly rely on each other and so is in position to have no difficulty with free improvisations at any conceivable musical place.

Nefertiti Quartet & NDR Bigband / Luigi Grasso

Nefertiti is well-known as an Ancient Egyptian queen, but jazz lovers know that it is also the title of an album recorded by the second Miles Davis quintet. The title song itself was written by Wayne Shorter. »Shorter is our god,« says pianist Delphine Deau. The unique melodic and harmonic ideas of the American saxophonist, who died in March 2023, remain an influence on the compositions that Deau writes for the band founded in 2013. The quartet was formed at the Conservatoire de Paris with what is at first glance a traditional line-up: saxophone, piano, bass and drums; but the music they produce is always unpredictable. They can be heard in this NDR jazz concert with their new album »Frameless«. The NDR Bigband under Geir Lysne appears after the interval. Luigi Grasso gave his 1999 debut album the title »A Love Supreme«, an obvious tribute to the late, great John Coltrane. Nothing out of the ordinary, really, for a saxophonist who wasn’t even 13 at the time. The original idea was that playing the saxophone would cure the young Luigi’s asthma, but in the end it became his lifeblood. He first attended courses given by the Berklee College of Music in the Italian city of Perugia when he was only 11; then a year later he was offered the chance to study in Boston, won an international competition and became a professional musician.