Music for almost all tastes at NUEJAZZ in the historic city of Nuremberg

Gerald Clayton had the grand piano moved to the far right of the stage in order to be able to see his bassist Joe Sanders, and has to turn his head quite a bit to the back left. Drummer Jeff Ballard, who is insanely creative in setting accents, even sits completely behind the back of the pianist. But with this stage setting, Sanders has the best view of the pianist's left hand. And so it is possible to play together in a dreamlike way. And that is exactly what the three Americans do in their one-hour set, with their timelessly beautiful music. Clayton's sensitive touch is not often heard in jazz. With sensuality of sound and wonderfully spontaneous interactions and deeply felt emotions that are beautifully packed into notes. And all this with not a note too many. It's all about the essence of the music. Less is more with this trio. A magical performance.

Directly before the Gerald Clayton Trio, compatriot Lakecia Benjamin was on stage. And the extroverted alto saxophonist, dressed in a glittery silver outfit, is the exact opposite of the pianist. She immediately storms to the edge of the stage and shouts at the audience what they can expect: a party. The roof is supposed to fly off the building. And then it starts with her quartet: high energy jazz in spirit and even from the pen of John Coltrane, whose name she later shouts through the hall several times. It's well played, her band is great, and you have to like her stage attitude. Musically, however, with her expressive, spiritual musical rapture and her political stance, she presents herself as a strong artist who has something to say. 

NUEJAZZ celebrated its round 10th anniversary this year. The two organisers, Frank Wuppinger and Marco Kühnl, both professional jazz musicians themselves, have put together a very nice and diverse festival that attracts a surprisingly large number of young people for jazz. This is certainly also due to the cool concert venues like the historic Z-Bau, (once built by the Nazis as barracks), but is of course primarily about the programme,  because it offers music for many tastes.

Cool artists like the American bassist and singer MonoNeon, for example, who is already visually a work of art with his clothes and headgear, combines the crisp funk of Prince (he was in fact The Purple One's last bass player), with a rock attitude and his unusual bass playing and weird bass runs. It's enthusiasticaly received by by the crowd. The Berlin sextet Make A Move even gets 1,000 people in the large hall of the Z-Bau jumping with party music driven by no less than three horns. Directly before that, the six-person collective Ferge X Fisherman & Nujakasha from Nuremberg showed in the packed, small gallery of the large Kulturhaus how cool and good hip hop can be combined with casual beats and jazz.    

A vinyl lounge at the second main venue, the Kulturwerkstatt Auf AEG, gives various DJs the opportunity to play and the audience a place to chill. And young bands from the surrounding area and the region attract the curious in the small hall of the Kulturwerkstatt with free admission. With such a colourful offer, it was easy to get over the fact that the performance of US-American Cory Henry and his not really convincing Funk Apostles in the Z-Bau started out strong but was not too exciting in the end.