XJAZZ Festival gets Berlin boogieing with a wide-ranging line-up

Berlin is a city with a fiercely independent spirit. From cavernous warehouse techno to its burgeoning, soul-influenced improvised music scene, the German capital’s cultural output thrives in underground, DIY spaces, honing attitudes that prioritise community over the power of the establishment.

Nowhere is this collective spirit more apparent than at Berlin’s XJAZZ festival. Operating without corporate sponsorship and on an independent, shoestring budget, the week-long event celebrated its 10th edition in May with a polished, globe-trotting roster of performances taking place across a cluster of intimate venues in Kreuzberg.

The programming was as varied as it was thematically considered. A strong focus was placed on the improvised music of the African diaspora, with Ghanaian Frafra gospel singer Florence Adooni performing a riotous Friday afternoon set in the sun-dappled setting of the outdoor stage. Backed by blaring horn fanfares, her show peaked with the call-and-response rendition of her latest single ‘Otoma da Naba’. West African bassist Manou Gallo meanwhile delivered a healthy dose of funk on Saturday evening, filling the main Festaal club stage with the infectious thump of her slapped and syncopated lines. Closer to home, British nine-piece afrojazz outfit Nubiyan Twist followed Gallo and battled sound issues to deliver a fast-paced journey through the diaspora, traversing the afrobeat of breakthrough record ‘If I Know’, as well as mbira melodies and West African polyrhythms.

Bassist Manou Gallo Photo by Eike Walkenhorst

While the multicultural blend of these international acts proved instant crowd pleasers, it was the combination of electronics and improvisation in the lineup that felt like the most apt take on jazz performance in Berlin. Channelling the city's rich electronic music history by combining the grid-based structures of programmed melodies and beats with the free-flowing unpredictability of improvisation, several acts produced invigorating sets. The turntable scratching and live sampling of local group Lord of the Amazing Panther expertly remixed instantly-recognisable hooks from tracks like Ginuwine’s ‘Pony’ and Blackstreet’s ‘No Diggity’ into intricate and transformed instrumentals, while singer and producer Jitwam’s set soared through radiating synths, thumping grooves and earthy basslines to play like a raw, intuitive interpretation of classic Chicago house.

Two acts in particular reached new heights. British group Portico Quartet artfully interweaved triggered electronic percussion, processed hang drum melodies and fuzzing synth pads with keening live soprano saxophone, double bass and drums. Jamming on program-heavy tracks from records like 2017’s Art In The Age of Automaton and 2021’s Monument, the group grew dark and heavy, touching on gritty techno atmospherics during an extended version of ‘Impressions’. Norwegian saxophonist Benedik Giske, meanwhile, delivered one of the most unique and emotive shows of the festival. Taking to the stage of the laser and smoke-filled Emmauskirche, he produced an astounding array of otherworldly sounds purely from his tenor saxophone. Placing mics on the instrument in three separate positions to pick up the thump of his fingers on the keys as percussion, as well as the high register, synth-like squeals of his thrumming reed, and a clarion mid-tone of pure melody, Giske employed circular breathing to create unfurling streams of competing rhythm, harmonics and undertones.

Somehow managing to embody funereal drones, pounding percussion, whispers of quiet intimacy and screeching freedom all in his breath, Giske kept his audience rapt in the church space, transcending as the reverb bounced along the walls and through our bodies. It was ultimately the perfect encapsulation of the XJAZZ ethos: unique, unfiltered and unexpected, a motto that seems to stand for Berlin’s culture as much as for this independent gem of a festival.