My report about Gender and Identity in Jazz at the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt is now online at downbeat.com

It’s posted, as of last week, with this photo …

Wolfram Knauer and Sherrie Tucker (U of Kansas)

Wolfram Knauer directs the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt, and Sherrie Tucker is American Studies Professor, University of Kansas. Happily, they opened the conference. I love these additional photos, also by Wilfried Heckmann.

Martin Niederauer photo by Wilfried Heckmann

Viewing this image, Martin Niederauer (Male Hegemony in Jazz) explained his gesture: “…[C]ompeting against each other and trying to establish hierarchies does not push the competitors away from each other. Rather, they are getting closer and are tied to each other.” Martin is a scholar at University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Institute for Music Sociology.

Based at the University of Pittsburgh, Yoko Suzuki has  interviewed  dozens of women  – especially saxophonists – about their New York jam session experiences. Yoko delivered some conclusions from her research, then she jammed in the ancient, lovely stone cellar below the Jazzinstitut, the largest public jazz collection in Europe.

Yoko Suzuki at the jam session

You can see Wilfried Heckmann’s jazz photography at Jazz-vision.de. And read the full downbeat.com story here.

Here’s my parting shot of an office in the library. I like the vibe.

And this is my shot of an office at the Jazzinstitut ..

And note this: TODAY Oct 26 is the release date of the complete Life and Art of Jutta Hipp from Be! Jazz Records (Germany). Thanks to  presenter and saxophonist Ilona Haberkamp, who teaches at Ernst-Barlach-Gymnasium, Castrop-Rauxel, for her dedicated work about pianist JH, who would be 90 this year.

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Dachau visit

The gate says Work makes you free
The gate says Work makes you free

There is a detailed museum. One can see photos and read names and  synopses of individual prisoners — Jewish, Polish, some Spanish civil war fighters who then fought in Germany, Czechs, Hungarians, the nameless Russian prisoners of war. priests, Jehovah’s witnesses. Men were imprisoned there, not women. Eventually thousands upon thousands of prisoners of both sexes, all nationalities including Dutch, were sent into factories to work as slaves — BMW and Agfa included, also Zeppelin.  FInally the liberation  came on April 29-May 1, 1945. Upon entry Americans documented the scene by taking color motion pictures, and later forced the townspeople to walk through the camp. Most of the barracks are gone, just rectangles in the ground now. Ten meters x 100 meters. In orderly rows. Built originally to hold 6,000 but at the end held so many more that I can’t remember the scale. Diabolical, recent and bitter

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A welcome in Bodinsee, a yoga class in Bobingen

Olivier and Nicole of Zur Winzer Stube Hotel in Hagnau
Olivier and Nico of Zur Winzer Stube Hotel in Hagnau

As we approached our destination on Lake Bodinsee between Germany and Switzerland, it was raining and dark, very dark. We called ahead to the Hotel Zur Winzerstube to say we are late and we are lost. Olivier answered and, though I could not understand his directions, his encouragement came through in the words “We are here for you.” When we got there, he welcomed us with two glasses of champagne. In the morning Nico was equally helpful and encouraging. Memorable people! And there are more to come.

Heike Farkas and Patti Anderson at Integral Yoga in Bobingen
Heike Farkas and Patti Anders at Integral Yoga in Bobingen

At 5:30 in the evening, we were waiting in the parking lot at Integral Yoga Zentrum Augsburg-Bobingen for Heike Farkas and her yoga class . In August I had written to Heike to inquire about talong a class at the center, but then confirmed nothing. We just showed up. She was surprised! In our honor she taught a bilingual class and a beautiful one. I hope I can remember some of her variations. We were hungry! So her student Catherine led us to Mai Mai, a Vietnamese restaurant on the edge of town with a spicy and crispy menu. Then we drove back to our room above and behind a Biergarten in a much smaller town 50 km west of Munich. What an unusual day!


 

Black Forest, Alsace

Fall colors noted Oct 6
Fall colors noted in Colmar, Oct 6

Today, Tuesday, we left Durbach in (or near) the Black Forest and drove first to Colmar. Patti’s friend said we must see the Isenheim altar piece, 16th century paintings in the Unter Linden Museum in in Colmar. These paintings are temporarily living in the Dominican Church there. They are amazing! And so are the Madonna in the Rosebush and other paintings by Martin Schongauer from the 1400s.

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Then  Patti navigated – in a juggle that required both our phones – and I drove over an Alp in a rainstorm and down to Lake Bodensee in the dark. There were some reversals toward the end but here we are in the nicest room! Chilling.

And now, vacation!

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Fellow traveler Patti Anders from W 110th St and I rented car in Darmstadt and drove south to Heidelberg to walk along river and look up at castle .. on to Hotel Linde in Durbach near Kehl .. today climbed a steep hill terraced w grape vines to the local winery .. drove across the border into France and visited the Petit France neighborhood of Strasbourg .. and tomorrow we drive south to Colmar then southeast to Lake Bodensee. Improvising! And enjoying. Beyond Tuesday, our goals are Munich and Prague.

Talks and music at Jazzinstitut Darmstadt

 

Yoko Suzuki from University of Pittsburgh jamming at Darmstadt
On the right, Yoko Suzuki from University of Pittsburgh jamming at Darmstadt .. Nicole Johanntgen on the left

Freitag, 2. Oktober

Michael Kahr of Graz, Austria, spoke about Chromatcism and Identity in Clare Fischer’s Music

Yoko Suzuki from Pittsburgh on Gendering Musical Sound in Jazz Saxophone Performance

Ilona Haberkamp of Frondenberg on (Jutta) Hipp Style or Adaptation?

Martin Niederauer of Wien, Austria, on Male Hegemony in Jazz

Joy Ellis and Adam Osmianski from London on Women in the Jazz Jam

Christopher Dennison from NY on One-Armed Ball Players: The Language of Homosexuality in Jazz

Jenna Bailey from Canada and the UK on The Role of Gender in Ivy Benson’s All Girl Band

Samstag, 3. Oktober

Sherrie Tucker from Kansas on A Conundrum Is Women-in-Jazz

John Murph from DC on Exploring the Queer Overtones of Sun Ra’s Outer Space Ways

Christian Broeckling of Berlin on “Authentic Lesbian as I am …” Aspects of Gender, Marginalisation and Political Protests in Life and Work of Irene Schweizer

Nicolas Pillai of Birmingham, UK, on Watching Men Play: the Erotics of the Hollywood Film

Great conference! Everybody who presented stayed for the whole thing. Everyone listened to each other! Jazzinstitut Darmstadt rocks!