"No Dixieland 2020 is not an option for us!"
With this statement, our festival director Joachim Schlese captures the expectations of jazz fans in Dresden and throughout Saxony who had hoped for “something” that would sound like a Dixieland festival. After almost 50 years of Dixieland in Dresden, a successful tradition seemed destined to give way to a virus.
"Our festival did have to be moved to May 2021", Joachim Schlese, founder and director of the festival, continued, "but now there is a mini-festival in the ‘capital of Dixieland’.""" After months of standing still, the wishes of many fans are coming true. At last, they can listen to the sounds of traditional jazz and boogie woogie.
For the first time ever, sports reporter René Kindermann (MDR Television, Das Erste) will host a Dixieland Festival event. Together with Carmen Schlese funny, informative and exciting memories will be brought back to life: memories of almost 50 years of the Dixieland Festival and of how jazz came to Dresden. Looking ahead to the upcoming anniversary festival, the 50th INTERNATIONAL DIXIELAND FESTIVAL 2021, the festival’s founder and director, Joachim Schlese, will join the conversation.
Enjoy jazz with J.J.Jazzmen and Barbora Vagnerova (voc) from Prague, experience the rustic band Sunshine Brass from Suhl and the 2019 Dixieland Festival prizewinner Dan Popek from Hamburg. The culinary highlight will be provided with exquisite dishes by master chef Mario Pattis.
Since 1971, the INTERNATIONAL DIXIELAND FESTIVAL had taken place every May without interruption. The 50th anniversary was to be properly celebrated in May 2020. More than 40 bands from 12 nations would have played an astounding nearly 300 hours of jazz during festival week.
(Almost) 50 years of the INTERNATIONAL DIXIELAND FESTIVAL – that means 50 years full of joy and emotion, often sleepless nights for the festival’s creators and organizers, but also 50 years of having a very special audience that has remained faithful to this, their and our festival over all these years.
The 50th INTERNATIONAL DIXIELAND FESTIVAL will take place from 16 to 23 May 2021.
Note on another event in 2020:
Performers
J. J. JAZZMEN
Czech Republic (Prague)
In the Czech jazz scene, the musicians of J. J. Jazzmen rank among the very top of their profession. They stand for first-rate New Orleans jazz. Founded in 1993 under the leadership of Jan Jirucha (“J.J.”), the band performed its program “Remembrance of Louis Armstrong” on the domestic and international music scene, including in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Italy, England, on the Mediterranean Jazz Cruise, and in the USA. A special guest, a former colleague of Armstrong and member of his “All Stars” band, clarinetist Joe Muranyi, performed with J. J. Jazzmen in Prague and Berlin in March and June 2000. In May 2001, J. J. Jazzmen was honored to perform at the famous New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the “birthplace of jazz” and Louis Armstrong’s hometown.
After Jan Jirucha’s death in December 2005, drummer Miloš Kejř took over the leadership of the band and successfully took it to many of the jazz hotspots at home and abroad with the project “Contemporary New Orleans Sound.” A welcome addition is singer Barbora Vagnerova, who has been with the band since January 2018, with her charming alto voice. Her love of jazz and natural feel are appreciated by audiences from the very first notes.
Lineup: Jiri Masacek (cor), Josef Pospisil (tb, voc), Zdenek Kalhous (p), Jan Greifoner (kb), Milos Kejr (dr), Barbora Vagnerova (lead-voc)
https://jazzmen.hyperlink.cz
www.barbora-vagnerova.com
SUNSHINE BRASS
Germany (Suhl)
There are things that seemingly have nothing in common: the opening of the Rennsteig Tunnel, the Schmalkalden town festival, the Bamberg Auto Show, a hot air balloon ride from Schweinfurt to Bad Kissingen, brewery festivals, and car dealership openings. But there is something that connects all these events: Sunshine Brass. Wearing the sunflower on their lapels, these five Thuringian musicians have been touring the country for 18 years. When they founded their unusually configured quintet in 2001, they brought with them experience in jazz, classical music, and brass band music. And all these musical ingredients continue to ensure that Sunshine Brass brings good cheer, whether the gentlemen are playing sitting, standing, or walking, whether at a fair, a festive gala, or a Christmas party, with or without electricity.
“We’re doing fine” is the title of one of their albums. You immediately believe it when you experience them live. But the band only does well when the listeners do well too. That is why Sunshine Brass has always been and remains committed to a credo: to make music as close to the audience as possible and as close as possible to the audience’s taste. From the bustle of the Dixieland Festival, from the stage, or from the street corner where they can suddenly appear, the guys from Sunshine Brass, with their brightly colored suits and the drum kit on wheels, are almost impossible to imagine without. Neither for the organizers nor for the audience, which has loved Sunshine Brass’s stylistic mix of Dixieland, swing, pop, and schlager from the very beginning.
Lineup: Sven Viertel (tp, voc, lead), Thomas „Peppi“ Gütter (cl, ts), Florian Winkel (tb), Christian Hanft (tu, sousa), Daniel Siegmund (bj, voc), Thomas Henkel (dr, voc)
DAN POPEK
Germany (Bad Rappenau)
There are, fortunately, always young talents who pursue their artistic path successfully with dedication and passion. Pianist Dan Popek, born in 1996, is one of them. His heart beats for jazz, blues, and boogie-woogie. He is also unafraid of crossing over into pop and classical music. His career began in classical music at the age of four. At 12, he was captivated by what is known in German as U-Musik, and began to explore the various jazz and blues styles of the piano. At the age of 13, Dan Popek gave his first concerts and later won prizes in the competitions Jugend musiziert and Jugend jazzt. The Hamburg pianist Joja Wendt became a role model for him—perhaps also because Dan Popek shared the stage with him when he was just 14. What is remarkable is not only his virtuosity and technically mature playing at such a young age, but also the ease and naturalness with which Popek blends jazz, pop, blues, and boogie-woogie—from Oscar Peterson to Michael Jackson to boogie pioneers such as Meade Lux Lewis and Alber Ammons. This has earned him appearances at the festival The Hamburg Boogie Woogie Connection, at the Frankfurt Opera, and at national and international festivals. Dan Popek has already recorded two albums: 88 Tasten und ich and The Shout. He would do well to have plenty of copies in his suitcase for his first appearance at the Dixieland Festival in Dresden.