Jazz in the theatre
Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet: both bands of the evening draw on these pioneers, yet they come from different directions. The Dab’Dixie from Nantes and The Traveling Janes from London perform one after the other, offering two views of the early years of jazz.
The Dab’Dixie are devoted to New Orleans jazz in the spirit of the 1920s. Their repertoire ranges from Jelly Roll Morton to Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong, and to the Creole colours Sidney Bechet brought to the music.
The Traveling Janes were founded in London in 2023 as an international women’s band led by the Scottish-American singer Ali Affleck. Their name references a term for women who, in the early 20th century in the USA, travelled with railroad and tent vaudeville shows. These travelling stages were an important setting for early jazz and blues; Ma Rainey, one of the great pioneers of the blues, performed on them for years.
The hall fits this heritage. The Theater am Wettiner Platz has been open since January 2024, in rooms with a long history of cabaret and small-scale performance: before that, Kabarett Breschke & Schuch performed here, followed by FriedrichstaTT Palast. When a band that invokes the travelling vaudeville stages performs in a house with a cabaret past, two traditions of the entertainment stage meet, one American and one Dresdner. The neighbourhood is musical too: the Hochschule fĂĽr Musik and Kraftwerk Mitte with the Staatsoperette are located at Wettiner Platz.
