Fredy Studer, Christy Doran, Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Erika Stucky Photo credit Ralf Dombrowski. All Rights Reserved

Christy Doran, Erika Stucky, Fredy Studer and Jamaaladeen Tacuma 
(BMW Welt Awards, Munich, 20th February 2016. Report and photos by Ralf Dombrowski)

This year the competitive rounds of the BMW Welt Jazz Award is being held under the rubric “Inspired by Legends.” This was the fourth concert in the annual series of six.

Fredy Studer. Photo credit Ralf Dombrowski. All Rights Reserved

This concert did blow the audience out of the comfort of its seats, as Christy Doran, Erika Stucky, Fredy Studer and Jamaaladeen Tacuma paid their respects to Jimi Hendrix in an increasingly trance-like set.

Christy Doran. Photo credit Ralf Dombrowski. All Rights Reserved

 There was something of the absurd in the location: a rock’n’Roll matinee in the design temple of a car manufacturer, played by musicians who were completely tired out frm their schedule. They had rolled out of the buss and stepped straight onto the stage. As they performed anthemic numbers like “Purple Haze,” number by number the atmosphere became ome of creative hysteria, and this seemed to make them play with more authenticity and passion than they would have in the more familiar surroundings of a club.

Erika Stucky, Photo credit Ralf Dombrowski. All Rights Reserved

Stucky seemed to enjoy letting these songs crumble, and then spreading out and re-combining them with an anarchic experimental zeal. The band was of a mind to run with her acts of chutzpah, and to get carried away too.

After the encore Tacuma declared that he had never experienced a mood quite like this. It was a wonderful concert, something which had to be experienced.

Jamaaladeen Tacuma. Photo credit Ralf Dombrowski. All Rights Reserved

Ralf Dombrowski’s original German text:

Es war das vierte Konzert einer Reihe von sechs, die in diesem Jahr unter dem Motto “Inspired by Legends” die Wettbewerbsrunde des BWM Welt Jazz Award bilden. Und es blies das Publikum förmlich von den Sitzen, denn Christy Doran, Erika Stucky, Fredy Studer und Jamaaladeen Tacuma verbeugten sich kraftvoll und über die Konzertlänge hinweg zunehmend trancehaft vor Jimi Hendrix. Die Absurdität der Situation – Rock’n’Roll zur Matinee im Design-Tempel eines Auto-Konzern, vorgetragen von übermüdeten Musikern, die vom Tourbus direkt auf die Bühne hoppten, um Hymnen wie “Purple Haze” anzustimmen – kippte Stück für Stück in eine Atmosphäre kreativer Hysterie, die die vier wahrscheinlich noch besser spielen ließ als in angestammter Umgebung eines Clubs. Stucky jedenfalls ließ die Songs bröckeln, zerlegte und kombinierte sie neu mit anarchischer Lust am Experiment, die Band folgte ihr mit Chuzpe und derart entrückt, dass Tacuma nach der Zugabe ins Mikrophon meinte, so eine Stimmung habe er selten erlebt. Ein grandioses Konzert, ein Erlebnis!