REPORT/ PHOTOS: BMW-Welt Jazz Award Final in Munich (Erika Stucky and Indra Rios-Moore)

By ljazzn on 10 May 2016 • ( Leave a comment )

Artists and jury at the 2016 BMW Welt Awards
Photo credit: Ralf Dombrowski

Ralf Dombrowski was reporting for the respected Munich-based broadsheet the Süddeutsche Zeitung on the final of the BMW Welt Awards on Saturday night May 7th 2016. This is a brief (aka cheap and dirty) precis of Ralf’s extremely thoughtful and elegantly written German coverage (*):

Two bands were competing for the substantial prize on Saturday night at the sky blue building by the Olympic Park in Munich. The rubric for this year’s competition was “Inspired by Legends,” and the ways in which they had interpreted it could not have been more different.

Swiss vocalist and style-anarchist Erica Stucky was with her quartet with Christy Doran (guitar), Freddy Studer (drums) and Jamaaladeen Jacuma (bass). She brought guitar titan Jimi Hendrix and subsidiary Gods Prince and Paul McCartney into the room with a programme ranging from Hey Joe through Sgt. Pepper, to Purple Haze and Purple Rain. It was a “perfect panopticon of ironic hero-worship.”

Indra Rios Moore and Benjamin Trærup
Photo credit: Ralf Dombrowski

Thereafter came the complete opposite. The Danish-American singer Indra-Rios Moore brought the volume level right down to a fraction of the level of the previous performance, and had a broader take on the theme of legends. Gospel roots in Little Black Train, a chamber-blues version of Pink Floyd’s Money, through to Dylan and Bowie. Personal and percussionless, reinforcing the timekeeping role of bassist Thomas Sejthen. With guitarist Uffe Steen and saxophonist Benjamin Trærup.

For her satin voice, her story-telling, her shy but compelling stage presence, the jury awarded BWM Welt Jazz Award 2016 to Indra Rios-Moore. The audience prize went to Erika Stucky.

The formal announcement is die in the next few weeks, but next year’s prize will be for the younger generation, and will be themed “Bass erstaunt!” (bass surprises). For his always astonishing level of inspiration, Jamaaladeen Jacuma must surely be in the running if he puts himself forward.