Renaud Garcia-Fons performing at the 2017 BMW-Welt Award Photo credit: Raf Dombrowski

The ninth BMW-Welt Award for 2017, under the rubric “Bass erstaunt” (bass amazes) consisted of a a cash prize (10.000 Euros) and a stay in Schloss Elmau resort. The winner was Renaud Garcia-Fons. Ralf Dombrowski was writing for the Süddeutsche Zeitung (link below) and was photographing at Sunday’s final round. His verdict was that the jury really didn’t have that much choice. Once Garcia-Fons, with his “technical capabilities so far beyond the norm,” had been entered for a race with that description,  only he could be the winner.

Dombrowski is also full of praise for his two accomplices, accordionist David Venitucci and drummer vibraphonist Stephan Caracci.

The runner-up was Eva Kruse. Her normal drummer Erik Schaefer was replaced for this date by German rising star Eva Klesse. On oboe, Marie-Christine Becker replaced Tjadina Wake-Walker, who gave birth to a child just a few days ago. Regular band-members pianist Christian Jormin and saxophonist Uwe Steinmetz made up her quartet.

In addition to BMW, this award is supported by the Kulturreferat der Stadt München, the Neue Musikzeitung and the broadcaster BR Klassik. The tenth award will have the theme “Jazz moves“ and concentrate on innovation and new tendencies.

Eva Kruse and Eva Klesse Photo credit: Ralf Dombrowski

LINK: Ralf Dombrowski’s full report for the Süddeutsche Zeitung