Auxane Cartigny (L) and Samuel F’hima (R) from Auxane Trio backing Didier Lockwood (centre) recently in Paris

Fifty-six bands entered into competition for the finalist slots at the European Young Artists‘ Jazz Award Burghausen 2018 and the five finalists have just been announced.

The finalists will compete for the prizes, which consist of EUR 5,000 for the winner Euro, EUR3,000 for second place and EUR 1,000 for third place. The final round will take place on 6 March, and the winning band will also perform on the following night at the Burghausen International Jazz Week. The age limit for contestants was 30.

– OF CABBAGES AND KINGS was originaly formed in Cologne and consists of four jazz singers who met as members of BuJazzO, the German federal youth jazz orchestra: Veronika Morscher, Rebekka Ziegler, Sabeth Pérez und Laura Totenhagen perform “neo a capella”.

– AUXANE TRIO from France consists of pianist Auxane Cartigny,  bassist Samuel F’hima and Tiss Rodriguez on the drums. They have emerged from CMDL, the Centre Des Musiques Didier Lockwood based near Melun in the Paris region. They were performing at the recent Paris Jazz Clubs/ Jazz sur Seine Showcase and we reviewed them HERE.

– STADTGESPRÄCHE (meaning city conversations) are an 8-piece band from Cologne who met as students at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz: trumpeter Pascal Hahn, Johanna Risse (violin), Johanna Hoppstock (violin), Pauline Buss (viola), Katharina Pannes (cello), Martin Klein (piano), Malte Viebahn (bass) und Lukas Schäfer (drums).

– ANTON MANGOLD QUARTET: Anton Mangold (saxophone), Theodor Spannagel (bass), Felix Schneider (piano) and Zhitong Xu (druns) have been in existence since 2014 when they met as students in Würzburg.

– LELÉKA are a four-piece group, all from the Berlin scene, and describe themselves as an ethno-jazz band. The musicians come from Germany, Poland and the Ukraine, and they “combine ancient Ukrainan motifs and contemporary jazz rythms” in their music. Robert Wienröder (piano), Thomas Kolarczyk (bass), Jakob Hegner (drums) und Viktoria Anton (vox).

LJN contributor Ralf Dombrowski is on the jury for the award. 

SOURCE: b-jazz.de and Jazzzeitung.de.