Jason Moran solo

Jason Moran (piano)

Tickets

The extraordinary pianist and composer Jason Moran is embarking on a solo journey through the music of the great Duke Ellington—as a tribute, a remembrance, and a reinterpretation. As Moran himself says, it took decades before he felt ready to open the door to Duke’s mastery as a composer, bandleader, and above all, as a pianist. The result showcases Moran at the peak of his skill and virtuosity. Deeply immersed in the historical and musical significance of Ellington, whose work he reinterprets through his own artistic lens, Moran—with respect and great sensitivity—reveals himself as a master of dance-like, intertwining melodic lines, through which he creates an entire universe of sound. Like a painting of explosive color gradients, impasto and shimmering.

Pianist, composer, and visual artist Jason Moran is considered one of the most idiosyncratic and innovative musicians in American jazz. In a single year, he won the DownBeat Critics’ Poll in three categories: Jazz Artist, Pianist, and Jazz Album. His Bandwagon Trio is hailed by The Guardian as “one of the best jazz groups in the world.” Moran has an impressive discography featuring albums on renowned labels such as Blue Note and ECM—both under his own name and in collaboration with artists such as Archie Shepp, Charles Lloyd, Milford Graves, Paul Motian, and soprano Alicia Hall Moran, his life partner.

Further information

Venue:

Stadtgarten

The first concert in the newly built Stadtgarten concert hall in the mid-1980s launched a program unlike anything Germany had seen: an independent, artistically driven concert series devoted to contemporary improvised music. It was guided neither by attendance figures nor by public subsidies, yet it guaranteed musicians minimum fees and was run on professional terms. The conditions mattered just as much: an acoustically optimized, street-level concert space offering a strong setting for audiences and performers alike. Operations were financed through the adjoining hospitality business, the Stadtgarten restaurant and beer garden, a model that drew attention well beyond Germany.

Today the Stadtgarten Köln ranks among Europe's internationally recognized venues for contemporary and improvised music. The American magazine Down Beat features it regularly in its listings; it has received Germany's federal APPLAUS venue program award several times, including "Venue of the Year" in 2016, followed by the German Jazz Prize in the same category in 2022. More than 400 events across the full spectrum of contemporary music now take place there each year. Its international standing rests above all on the high proportion of demanding, experimental programming.

A programming mission of this kind depends on reliable public support. The venue's 30th anniversary in September 2016 opened that prospect: through a partnership between the City of Cologne and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, programming work is being substantially strengthened, and from 2017 onward the Stadtgarten Köln is being developed step by step into a "European Center for Jazz and Contemporary Music" – with the goal of becoming one of Europe's leading music centers.

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