The Big Easy Comes to Little Idstein
There she blows: Saxophonist Carolin Hild with her jazz band Ca-roH
and vocalist Annette Kreutz. (Photo: Ca-roH)
By Patrick M. Kessler
IDSTEIN. Okay, so this is not New Orleans: Bourbon Street is called the Borngasse
here and -- like other side streets -- this is a little sleepy alley paved with cobblestones
and lined with half-timbered houses. The protagonists on stage are not Louis Armstrong or Joe
King Oliver but Carolin Hild or Wolf Mayer, and unlike the Louisiana city, which conjures images
of history, food, drink and fine music, the German town of Idstein does not quite draw millions
of tourists each year.
But in early August, when a bit of New Orleans rolls into town, Idstein manages to attract
30,000 people from around the country -- for a single event. When it comes to German jazz festivals,
Idstein is as close as it gets to the Big Easy.
From Friday to Sunday, this town with a population of 25,000, located between Frankfurt and
Wiesbaden, will host the 17th edition of its Jazz Festival. The event that started off with
just a few musicians on one stage has emerged as one of Germany's leading festivals of its
kind, in part because organizers have never aimed at luring budget-burdening big-name acts
but have striven for quality across the board.
The organizers view their festival as a stepping stone for up-and-coming bands and attempt
to fight the myth that jazz is a musical genre "aimed at and played by old men."
"Over the years, you won't find the big, big names in our lineup. But for sure you'll
find acts few people knew that year but everyone knew a few years later," says Sabine
Fritz, co-organizer of the festival alongside Ariane Özer. "Our approach to giving
young people a chance is this: Here's a platform for you -- there's a stage, there's equipment,
there's an audience. Prove how good you are," says Fritz.
One such act is Ca-roH, a band that is returning to Idstein after performing at the 1998 jazz
festival. That was one year after the combo formed; now, as Ca-roH and their saxophonist Carolin
Hild come back to the town at the foot of the Taunus Mountains, they have gigs with Erica Badou
and German pop acts PUR and Bap under their belts.
"The key (in Idstein) is that the people get to know you, that you meet people and make
connections with other organizers," says Hild, adding that the festival has a "very
good reputation" among musicians.
This year, some 600 musicians are scheduled to perform on 12 stages in the center of town.
And while Dixieland, a form of jazz highly popular in Germany, remains the bread and butter
of the Idstein festival, a great number of acts branch out or merge other genres with jazz,
for instance funk, soul or pop -- a reflection of an ever-changing audience that is becoming
more diverse and getting younger, as Özer says.
The 2001 motto, "Jazz Meets Classic," will provide yet another flavor. "The
main principle of classical music, as in jazz, is based on communication," the organizers
explain. "This theme unites tradition with contemporary forms of expression."
The festival's motto will receive special attention during the opening concert at 7:30 p.m.
on Friday evening in Idstein's Stadthalle, where one of the acts performing is Wolf Mayer Dialects,
a group that has been described as "a wanderer along the borders between classical music
and jazz." The group itself views its music "as a search for the roots of European
music, and an invitation to explore the wings that helped us find those roots."
Hosting Ca-roH, Wolf Mayer Dialects, 73 other bands and an expected 30,000 people will be the
last big test for Idstein before next year's Hessentag rolls into town. In organizing what
is essentially the 2002 Hesse state fair, an event that will draw several hundred thousand
people, Fritz and Özer can bank on their successful festival as a selling point. "Jazz
-- that's just something people have come to associate with Idstein," says Fritz.
The Jazz Festival kicks off on Friday, Aug. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Idstein Stadthalle. On Saturday,
artists will perform between 1 p.m. and midnight throughout the town center, and on Sunday
between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Admission for the entire weekend is DM12 ($5), children up to 12
years get in free. For more information, visit www.idstein.de or call 06126/78271.
Aug. 2, 2001
© Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2001
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