Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday January 22nd, 2014 with Bernard Stepien
Ottawa International Jazz Festival sequel: Berlin’s Silke Eberhard trio

Last year’s OIJF somewhat maxed out the Free Jazz section to my great pleasure. This included a representative of one of the world’s hotspot for Free Jazz, namely Berlin. Silke Eberhard is one of its tangible evidence. I personally discovered her and even end up playing with her at jam sessions in East Berlin in 2001 during one of my assignments there. She is a strong disciple of Eric Dolphy and masters the all-out freedom that prevails in Berlin. Her compositions are complex, mostly based on long virtuoso runs that almost sound as premature solos. Her set at the OIJF was loudly applauded and landed in an encore despite the fact that she explained to me that she just played tunes, in other words schmooze Jazz compared to what she can normally happily and unrestrictedly play in Berlin. Tonight we will explore this wonderful music on Eberhard’s What A Beauty BEING CD on the Berlin based JazzWerkstatt label.