The Xperience is coming to Berlin.

This March, the Syncopation Society welcomes the Xperience to Berlin! An event created by Rémy Kouakou Kouame where different street dance communities come together to share and learn from each other. The lineup for this edition includes Marie N’Diaye, Felix Berghäll, Nils Andrén, Bianca Locatelli, Malcom Fazeuilh, Jimmy Yudat and Odile Lacides. Rémy is an emblematic figure in the global vernacular jazz community who likes to navigate between the world of street dance and jazz. A multiple solo jazz and lindy-hop champion, as well as an accomplished DJ, Rémy also promotes African-American culture, especially its artistic ramifications in Europe.

The core idea is to explore what many artists and researchers like Angela Andrew or Latasha Barners have called The Jazz Continuum. Jazz is not dead, jazz is alive and its influence is broader than we think. Beyond its own singular life, jazz today lives within the matrix of many other Afro-descendant dances. Hip hop has jazz, house dance has jazz, popping locking… They all have jazz in them, and you can trace how not only their steps but also the values attached to all these dances find their source in jazz culture.

The residency

The first step in exploring the jazz continuum at the Xperience is an artistic residency that takes place in the days leading up to the event. This residency brings together artists from different backgrounds and dance styles to share their dance, and their points of view, and to learn from each other. The result of all this exchange culminates in a collaborative performance to be presented on the first night of The Xperience event.
The impact of this residency goes beyond the swing dance community. All of the artists involved are professional dancers with busy careers in their own right. After the Xperience, many of them have expressed a desire to incorporate jazz into their classes and to pass on to their students the new knowledge they have gained about the roots of their own dance.

The workshop

The second step of The Xperience project consists of a workshop where the artists will share their explorations with a broader audience. The workshop is designed for dancers from different stylistic backgrounds, and not only from the swing dance community. Specific classes will be dedicated to each featured dance style, along with group discussions to explore the existing connections between these dances. The result of their exchanges and their exploration will inspire the presentation for each evening.

Level differentiation is not required as the classes look more like a chill club session than a structured class, as one of our main goals is for the different dance communities to mingle and exchange while taking the classes.

The parties

The mix of communities continues during the night parties, The Xperience wants to bring the swing dance community to the club to “burst the swing bubble”. The idea is to have a place where different music styles, dance cultures, and value systems will exist simultaneously. For this reason, the Xperience always looks for connections with the club culture in the country where the event is hosted. In Paris for example people were invited to go to the legendary Parisian party, La Mona, which was celebrating its 15th birthday. And on Sunday the participants had the tickets to go to the Soulful Sunday party, a very much appreciated house dance culture party focused on the dance exchange through cyphers and battles. In Ghent, The Xperience took place during the Ghent Fest, one of the biggest popular festivals in Europe.

The European context

This event is co-financed by the European Commission as part of the Europe Creative program. To establish connections in a European context, every The Xperience edition has to take place in a different European country each time. The aim is to create links not only with the swing dance communities of each place but also open doors and create bridges with the local street dance communities and their culture.

Registration

This event is organized by Swingville and the Syncopation Society within the
Swinging Europe Network.

The first Syncopated Sisters residency!

Berlin – 21.05.2023. This March, the Syncopated Sisters Music Residency, organised by Nina Thaler and Katharina Wegner, opened space for FLINTA* musicians for exchange, networking and an unforgettable musical experience, shining a spotlight on women in traditional jazz music.

The Residency

With two incredible band workshops led by Marie-Anne Standaert and Angela Strandberg, as well as expert-led workshops focused on female empowerment, thanks to the valuable input of Anna Stiede and Jean Klinghammer, this festival was the ultimate celebration of the long-lasting power of women in jazz.

The residency kicked off for empowering days ahead with a concert of the all female band “the hot nuts’ ‘ with the support of Swing Patrol Berlin at Frannz Club. The well known Jazz Club DONAU 115 opened their venue for our rehearsals during the days. After two intense days of rehearsals, the festival hosted a jam session at the Camidi Cheese & Wine Bar and closed with a final celebration night at the legendary Crack Bellmer, showcasing the great talent of 27 female musicians from all over Europe. The repertoire of one of the residency bands, chosen for the occasion, was a tribute to early jazz composer Mary Lou Williams.

And even if every teacher, artist and expert was female or identified as FLINTA* the public events of the festival were open to all genders, and welcomed amateur and semi-professional musicians, musicians from other genres, and swing dancers with prior musical knowledge.

Outcome

The goal was of significant importance: to strengthen the network of female jazz musicians in Europe, as well as to empower other female musicians, whether they’re professionals or just starting out. There was room for discussion as well on gender issues and preconceptions about music and musicians. These intense workshops were thought to be a safe space for everyone involved. Plus, this was a unique opportunity for female artists to come together, celebrate their talent, and make meaningful connections. Now we are happy to increase the visibility of female artists both on and off the stage in the traditional jazz scene and we hope to inspire others to follow suit by providing more platforms to women musicians.

Following up the residency Nina Thaler is keeping active with the Syncopated Sisters Podcast series that you can already listen to online. More about this exciting new project soon!

Media coverage for the BackBeat Jazz Academy

Here’s a small excerpt from a press article shared on Kosmosviertel.de in which the author describes the project. You can read the full article HERE (in German).

(Jazz) music by professionals for children. Since the beginning of the year, the “Syncopation Society” (SyS), together with its partners, the Cabuwazi Circus, WeTek and the Joseph Schmidt Music School, has been offering a new activity at the Bürgerhaus in Altglienicke: Back Beat Jazz Academy – the small jazz school for children & adolescents in the Kosmosviertel and beyond.

With the help of the educators from SyS and WeTeK, children are introduced to traditional jazz music. They can listen to live music, exchange with the musicians and learn about their musical instruments. The musicians also give insights into their profession in the music and event sector.

Claus Jacobi’s Music Scores.

We have the great pleasure and privilege of making available to you a vast collection of transcriptions by world-renowned traditional jazz specialist, Dr. Claus Jacobi.

Dr. Jacobi and us share the idea of transmitting this music and he graciously allows us to put his transcriptions online on our website. Nearly 700 titles from the early days of jazz will be available and they will present all kinds of instrumentations ranging from 3 front-liners to big-band arrangements. This work of a lifetime covers almost all the titles that make up the richness of this extensive repertoire.

We will regularly add new music to the page and for now, you can find transcriptions for about 30 songs from the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the King Oliver Creole Jazz Band, and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.

Please note that this invaluable resource is reserved to members only. Join the Society by creating an account to access the files. We also invite you to make a donation allowing us to finance the downloading setup and the maintenance of this treasure.

Have fun browsing! – www.syncopation.de/music-scores

TIP: join the FB group where we will post every new releases.

BackBeat Jazz Academy in Kosmos Viertel

The education of the younger generation is very important to us and with this in mind, in partnership with Verband der Musikschulen, Cabuwazi and WeTek, we are launching the “BackBeat Jazz Academy”. Financed by the Kultur macht stark program, this project aims to make young people at the Kosmos Viertel in Altglieniecke aware of the professional environment of jazz musicians. The program includes the discovery of music instruments together with professional musicians from our circle. We also cover the history of jazz and its relation to contemporary music, an introduction to sound recording, video production and finally the organisation of a concert.

Given the COVID restrictions, the sessions are currently happening online on the platform Discord with videos and Live sessions.