Inside three of Germany's top jazz venues
The recent closure of well-known Hamburg jazz institution Birdland has raised eyebrows for jazz fans in Germany. A symptom of the scene's downfall? A survey of three top venues gives reason for hope.
News from Hamburg left the German jazz scene a bit melancholy a few weeks ago. The famed jazz club Birdland closed its doors. After more than 20 years, its proprietors had had enough.
A sign that Germany's jazz scene is in crisis? Tracing what's going on in the scene suggests the opposite. Cities including Munich, Berlin and Dortmund offer the chance to hear live jazz nearly every night of the week. Munich's Unterfahrt, Dortmund's Domicil and Berlin's A-Trane are among the internationally known addresses in Germany for the genre with roots on the other side of the Atlantic.
