Some festivals showcase jazz; others help continually redefine its boundaries. Jazzfest Berlin has always belonged to the latter category. From 29 October to 1 November, the German capital will once again become one of the principal vantage points from which to survey the international creative music scene. The programme does more than celebrate its historic figures: it brings different generations, musical languages and styles into dialogue. It is a festival worth following from beginning to end to appreciate the many directions in which jazz is moving today.
The 63rd edition, under the artistic direction of Nadin Deventer, will bring together more than 135 musicians from over 25 countries, presenting 24 projects across the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, A-Trane, Quasimodo and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Four world premieres, two European premieres and numerous unconventional performances make up a programme in which compositional exploration and improvisation remain central.
Anthony Braxton and the Globe Unity Orchestra: Two Unmissable Events
Among the most eagerly anticipated events is the return of Anthony Braxton, a pivotal figure in creative music for the past six decades. A composer, multi-instrumentalist and musical thinker, Braxton has created an artistic universe in which improvisation, written music, compositional systems and conceptual exploration coexist, constantly challenging established categories. Fifty years after his first appearance at the Berliner Jazztage and seven years after his performance of Sonic Genome at the Gropius Bau, the American musician returns to the festival with a new septet. His presence is one of the defining features of an edition that regards the history of the avant-garde not as a legacy to be preserved, but as an ongoing artistic question.
Equally significant will be the closing performance by Alexander von Schlippenbach and the Globe Unity Orchestra. Founded in the 1960s, the ensemble helped write a crucial chapter in the history of European free jazz, bringing a collective, radical and deliberately uncompromising approach to music to the stage of Berlin’s Philharmonie. The line-up also brings together some of its historic members, including saxophonist Evan Parker, drummer Paul Lytton and trombonist George Lewis, who will return to the trombone for one of his rare concert appearances. His participation adds particular interest to an event already rich in historical significance.
Sixty years after the Globe Unity Orchestra’s debut at Jazzfest Berlin, the ensemble returns with Apokalyptische Nabelschau to close the festival, reconnecting the present with some of the boldest roots of European improvised music. The finale promises to be far more than a celebration: a living testament to an avant-garde that continues to question its own language and renew its expressive urgency.
An International Scene in Constant Transformation
Braxton and the Globe Unity Orchestra are the two major focal points of a programme whose identity lies precisely in its diversity. The line-up spans the principal centres of improvised music, from Europe to the United States and from Japan to Scandinavia, while giving ample space to emerging voices and artists who are redefining the artistic directions of contemporary jazz.
Among the names to watch are the Chicago Underground Duo (Rob Mazurek & Chad Taylor), the Tomeka Reid Quartet, Twin Talk and Clone Row, the project led by drummer Ches Smith. The programme also features the exceptional trio Graewe / Jones / Drake, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins and Christian Lillinger, who will present the world premiere of Open Form For Society II, a work for an international ensemble conceived as a radically concentrated form of chamber music.
At the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, BONECRUSHER, the orchestra directed by Matthias Muche, will place an unusual and imposing ensemble of ten trombones at the centre of its performance. The programme also includes Mariá Portugal, a Brazilian drummer and composer, and Camila Nebbia, an Argentine saxophonist, both based in Berlin. Their artistic trajectories reflect the diversity of experiences and musical languages that characterise the creative jazz scene.
The programme also gives considerable prominence to the human voice, understood not simply as singing but as a meeting ground for improvisation, experimentation and different traditions. This is reflected in projects by Karoline Wallace, Alejandra Charry with ¡Ya voy!, Wendy Eisenberg and Amir ElSaffar. The British scene is represented by Alexander Hawkins and Laura Jurd, while Scandinavia is represented, among others, by Elin Forkelid and (Exit) Knarr, led by double bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. From Japan comes the Otomo Yoshihide New Jazz Quintet, while Iranian clarinettist Shabnam Parvaresh will present her Sheen Trio at the festival for the first time.
It is a mosaic in which established figures coexist with lesser-known artists, and where the international dimension is not simply a matter of geographical origin. Above all, it is an encounter between different ideas of music, ways of listening and artistic practices.
Dream Baby Dream
The title of the 2026 edition, Dream Baby Dream, is taken from the short film produced as part of Jazzfest Berlin 2025, involving sixty participants. Exploring themes such as belonging, utopia, dreams and trauma, the film will open the festival on the Main Stage and provide its thematic framework: imagining new spaces for coexistence through art.
This perspective extends to Jazzfest Community Week, beginning on 26 October, with neighbourhood concerts, workshops, discussions and screenings concentrated mainly in the Moabit district. Among the most significant initiatives is a workshop led by Braxton with twenty-five students from the Jazz Institute Berlin, which will give rise to the JIB Creative Music Orchestra. Activities for children and educational events are also planned.
This commitment to sharing knowledge and encouraging participation is another of Jazzfest Berlin’s distinguishing features. Avant-garde music is not presented as a territory reserved for a handful of specialists, but as a space in which established artistic experience can meet new generations and different communities.
With more than two hundred participants involved across its various activities, Jazzfest Berlin once again establishes itself as a privileged vantage point from which to observe the state of creative music worldwide. The presence of Braxton and the Globe Unity Orchestra underlines its historical depth, while the breadth of the programme, the diversity of musical languages and the attention given to new voices reaffirm its vitality. It is precisely in the balance between memory and risk, established masters and new generations, individual exploration and collective creation that Jazzfest Berlin finds its purpose.
Practical Information
- Where: Haus der Berliner Festspiele, A-Trane, Quasimodo and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin.
- When: 29 October – 1 November 2026.
- Community Week: From 26 October 2026.
- Full programme: https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/jazzfest-berlin/programm
- Tickets: On sale from 17 September 2026 at 14:00.
