Jazzclub Pro at HfK-Musikkeller

"You see that you see nothing," joked Martin Classen at the opening of the live music series Jazzclub Pro, which stands for guest performances by international musicians and takes place in the HfK Musikkeller in the Dechanatstraße. The concert organizer and HfK professor of jazz saxophone alludes with his announcement to the missing plaster, meaning the exposed brickwork and stripped columns A result of the two-and-a-half-year renovation of the once rather dreary space. Now it's gained chic and underground charm, the lighting is however cozy as ever.

"At lunchtime I was still sitting here when this was Mensa 13, now the room is loosely seated, shines in a completely different light, and at the same time really radiates a nice open jazz cellar atmosphere. Fascinating. And the sound is really good. I gave a concert here about 15 years ago, and a lot has happened since then. It's really fun to play here," said Michael Arlt during a break in the concert. 

His guitar sounds can now be heard on more than 40 CDs, ranging from jazz to Latin to pop. Since 2001, Arlt has been working as a lecturer for jazz guitar and harmony at the University of Music in Würzburg. In Bremen he performs with the Agora project. He is joined on stage exclusively by Brazilians: Bremen-based singer Marcia Bittencourt, New York-based drummer Portinho and Swiss-based bassist Eduardo Penz. Musicians, who also give workshops at the HfK. 

Noted on their setlist are freshly arranged bossa nova classics and original compositions in this style, a harmonically complex, rhythmically rich, samba-based music that poet Olavo Bilac once described as the love fruit of the meeting of three kinds of grief: the grief of the Portuguese far from their homeland, of the displaced and enslaved Africans, and of the Indians who survived the colonial genocide but were deprived of their land. 

The Agora project has been in existence for seven years. After the current ten-day European tour, the musicians want to start recording a CD in an Osnabrück recording studio. Bittencourt's lyrics yearn for sun, beach and sea. The colleagues play perfectly, their live performance gets going when pianist Klaus Müller, who teaches at the University of Oldenburg, joins them.

Marcia Bittencourt is also enthusiastic about the location: "Simply a beautiful ambience here, the jazz club is perfect for us, even though we don't play jazz at all, but the much more melodic bossa nova. I experience the colorfully mixed audience of old and new jazz fans and students as very attentive."

The Musikkeller continues every Tuesday with Oli Poppes Jazzclub. The concert dates can be found here.

On April 28, 2022, starting at 9:30 p.m., the Musikkeller will host the first event in the Resonanzen series: Faculty members of the Department of Music will create a concert.

For the first time, there will be a Late Night Jam Session with the HfK Cole Porter Tribute Band in the Musikkeller on April 29, 2022, starting at 9:30 pm.

The Jazzahead Club Night will feature the Magnus Bodzin Quartet and the Christopher Olesch Quartet on April 30, 2022, starting at 9 p.m.