Institute of Music – Junger Deutscher Jazzpreis
Junger Deutscher Jazzpreis awarded to BLUFF and Lisa Wilhelm
With the Junger Deutscher Jazzpreis Osnabrück (Young German Jazz Prize), the Institute of Music at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences (IfM) holds an attractive competition for up-and-coming talent on the jazz scene every year, supporting promising jazz students on their way to a professional career. It is aimed at young ensembles of three to seven members, at least half of whom study at a German music university. The call is explicitly open to students of all nationalities; the age limit is 30. The prize is made possible by the financial support of the Felicitas und Werner Egerland-Stiftung.
At the final round on December 8, 2022, three young jazz groups competed in a friendly contest at the BlueNote jazz club in Osnabrück before a top-class jury and an interested audience. The ensembles that made it to the final were BLUFF from Hamburg, the Lisa Wilhelm Quartet from Stuttgart and the Luka Kastelic Quintet from Berlin. The jury consisted of Claudia Hartmann (NDR jazz department), Anton Berthold (Berthold Records Bremen), Joost Lijbaart (drummer and bandleader from Amsterdam) and Frank Wingold, who teaches jazz guitar as a professor at the IfM.
The ensemble prize, endowed with 3,000 euros, went to BLUFF. The Hamburg quartet sets its compass by the young New York scene and absorbs these inspirations into its own music. Role models such as Ambrose Akinmusire and Immanuel Wilkins can be clearly heard in its own compositions. The four musicians understand each other blindly, so the music almost shapes itself: starting from the melody, they break out into remarkable dynamic arcs and yet always return to the refined simplicity of their own style. On stage, the band radiates a joy of playing that carries over to the audience. In just under three years as a permanent group, BLUFF has already toured nationwide, with appearances at the Elbjazz and JazzBaltica festivals and Jazz Open Hamburg, among others.
Drummer Lisa Wilhelm, from the quartet named after and led by her, was honored as best soloist and rewarded with prize money of 1,000 euros. Together with Lukas Wögler on tenor saxophone, Moritz Langmaier on piano and Franz Blumenthal on double bass, drummer Lisa Wilhelm creates a musical blend of elation and wistfulness with her own compositions. The result is melody-driven jazz that does not focus on the drummer who gives the band its name, but rather on harmonic and lyrical ideas. The musicians met at the Stuttgart music university, where they began working on their very own sound years ago.
To strengthen creative exchange with young players on the jazz scene in Osnabrück, the competition venue, beyond the final, BLUFF, as winners of the ensemble prize, commit to giving a one-day open jazz workshop at the IfM. There they pass on their know-how to interested young musicians and thus contribute to a lively jazz scene within Germany’s university landscape. The day ends with a joint concert session with everyone involved.
Press reports on the final round:
https://oszillator.rocks/junger-deutscher-jazzpreis-2022-verliehen