On May 1 at 3 P.M. (15:00) Central European Time, something will happen that the Russian jazz community has been waiting for for a very long time. For the first time in the history of the largest jazz trade fain in Europe, Jazzahead!, held since 2006 in the German city of Bremen, a Russian band will perform in the showcase program: Moscow-based LRK Trio.
This year, due to pandemic restrictions, Jazzahead !, which attracted thousands of jazz professionals from all over the world to Bremen from 2006 to 2019, will be held online for the first time (in 2020, the fair was canceled due to the quarantine measures in Germany). LRK Trio—pianist Evgeny Lebedev, bassist Anton Revnyuk and drummer Ignat Kravtsov—will be performing at Jazzahead! straight from the Moscow Esse Jazz Club on May 1 at 15:00 CET (16:00 Moscow time).
From April 29 to May 2, panel discussions, round tables and, most importantly, showcases can be watched online on the Jazzahead! website (advance registration required.) Artists are selected for showcases by a competent jury of jazz festival producers and concert venue promoters. Until this year, no one from Russia managed to pass their strict selection grid (although several musicians from Russia performed in the bands led by artists from other countries), but last year LRK Trio was selected for the list of eight finalists representing the European scene. More than a thousand bands annually submit applications for showcase participation: not only from Europe, but from other regions as well. As a result, the participants are selected in four categories; strictly eight bands in each: eight from the host country, i.e. Germany; eight from the partner country (in 2021 it is Canada), eight from European countries (Russia included), and the final eight from the countries outside Europe (USA, Korea, Brazil, Australia, Nigeria, etc.).
The complete Jazzahead program! is available on the trade fair website.
