GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award and Special Jury Prize

• The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky
• The main jury awards Sebastian Gramss' HARD BOILED WONDERLAND with the Special Jury Prize
• Livestream on 27 April 2022 from 18:00 on the websites of the GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE, several public cultural broadcasters, and Jazz in the City
• Concert evening with Fola Dada, Nubya Garcia, Sylvie Courvoisier and the Jazzrausch Bigband to be broadcast on 3sat on 21 May 2022

Berlin, 20 April 2022

The award ceremony of the GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE 2022 in Bremen's Metropol Theater is drawing ever closer, 81 nominees have a chance to receive one of the coveted prizes in a total of 31 categories. The award winners for the national and international jazz scene in Germany, who will each be endowed with 10,000 euros, will remain top secret until the awards evening on 27 April 2022 - with two special exceptions that were already announced exclusively at today's press conference.

Lifetime Achievement Award

The saxophonist, composer and author Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky is honoured for his outstanding work with the GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE for Lifetime Achievement. "Ernst-Ludwig "Luten" Petrowsky began his career as a jazz musician in 1957 as a member of Eberhard Weise's orchestra. Since then, he has set milestones in the international jazz scene like no one else from the GDR. When people often talk about so-called GDR free jazz, it is unthinkable without him," explains Berlin journalist and member of the main jury Ulf Drechsel. "An essential core of his musical activities since 1982 was also the work with his spouse, the singer Uschi Brüning. Together, the duo explored with much dedication, imagination and humour the tonal possibilities in the area of tension between classical jazz songs and free improvisation and shaped many musical projects as special guests - from big band to blues band. His playing on the saxophone - sometimes restrained and tender, sometimes expressive and shrill - remains indelibly rooted in the jazz canon of the last six decades. A life's work!"

Special prize of the jury

The special jury prize for Sebastian Gramss' HARD BOILED WONDERLAND with the album Music Resistance was also announced in advance. The international collective was only founded in 2020 under the direction of double bassist and composer Sebastian Gramss. With their Music Resistance programme, the musicians of different ages and nationalities want to provide musical answers to current political, social, and ecological questions. "It is not only great but absolutely necessary that artists dedicate themselves to political issues. Always and especially now. HARD BOILED WONDERLAND does this with such terrific conviction, dedication and visibly unsparing courage and commitment that this prize is a logical consequence of their work. I sincerely hope that we can inspire many cultural workers to get politically involved. This is what our world needs in order to become a better place, bit by bit," says singer, songwriter and deputy spokesman for the main jury of the GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE, Max Mutzke, explaining the decision.

The GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE, awarded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, can be witnessed live on site or via livestream on 27 April from 18:00. The award ceremony and the subsequent concert evening will take place on the eve of jazzahead! - the world's largest jazz fair with international participants from over 60 countries.

Radio Bremen will broadcast the award ceremony live on bremenzwei.de, radiobremen.de and the Bremen Zwei Facebook page. Other public cultural broadcasters such as SWR2, SR2, rbbKultur and BR-Klassik will cover the livestream via their websites or Facebook pages. The livestream will also be available on the Jazz in the City website - as part of a cooperation with FUNKE Medien Gruppe Thüringen.

The subsequent concert evening of the GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE will also be recorded by Radio Bremen. It will be broadcast on 21 May 2022 from approx. 22:15 on 3sat. The broadcast will take place on the programme Bremen Zwei on 14 May 2022 from 22:00. The concert evening will also be available in the 3sat media library.

GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE 2022

27 April 2022
Metropol Theater Bremen, Richtweg 7, 28195 Bremen
Moderation: Hadnet Tesfai & Götz Bühler

Award ceremony begins at 18:00

Live-Music

• Brandee Younger Trio - New York, USA
• Gebhard Ullmann with Das Kondensat - Berlin, Germany

Improvised accompaniment

• Lucía Martínez (Drums) - Berlin, Germany
• Ronny Graupe (Guitar) - Berlin, Germany
• Daniel Erdmann (Saxophone) - Reims, France

Sound design: Florian Ross, prize winner composition GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE 2021

Concert begins at 20:30

• Jazzrausch Bigband - Munich, Germany
• Nubya Garcia & Band - London, UK
• Sylvie Courvoisier - New York, USA
• Fola Dada Quintett - Stuttgart, Germany

Broadcast date: 3sat, 21 May 2022, from 22:15.

Further information about the GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE and advance ticket sales for the award ceremony with the concert evening at the Metropol Theater in Bremen can be found on the GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE website.

GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE

The GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE has been awarding prizes in 31 categories for outstanding artistic achievements in the national and international jazz scene since 2021. It is realised by Initiative Musik, with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Together with an advisory board appointed by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and representatives of the jazz scene, the concept of the German Jazz Award is constantly being further developed. This year, the GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE will be awarded with a varied programme of events on the eve of jazzahead! at the Metropol Theater Bremen and can also be viewed via livestream.

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Press contact

Ulrike Schrader
T: +49 176 41514787
M: ulrike@wildkatpr.com 

Michael Wallies
T:  +49 30 53147545 - 211
M: presse@deutscher-jazzpreis.de

Please note: The GERMAN JAZZ PRIZE of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media is neither organisationally nor substantively related to the Neuer Deutscher Jazzpreis of IG Jazz Rhein-Neckar e.V., which is awarded once a year in Mannheim as the audience prize of the German jazz scene.