The matinee is sold out.
Nobody considered her. When Irène Schweizer won the main prize at the Amateur-Jazz-Festival Zürich in 1960, she received a men’s shirt and a pack of cigarettes. This is not a new but a telling anecdote, which Christian Broecking also writes about in his voluminous study “Dieses unbändige Gefühl der Freiheit. Irène Schweizer – Jazz, Avantgarde, Politik”. Almost 500 pages detail the biography of the probably most important jazz pianist—and it is so much more than just another musician’s biography. It is more a cultural study that includes many perspectives on life with and about improvised music. Especially as a woman, who, besides her music, had to pursue a bread and butter job as a secretary next to her music, because she was only considered prize worthy at the age of 50. The book talks about an autodidact and (cultural) political activist who had to withstand a radical, very male-dominated free jazz scene, and who, in the early sixties, played with drummer Mani Neumeier (Guru Guru) in dim jazz clubs until he got exasperated and changed to rock music. She founded and fostered festivals and record labels, and called to life the Feminist Improvising Group. She experienced that one has to create own structures and networks before being able to use them, if lucky. On 2 June, Irène Schweizer celebrated her 75th birthday—a good occasion to dedicate an entire Festival day to this important artist.
** Due to limited seating capacity, we kindly request you to register beforehand by e-mail at: anmeldung@enjoyjazz.de. If there is space, we will send you a confirmation which you can use to enter the event.
