The concert is sold out.
Shauli Einav was surrounded by the sound of accordion during his childhood. His father played the instrument in folklore groups, for dancing. And young Shauli often accompanied him, at the time on violin. At the age of 13, he changed to saxophone and discovered the world of jazz, and, as a student, moved to New York, the Mecca of the scene, from Israel, his home country. And from there he has spread out into the world. The prized tenor and soprano saxophonist’s very first performance in Europe was at Enjoy Jazz; he therefore has a close and deep connection to the Festival. And a while ago, when Rainer Kern asked him with whom he would like to play in Mannheim, he was quick to answer: with Christophe Girard. Girard is a French accordionist who started with classical music and then developed the instrument’s dynamic possibilities and inexhaustible potential for intensity in different formats and jazz patterns for himself. They met in Paris, where Einav has been living for a few years. They call their duo Kumzits—a Yiddish term which could be described as “come here and sit down”. The meaning is clear: you sit together in a cosy circle and tell each other stories. You can imagine the dialogue between Einav’s rich tone and Girard’s warm, multi-layered childhood accordion sound to be a little like that. We have been invited to join them.
