12 Points Talks : Schneeweiss und Rosenrot (2012) BERLIN

Where do you live and what is the Jazz scene like there?
Berlin. The jazz scene is quite big with more and more foreign musicians moving to the city. This brings an interesting vibe and makes for a very versatile scene. Unfortunately the conditions for the musicians are very bad (I’d say comparable to NY). There are a lot of small venues where you can experiment, which is of course great, but you often play to audiences of only 10-50 people and there’s not a single club which gets support from the city. Therefore the jazz musicians in Berlin and Germany have gotten together and created an active network where they’re working on getting better conditions. For the first time since the 70’s jazz artists have gotten together to fight for their ideals. If we get together, I believe that it’s very possible to change things for the better.

What was the 12 Points experience been like for you? What does it mean to you as a young musician?
It was a great experience, there was such a nice vibe among the musicians, the people working in Jazz, and the audience. It’s a great opportunity for young musicians to play there and get in contact with other young musicians from Europe as well as a chance to be heard by and get to know the festival leaders, journalists, and other promoters.

What was the highpoint of the festival – from your own experience?
The music! to hear so many different concerts and the hang out after the session. It was great to play as well the audience, stage, and concert room were all great. I was surprised how many young people there were in the audience. It’s fantastic and can’t be taken for granted – it’s the jazz audience-to-be.

What are your musical plans for 2012? Tell me about gigs, festivals, recording etc
At the moment we are in the process of writing and recording new songs for our 3rd album which will be released in October 2012 on the same label as our last album: enja/yellowbird. After that, we are going to go on a release tour in October/November
Leipzig Jazz Festival (D), and St. Moritz Festival (CH) have already been confirmed and the Swedish network IMPRA invited us to play some concerts in Sweden.
We are also nominated for the New German Jazz award Mannheim, so we will play along the other two nominated bands in a concert next week (on 10/3), after which the audience will cast their votes and pick a winner.

Schneeweiss und Rosenrot were awarded the New German Jazz Award in March 2012
Their album POOL was released on October 26th 2012

www.schneeweissundrosenrot.net