The 41st Moers International Jazz festival organized by Music Meeting saw the current New York scene represented again starting with Andrew D’Angelo and his DNA Big Band; there were some interesting contributions from all over Europe, the dance and concert sensation of Latin America in the form of the Afro-Cuban All Stars.
The new “African Dance Nights” at Bollwerk and the “Heimatabend” with Helge Schneider on the fourth day of the festival.
A total of four fringe projects complement the main programme, taking the festival out of the festival tent and into venues all round the town. The “morning sessions”, curated this year by Achim Tang, the “night sessions”, a celebration of Cologne’s new generation of jazz musicians, and the “concerts in the dark”, whose theme this year was “hidden currents”, the moers festival 2012 featured two new “African Dance Nights” on Saturday 27th May and Sunday28th May, where young DJs and musicians from Ghana and Kenya present the music currently being played in the clubs of the African metropolises: raw, up to date and very danceable.