Recommendations of the Editorial team
Berlin is – historically – a jazz city. After all, it is the home of Blue Note founders Alfred Lion and Francis (Frank) Wolf. It was concerts and revues in the 1920s in places like the Admiralspalast, the Moka Efti or the Scala that sparked her passion for jazz. Klaus Doldinger Alexander von Schlippenbach was also born here. Musicians like Albert Mangelsdorff, Peter Brötzmann, Aki Takase, Rolf and Joachim Kühn lived here and shaped the scene. And legendary concerts took place at the Berlin Jazz Days (since the 80s: Jazzfest Berlin).
As of today, the city has a new jazz radio station. At 12 noon, Minister of State for Culture Dr. Wolfram Weimer together with the artistic director of the Jazz Institute Berlin Professor Paulo Morello, station director Oliver Dunk and jazz singer Martina Barta Zig Zag Jazz Club the starting signal for “Ella Radio” in Schöneberg. From now on, the station will broadcast a 24-hour full program with a focus on jazz, soul and blues on the frequencies 91.0 MHz (Berlin) and 90.7 MHz (Potsdam).
In his short speech, State Minister Weimer established a biographical and emotional connection to jazz. He met his first great love in a jazz club in Gelnhausen, Hesse, and there was a lot of Diana Krall going on in the Weimer house over the Christmas period. The start of Radio Ella, Weimer continued, was “a great signal for the cultural diversity of music.”
The first song to be heard on “Ella Radio” was a recording of Ella Fitzgerald’s performance of the “Threepenny Opera” song “Mack The Knife” from Berlin’s Deutschlandhalle in 1960.