Germany's Jazz scene is one of the most vital in Europe with many festivals, clubs, educational facilities all over the country, and especially with many musicians. In a meeting in December 2002, some of the more prominent activists for the German jazz scene formed the "Bundesverband Jazz", the Federal Jazz Association.
Founding members are Waldo Riedl of the German Jazz Federation representing clubs and concert promoters, Peter Ortmann of the Bundesjazzorchester (BuJazzO), the federal youth jazz orchestra, Bernd Hoffmann representing the Westdeutscher Rundfunk radio station, Reiner Michalke for the Europe Jazz Network, Peter Schulze, who will be artistic director of the Berlin Jazz Fest during the next couple of years, Dominik Wagner of the Union Deutscher Jazz Musiker, a jazz musicians' lobby organization, and Wolfram Knauer of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt, Europe's leading jazz archive and research center.
The object of the new assosciation is to bring together the interests of the different groups involved in this music - musicians, concert promoters, record labels, journalists, educators - in order to represent these interests on a national and international basis instead of just within the sixteen federal states.
The Federal Jazz Assocation plans pedagogical initiatives following the example of Scandinavian countries and offers to consult public funding and public support organizations within the country. By bringing together activists and experts from all different fields of the jazz life in Germany, theFederal Jazz Association understands itself as the main partner for cooperation or advise concerning the German jazz scene.The Federal Jazz Association can be reached through its website: http://www.bundesverbandjazz.de.
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