Improvisation & Memory

Across continents and millennia, the improvisation of music and its oral reproduction from memory was the norm; composing and notation, on the other hand, the exception. Kiya Tabassian is familiar with both: the native Iranian emigrated to Canada with his family and studied not only the setar, a Persian long-necked lute, but also composition. In the projects of the Ensemble Constantinople, which he leads (»... cette ville étrange«, May 1, 6 pm, WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz), medieval and contemporary, Western and Middle Eastern sounds, African griot and American klezmer music meet and merge. Today, many traditions originating outside of Europe enrich our musical life, mingling and inspiring one another. What can students of jazz and new music from Cologne learn from Tabassian’s trans-traditional approach to music? That is the question they explore in an improvisation workshop; the results can be heard in their joint lunch concert.