Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (1925 - 2002) was the last pianist of Billie Holiday, the first of John Coltrane, played with Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Eric Dolphy, and Archie Shepp, recorded the first ECM record and, by the way, was the most important mentor of Embryo for generations. Michael Wehmeyer is his student.

Aki Takase (piano) and Daniel Erdmann (saxophone) present their program "Ellington!" – a personal, often surprising approach to the music of Duke Ellington. The duo combines respectful homage with original improvisations, creating a fascinating dialogue between tradition and the present. (Photo: Dirk Bleicker)

The almost 80-year-old traditional musician hailing from Pakistan's remote Balochistan region plays an unusual instrument with keys the locals call a "Benju", originally a musical toy from Japan called taishōgoto that had been brought to Pakistan by sailors. His first album “Jingul” is currently receiving rave reviews everywhere. It initially came out digitally on the new Pakistani imprint honiunhoni in 2022 and was reissued on vinyl in September 2023 by Hive Mind Records in the UK.

The first European tour of Noor Bakhsh and his musical sidekick, Doshambay, was a breathtaking success, playing Roskilde and other major festivals - a total of 25 shows, with short TikTok snippet videos of the concerts going viral immediately after the events (125 k views and more).
The pair sent audiences into wild dancing frenzies, a perspective rather unusual for a performance played on two string instruments

Tuba Something is an extraordinary tuba duo from Berlin, consisting of the internationally renowned tuba players Jose Davila and Orlando de Boeykens. Together they present virtuoso jazz and surprising soundscapes - sometimes groovy, sometimes experimental, always captivating and full of enthusiasm.