PREAMBLE
Jazz is a network of musical practices whose beginnings can be traced back to the 20th century in the United States.
In jazz musicians’ own understanding, the emergence of a musical personality is closely connected to developing an individual musical language – which functions as an expression of social, musical and biographical background.
As contemporary improvisational music drawing from African-American as well as various other global classical and ethnic musical traditions, jazz has long become an independent, original and vibrant part of German music culture.
As an Afro-diasporic art form, jazz is formative for the current musical discourse, particularly addressing and artistically reflecting the issues of our time . With its multifaceted identity, jazz develops and acknowledges historical, geographical and cultural crosslinks/crossover . This is one of the reasons why jazz is readily associated by the public with the idea of freedom; in the history of this music, freedom was and still is a value/good often endangered and defended against resistance . Indeed, the concept of freedom is central to jazz’ s potential to transcend categories of age, gender, social origin, and ethnicity.
In particular, improvisation as a cultural technique constitutes a special competence (skillset) in a world with ever more complex interrelations . The authentic characteristics of jazz – internationality, transculturality and creolity – are becoming increasingly important.
Hence , the systematic and permanent support of jazz as an expression of artistic attitude and as a cultural practice is a challenge for contemporary cultural policy, as performance and reception have undergone an unprecedented development in recent years.
This development fundamentally influences and shapes the richness of contemporary music culture, impacting other art forms such as film, theater, literature or the visual arts.
Furthermore , the variety of styles and potential constellations for musical projects meanwhile attracts a highly diverse crowd of global musicians to Germany to be part of the new developments of jazz in this country. As music whose essence lies in experiencing both live performances and audio recordings, jazz is increasingly challenged to meet the fundamental transformation of the music market with sustained innovation.
The German Jazz Prize pursues the overarching goal of creating, living and promoting more cultural diversity in musical practice, education, cultural management, as well as in recording and documentation. All members of the jazz community should gain increased mobility, form networks and develop new concepts and formats for the performance, recording and dissemination of jazz and improvised music.
The purpose of the German Jazz Prize is to reward innovators of jazz in all its facets, as well as to introduce jazz in new ways to a diverse audience.
The prize is intended as an orientation for those interested in jazz from all social groups both domestic and abroad, and is based on the self-conception that jazz and improvised music belong to the cultural educational canon. The German Jazz Prize reflects the music’s social significance, and its award criteria are first and foremost based on artistic considerations