Christopher Dell

The Berlin vibraphonist, composer and (music) theorist Christopher Dell receives the SWR Jazz Prize 2025, which was initiated by the "jazz pope" Joachim-Ernst Berendt, who died exactly 25 years ago. This oldest of all German jazz prizes honors not only a virtuoso, sonically expressive instrumentalist, but also a "driving force for jazz in Germany". The jury expressly emphasizes his responsible socio-political thinking and actions, also as an urban planning theorist, which he is to boot. Of course, Dell himself will not only be presented with a certificate on this evening - he will also be giving his audience a present: with his trios DRA (since 2002 with bassist Christian Ramond and drummer Felix Astor) and DLW (since 2010 with drummer Christian Lillinger and bassist Jonas Westergaard), he will be playing a two-part prizewinners' concert at the BASF-Gesellschaftshaus, as usual as part of Enjoy Jazz. In an interview with 3sat around 10 years ago, he said these clairvoyant sentences: "At a time when you're always looking outwards, when you're trying to get as many likes as possible, it's naturally difficult to hold on to your own idea, to develop your own motif, to even ask: 'What's it all about? But that's something society can learn from." And indeed: listening to Christopher Dell means learning from him.