On the death of Christian Broecking

We were deeply shocked by the news: Dr. phil. Christian Broecking, the equally clever and clear, the equally knowledgeable and critical companion of our festival passed away in Berlin on 2 February. His importance not only for Enjoy Jazz, but for jazz in Germany and beyond cannot be overestimated. For Broecking was truly unique in his combination of scholarship and empathy, which was always aimed at communicability. As a musicologist and sociologist, he not only described jazz as an overall social phenomenon in masterly depth and in many cases made it accessible in the first place, but as a journalist, author, publisher and university lecturer he was also outstanding in his work as a mediator. Broecking wrote standard works of jazz journalism, among which especially the music sociological studies "Respect! The History of Fire Music" and "Black Codes" stand out. His meticulously researched biography of Irene Schweitzer has set standards within the genre. And his photographs, which we had the good fortune to present at our festival, are precious documents of a unique holistic view of jazz and its protagonists. The conference "Lost in Diversity - A Transatlantic Dialogue on the Social Relevance of Jazz", which he curated and led, remains unforgotten. It was a highlight of our festival in 2012 and was continued the following year with no less attention. And last but not least, he made our short introductions to selected festival programme points, called "Jazz Aperitifs", into cult events that were always on a par with the subsequent concerts. It is not only these beautiful and inspiring moments that will be missed from now on. He will be missed. We mourn the loss of a friend. Our thoughts are with his family. We cannot measure what they have lost.

Rainer Kern and the Enjoy Jazz team