Langnau Jazz Nights, Switzerland

On June 3, 2003, eJazzNews published the program for the 13th Langnau Jazz Nights, held from July 23 to 26, 2003, in Langnau im Emmental, a market town in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. Besides the concerts, the announcement covered the festival’s teaching side: a master class in jazz improvisation, a junior workshop and a new stage for youth bands. The festival is still running: its 2026 edition in July featured Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano and Brandee Younger.

What the 2003 announcement said

The concert line-up named Uri Caine’s Bedrock trio with drummer Zach Danziger, John Abercrombie with violinist Mark Feldman, bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron, the Expanded Trio of Brazilian pianist and singer Eliane Elias with Johnson and drummer Satoshi Takeishi, Julio Barreto’s Latin band, singer Rhonda Dorsey’s funk and soul group, the trio of German pianist Joe Haider and the Pee Wee Ellis Assembly.

The report also announced the first Junior Jazz Meeting, organized with the Swiss Jazz School in Bern as a platform for bands of players up to 21 years old on an open-air stage in the town center. The Master Class for Jazz Improvisation and the Junior Jazz Workshop ran from July 21 to 27. Teachers included bassist Sigi Busch, described as a professor at Berlin’s Hochschule der Künste, New York saxophonist Vincent Herring, guitarist Rory Stuart of the New School, Barreto, Dorsey, Haider, violinist Martin Abbühl and trumpeter Daniel Erismann. George Robert, head of the Swiss Jazz School, gave classes on the music business, and guitarist Stephan Urwyler led the junior workshop.

What the festival archive shows

The festival’s own page for 2003 lists a slightly different program from the one announced in June. Caine’s Bedrock appeared with a different bassist and the turntablist DJ Olive. The Rory Stuart Group played with pianist Colin Vallon, bassist Lorenz Beyeler and drummer Raphaël Pedroli, and the bill also included the septet Mats Up, a Vincent Herring Quartet with Haider and Busch, and a Junior Jazz Workshop Orchestra led by Haider.

Stuart, a New York guitarist who has led his own groups since 1982, took over the rhythm class in The New School’s jazz department in 1992 and has taught there since; he has also performed in Switzerland with Vallon’s trio. Vallon, born in Lausanne in 1980, had founded that trio with Beyeler and Pedroli in 1999 and later recorded for ECM, beginning with Rruga (2011) with a newer trio.

How the festival began

The Langnau Jazz Nights were first held in 1991. Bassist Walter Schmocker started them as a training week for jazz musicians, the Master Class for Jazz Improvisation, which was later renamed the Jazz Workshop. A Junior Jazz Workshop for teenagers followed in 1996, and in 1997 the concerts moved into Langnau’s Kupferschmiede. In 2003, the year of this announcement, Schmocker received a culture prize from the canton of Bern.

What happened next

The Junior Jazz Meeting has drawn international bands since 2004, and from 2005 the Viehmarktplatz in the center of Langnau became the hub of the festival. The canton of Bern gave the festival its culture prize in 2007. The festival marked 25 years in 2015, drew more than 2,100 visitors in 2018, was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic, and returned in 2022 with its 30th edition. The 2026 program also included Immanuel Wilkins, Gretchen Parlato and Shai Maestro.

Several people from the 2003 program have since died: George Robert, head of the Swiss Jazz School in Bern from 1995 to 2006, in March 2016 at 55; John Abercrombie on August 22, 2017, at 72; and Pee Wee Ellis, once James Brown’s saxophonist and musical director, on September 23, 2021, at 80. For another Swiss festival with a long history, see our guide to the Montreux Jazz Festival, and for the craft taught in Langnau’s workshops, our guide to jazz improvisation.

Sources

• Langnau Jazz Nights, “2003,” festival archive line-up, accessed October 2026.
• Langnau Jazz Nights, “History,” accessed October 2026.
• Langnau Jazz Nights, “2026,” festival line-up, accessed October 2026.
• Rory Stuart, “Teaching” and “Bio,” rorystuart.com, accessed October 2026.
• “Rory Stuart” and “Colin Vallon,” Wikipedia, accessed October 2026.
• ECM Records, “Colin Vallon,” artist page, accessed October 2026.
• SRF, “Er lebte für den guten Sound: George Robert ist gestorben,” March 15, 2016.
• Nate Chinen, “John Abercrombie, Wry and Exploratory Jazz Guitarist, Dies at 72,” NPR, August 23, 2017.
• Richard Williams, “Pee Wee Ellis obituary,” The Guardian, September 30, 2021.

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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