ÜBERJAZZ Festival
SATURDAY
Past dates
11/1/25
7:00 PM
ARTISTS A-Z
Adrian Younge is a producer, multi-instrumentalist, and sonic archaeologist who fuses Black musical idioms from jazz and soul to hip-hop and Brazilian MPB. In addition to soundtracks such as the blaxploitation homage BLACK DYNAMITE (2009), the Los Angeles–born musician has built a discography of more than 60 albums, including productions with Ghostface Killah, Tony Allen, as well as Bilal and Gary Bartz—both of whom also perform at ÜBERJAZZ. Most recently, in 2025, Younge released SOMETHING ABOUT APRIL III and ADRIAN & SAMANTHA on his Jazz Is Dead label, where Brazilian vocals meet orchestra, synthesizers, and breakbeats.
Since his debut 1ST BORN SECOND (2001), Bilal has been one of the most distinctive voices in US neo-soul. The Grammy winner fuses soul, jazz and electronic experiments, and has collaborated with Erykah Badu, Robert Glasper and Kendrick Lamar. New York Magazine wrote about his voice: “The closest thing to Prince’s … remains breathtaking in action.” After his appearance at the ÜBERJAZZ Festival in 2014, Bilal now returns to Kampnagel with his sixth studio album ADJUST BRIGHTNESS.
Born in New York and raised in Tamil Nadu, India, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist ganavy a stands among the most compelling new voices bridging spiritual jazz and South Asian tradition. For her latest album DAUGHTER OF A TEMPLE (LEITER, 2024), she collaborated with esperanza spalding, Vijay Iyer and Shabaka Hutchings. Inspired by Alice Coltrane and the Harikatha tradition, it braids styles and worlds into a deeply spiritual current of sound and ganavya’s own voice—about which The Guardian wrote after her 2023 appearance with SAULT: “a delicate emotive heft that could turn stoics into sobbing wrecks.”
Gary Bartz, legendary alto saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master, has shaped modern jazz for over six decades while keeping the heritage of African American music alive. The two-time Grammy winner played with Charles Mingus, Art Blakey and Miles Davis; as a bandleader he has released over 45 albums, including the seminal “Harlem Bush Music.” In 2025, this boundary-pusher between hard bop, soul jazz and spiritual improvisation presents his first studio album in over a decade—produced by Om’Mas Keith, whose credits include Frank Ocean, Erykah Badu and John Legend. At Kampnagel, he performes with his NTU Troop, founded in 1969. Ntu, pronounced “into”, is a word from the Bantu language, where it unifies all things – time and space, living and dead, seen and unseen forces.
U.S. multi-instrumentalist Kahil El’Zabar has been a pioneer of Afrocentric spiritual jazz since founding the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble in 1973. Marking the ensemble’s 50th anniversary, he released the album OPEN ME, A HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS OF SOUND AND SPIRIT (Spiritmuse Records) in 2024, affirming his enduring contribution to Great Black Music. Following his celebrated concert at ÜBERJAZZ Festival 2024, El’Zabar now returns to Hamburg with the four-piece Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.
HOMEPAGE | THE GUARDIAN: ALBUM REVIEW | VIDEO
Kassa Overall is a U.S. drummer, producer, and rapper who has already been one of the highlights of the last two ÜBERJAZZ editions with his blend of smooth hip-hop beats and jazz drumming. His latest album CREAM (Warp Records), featuring fellow ÜBERJAZZ artist Tomoki Sanders, is a jazz-infused homage to hip-hop: across eight tracks, the Grammy-nominated musician reimagines classics from Notorious B.I.G.’s BIG POPPA and Wu-Tang Clan’s C.R.E.A.M. to Dr. Dre’s NUTHIN' BUT A 'G' THANG – once again dissolving the boundaries between jazz and rap.
INSTAGRAM | JAZZTIMES ALBUM REVIEW | VIDEO
R&B singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist keiyaA first came to prominence in 2020 with her debut FOREVER, YA GIRL, named one of the year’s best albums by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian. After a five-year break, she returns in 2025 with the single STUPID PRIZES. Recorded late at night in her Brooklyn living room, the song blends reflections on loss, grief, and anger with a radiant, romantic sample of U.S. orchestral composer Percy Faith: a dreamlike expression with looped melodies about “what it can feel like navigating my internal and external worlds, but also what it feels like being a marginalised person in America.”
INSTAGRAM | PITCHFORK-REVIEW: BEST NEW MUSIC | VIDEO
As Nepumuk/knowsum, Nelson Brandt is two artists in one: as Nepumuk, he sends German words on endless journeys—stream-of-consciousness rap, mischievous at times, razor-sharp at others, always with a wink toward society. As knowsum, he spins the globe, sings in English, and blends jazz, indie, and funk into psychedelic loops that feel studio-borne, extraterrestrial, and inside your head all at once. Brandt moves between satire and poetry, head-nod grooves and mind cinema—making it clear: music is permitted to be contradictory.
Singer, flutist, and producer Melanie Charles has collaborated with the likes of Wynton Marsalis, SZA, and Gorillaz, and was one of the big surprises at the 2019 ÜBERJAZZ Festival, where she wove together jazz, soul, and the roots music of her Haitian heritage. Now performing in a trio that first emerged as a John Coltrane tribute, the Brooklyn-based musician blends jazz, soul, and R&B with striking artistry. Together with multi-instrumentalist and producer Ignabu (Macklemore, Pink, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble) and pianist/producer Paul Wilson Bae (SZA, Lauryn Hill, ÜBERJAZZ artist Kassa Overall), the group performs selections from their Coltrane homage alongside reinterpretations. Their live shows unfold as both ritual and experimental jam session.
HOMEPAGE | INSTAGRAM IGNABU | INSTAGRAM PAUL WILSON BAE | VIDEO
Dominic Giancarlo Salole, better known as Mocky, is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and songwriter whose list of collaborations is as long as the range of styles he moves between. With Chilly Gonzales and Peaches he formed the punk band “The Shit,” with the legendary Puppetmastaz he gave voice to puppets, and as a producer and touring musician he has worked with Feist – earning Grammy nominations along the way. After several acclaimed concerts at Kampnagel, most recently in 2017, he now returns to Hamburg with his new album MUSIC WILL EXPLAIN (CHOIR MUSIC VOL. 1) (Stones Throw Records, 2025) – an exploration of the human voice as a true expression in a digital world.
South Carolina–based singer, producer, and multimedia artist Niecy Blues is one of the most exciting new voices at the intersection of R&B, ambient, and gospel. Their debut album EXIT SIMULATION (Kranky, 2023) transforms personal experiences of loss, faith, and self-discovery into hypnotic songs moving between ballads, looped improvisations, and flowing soundscapes. “A nourishing statement of ambient, operatic R&B… a free-flowing yet focused album that opens up like night-blooming jasmine” (Pitchfork).
INSTAGRAM | PITCHFORK: ALBUM REVIEW | VIDEO
Cologne-based band Salomea is known for its genre-bending, experimental sound blending hip-hop, jazz, RnB, and electronica. The quartet features German-American lead singer Rebekka Salomea Ziegler alongside Yannis Anft (keys), Oliver Lutz (bass), and Leif Berger (drums). To date they have released three studio albums, most recently GOOD LIFE (Papercup Records, 2024). Festival appearances have included CO POP, XJazz, Popkultur Berlin, Jazzablanca, Avignon Jazz Festival, and the 2024 Reeperbahn Festival.
U.S. author, actor, director, and musician Saul Williams is considered a trailblazing artist: His film SLAM (1998) brought slam poetry to international prominence, he has been a defining voice in alternative hip hop, and has collaborated with Janelle Monáe, The Roots, Gil Scott-Heron, and Erykah Badu. Back in 2010, he performed with the Symphoniker Hamburg orchestra at Kampnagel. Together with his longtime friend, producer, percussionist, and Dublab co-founder Carlos Niño—who first appeared at the ÜBERJAZZ Festival in 2016—he now presents his poetry live. Niño is known for his project Carlos Niño & Friends as well as his work on André 3000’s “New Blue Sun.” Their joint album SAUL WILLIAMS MEETS CARLOS NIÑO & FRIENDS AT TREEPEOPLE (International Anthem, 2024) was recorded outdoors in Los Angeles’ Coldwater Canyon Park.
