EJC 2026 - Showcase-Programm Tag #3

The international jazz world is coming to Cologne as part of the European Jazz Conference 2026. Over 400 organizers, festivals, labels and industry representatives from all over Europe will meet in the city to discuss the future of jazz and improvised music.

A centerpiece of the conference is the public showcase festival: selected German ensembles present themselves live in front of an international audience of experts - and in front of you. For three days, you will experience some of the most exciting current voices in German jazz in special Cologne venues.

A rare opportunity to discover tomorrow's scene today.

Showcase Program Day #3
26.09.2026

16:15 - 16:45 | Concert hall
Rabih Lahoud MASAA

Masaa is Arabic for evening. The time when the contours are still visible, but much is already blurred in the twilight. This is also how the improvisational music of the quartet Masaa around the singer Rabih Lahoud, who was born in Lebanon in 1982 and has lived in Germany for a long time, can be described. With Reentko Dirks (guitar), Demian Kappenstein (drums) and Marcus Rust (trumpet), Lahoud celebrates the coming together that often takes place in the evening. It is the transformation of shared storytelling and reporting into a piece of music, it is an ignoring of borders - the imaginary ones between people, but also the concrete ones between countries. Together they bring together the classical music of Europe and the jazz of the USA, the connection between the two genres is in turn the meandering, melismatic melody of the Arabic maqam and the concise style of Lahoud's mother tongue, in which he sings the songs.

18:15 - 18:45 | Concert hall
NEON DILEMMA

Neon Dilemma is a cooperative band featuring the Austrian Elias Stemeseder (piano), who shuttles between Berlin and New York, and the Cologne-based Robert Landfermann (bass) and Leif Berger (drums). With their trio, the three pursue the idea of transforming the traditional concept of the "classical" jazz piano trio from the 20th century into improvised music for the 21st century with the musical awareness and technical possibilities of today. In the flow of free improvisation, the music develops intuitively out of the moment, each of the three anticipates the other's playing in order to put the harmonic, melodic and rhythmic basis under tension. New and surprising connections in sound, timbre and dynamics constantly emerge; form and structure are always renegotiated in an interactive way.

The concerts are partially seated. There is no entitlement to a seat.

The concert hall is barrier-free. The JAKI can only be reached via a staircase and is therefore unfortunately not barrier-free.

Photography is not permitted.