TITLE: The Jazz of Life

All great jazz musicians share the understanding that jazz is intimately connected to the present moment. The improvised parts in particular have the power to melt time into a single experience.

My work explores this elusive underlying quality in the context of live music. It raises the question of how we can enter into a state of surrender, become more fearless and vulnerable.

These subtle traits in musicians are largely unknown to the audience, but at the heart of the risk a musician takes with every note playing. My photo essay accompanies my wife and her band the Maria Baptist Quintet at various concerts at jazzclub A-Trane in Berlin. The images provide an intimate look at the musicians and their relationship to jazz as a way of life.

Musicians in order of appearance: Maria Baptist, Heinz Lichius, Fabian Timm, Richard Maegraith, Jan von Klewitz

AUTHOR: Anna Baptist (Germany)