This is one of the best jazz clubs I have been to.
Never mind me reviewing the drink options.
They sell bottled beers out of a fridge.
No one gets them for you.
You pay on the honor system.
They have empty glasses.
You can pour yourself a glass of water.
You are really here for the music straight up.
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Jazzkeller 69 is an free-jazz and bop club founded by Assi Glode and Willi Kellers.
Assi Glode is a long standing Berlin jazz entrepreneur who regardless of his day job spends much of his time organizing jazz concerts.
Willi Kellers is an Elvin Jones quality drummer with his own takes.
The Jazzkeller is NOT a place you can just go any night that you feel like hearing Jazz.
They are closed most nights and open only when they have something really special worth hearing.
One semi regular event they call "Freebop - No Standards".
The name is a slight misnomer. There will be no jazz standards played to be sure, but most of the music is Coltrane era experimental and not bop per se.
There is also very little post experimental.
You go to Donau 115 for that.
Freebop -No Standards is an open call for any jazz musician in Berlin to just show up and get a chance to play.
The music is forking amazing.
The night we were there, at least 30 musicians must have shown up.
My wife and I were one of the few people in the room who were not Berlin jazz musicians or close friends of a Berlin jazz musician.
Assi Glode divides people arbitrarily up into groups of four and people get one chance to play.
A very small number of distinguished eminence-grises will get two chances to play.
Most of the jazz artists are between 55 and 85.
A few younger artists show up. The youngest ones are probably students of the older figures.
Out of the thirty musicians we heard on Freebop No Standards night, at least twelve did legendary sets.
We were completely rapt.
No one who played was bad.
This is NOT true of Berlin jazz as a whole.
We have heard some wretched material in competing establishments.
(Not however at Donau 115).
* * *
Berlin is an incredible town for both jazz and classical.
Classical ticket prices will bankrupt you.
You get what you pay for - music to remember for a lifetime.
But you have to be as rich as Count Esterhazy to hear classical every night in Berlin.
In contrast, the jazz musicians play - literally for a song.
I have no idea how they survive with the negligible amount of money they are earning
But they are playing music worthy of the great jazz gods.
Get yourself to Jazzkeller 69 or Donau 115.
These places are cash only.
(Americans: This means Euros).
If you truly love music, put some extra Euros in the hat. read more
