Big energy across the board this week. Fred Wesley brings the funk to Zig Zag. Julia Hülsmann releases her first ECM octet record across two nights at A-Trane. Alexander von Schlippenbach plays a birthday concert at Sowieso. And Thundercat closes the week at Huxleys Neue Welt. Here are the eleven shows you should know about.

Julia Hülsmann Octet "While I Was Away" Album Release · A-Trane · 20:30 (Tuesday + Wednesday)

Julia Hülsmann has been one of Germany's finest jazz pianists for two decades, building a remarkably consistent ECM discography that keeps getting stronger. After three acclaimed quartet albums (Not Far From Here, The Next Door, Under The Surface), she's expanded to an octet for the first time, and the result is something genuinely new. While I Was Away combines a classical trio (violin, cello, piano) with a jazz piano trio, then adds three vocalists: Angolan singer Aline Frazão, Norwegian vocalist Live Maria Roggen, and Berlin's own Michael Schiefel, who Hülsmann has known since they were students together in 1991. The compositions weave Emily Dickinson, Margaret Atwood, and E.E. Cummings into music that moves between Brazilian dance, chamber music dynamics, and free improvisation. These are the Berlin dates on the release tour, and the A-Trane is the right room for it.

Fred Wesley Generations · Zig Zag Jazz Club · Early Show 18:30 / Late Show 21:00

Fred Wesley is 82 years old and still one of the funkiest musicians alive. As James Brown's musical director and trombonist with the JB Horns, he helped build the foundation of funk music. He's played with Ray Charles, Count Basie, Maceo Parker, Prince, and Tina Turner, and he's arguably the most sampled horn player in the world, which makes him a quiet architect of hip hop too. Generations started in 2014 as a Jimmy Smith tribute with Italian organist Leonardo Corradi and French drummer Tony Match, but the chemistry was so immediate they never stopped. Three musicians, three countries, three generations, one deep groove. Two shows on Wednesday, so no excuses.

Hugo Fernandez Quartett "Rivermind" Album Release · A-Trane · 20:30

Mexican guitarist Hugo Fernandez studied at Berklee, spent a decade in Madrid, did time in New Orleans, and has now been in Berlin for six years. His sixth album "Rivermind" was recorded here in 2025, featuring seven new compositions that blend jazz with folk and pop influences in ways that feel organic rather than calculated. The quartet includes pianist Daniel Stawinski (who draws on Balkan, Persian, and Cuban traditions), American bassist Matt Adomeit, and Austrian drummer Mathias Ruppnig. The Haus der Kulturen der Welt once called his compositions "a prospective vision of jazz." Thursday at the A-Trane.

FUSAK · B-Flat · 21:00

FUSAK is the project of Panos Voulgaris, a Greek guitarist and composer based in Berlin. The band plays contemporary jazz that bridges West and East, tradition and innovation, with Alexander Gibson on trumpet, Elia Baioni on bass, and Alessandro Rizzato on percussion. An international quartet making exploratory, boundary-crossing music. Doors at 20:00.

Schlippenbach / Bauer / Hertenstein: Joe's Birthday Concert · Sowieso · 20:00

Billed as a birthday concert for drummer Joe Hertenstein, but the real draw is the company he's keeping. Alexander von Schlippenbach is a grandmaster of European free jazz, a pianist who has championed the form since its inception in the 1960s. He founded the Globe Unity Orchestra and has been a central figure in Berlin's improvised music scene for over half a century. With Matthias Bauer on double bass and Hertenstein on drums, this is a piano trio stripped to essentials, playing music that's unpredictable, alive, and completely in the moment. Sowieso's tiny room is the perfect setting. If you care about creative music in this city, don't miss this one.

Micatone · Zig Zag Jazz Club · 20:00

Micatone is a Berlin institution. Since 1999, vocalist Lisa Bassenge and guitarist/synth player Boris Meinhold have been making music that helped define the nujazz genre, linking drum & bass, house, and trip hop with folk and jazz. Five studio albums, a production connection to Jazzanova's Stefan Leisering, and a sound that's unmistakably Berlin. After a period of quieter activity, they've been on a comeback trajectory with new singles that prove the formula still works. Friday at Zig Zag.

Sylwester Ostrowski Sextet "One Voice" · Zig Zag Jazz Club · 20:30

A meeting point of three distinct musical worlds. Polish saxophonist Sylwester Ostrowski brings lyrical phrasing and deep roots in the Szczecin jazz scene, where he runs the annual jazz festival. Amsterdam-based vocalist Graziëlla Hunsel Rivero adds her own interpretive depth. And Cuban trumpeter Carlos Sarduy, who holds three Grammy Awards from collaborations with Chucho Valdés and Ojos de Brujo, brings the heat. The program "One Voice" treats jazz as a universal language, and the combination of Polish romanticism, Cuban fire, and Amsterdam elegance sounds like something you'd want to experience live.

Stephanie Lottermoser "10 Years Together" · A-Trane · 20:30 (Saturday + Sunday)

Stephanie Lottermoser celebrates a decade of performing at the A-Trane across two nights timed for International Women's Day. The Hamburg-based saxophonist and singer is one of the most prominent voices in the German jazz scene, with festival appearances at ELBJAZZ, Jazz Baltica, and the London Jazz Festival. In 2026, she's also serving as artistic director for the Hamburg State Youth Jazz Orchestra. Her quartet features Maik Schott on keys, Robert Schulenburg on bass, and Tobias Held on drums.

Reznichenko / Braun / Viner / Steidle · Sowieso · 20:00

Oliver Steidle is one of Berlin's most inventive drummers, a restless collaborator who shows up everywhere the music is interesting. Jeremy Viner is an American multi-instrumentalist (saxophone, clarinet) based in Berlin, who has performed with Tyshawn Sorey, Steve Lehman, and Anna Webber, and appeared at Jazzfest Berlin, Moers, and the North Sea Jazz Festival. With pianist Olga Reznichenko and guitarist Arne Braun rounding out the quartet, this is the kind of one-off improvised music session that Sowieso does better than anywhere else in this city.

PSQ · B-Flat · 21:00

Paul Scheugenpflug is on a debut album release tour and bringing momentum. The young saxophonist picked up the 2024 Newcomer Jazz Prize from Rhineland-Palatinate, followed by the Dörken Foundation Jazz Design Award in 2025, plus the Biberach Jazz Award and a Frankfurt Jazz Scholarship with the collective FÄZZ. His music balances catchy melodies with energetic improvisation, blending groove-based jazz with hip-hop and pop influences. The quartet includes Lion Lauer on keys, Moritz Neukam on bass, and Joshua Knauber on drums. Sunday night at B-Flat.

Thundercat · Huxleys Neue Welt · 20:00

Stephen Bruner, better known as Thundercat, is probably the most famous bassist in the world right now. Grammy winner, key collaborator on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, regular co-conspirator with Flying Lotus, and solo artist whose albums (Drunk, It Is What It Is) obliterate genre boundaries between jazz-fusion, R&B, hip-hop, and psychedelic electronics. Live, he switches between virtuosic six-string bass runs and soulful vocals with an ease that comes from growing up in a family of musicians (his father played drums for the Temptations and Diana Ross). This isn't a jazz club show. It's a 1,500-capacity venue, and tickets may already be thin. But if you care about where jazz, funk, and experimental music intersect in 2026, Thundercat is the conversation.

See you out there.