Jazzy Dusseldorf!
City Rolls Out the Barrel for Music Festival

How long has it been since you’ve done a cartwheel? Now here you are in Dusseldorf, having so much fun that you just might go sailing down the middle of the street flipping along from hand to foot. Okay, that's probably not a good idea. But if you did, the residents of this fun-loving city would understand---the cartwheel has long been a symbol of the spirit of Dusseldorf. The city has a famous bronze statue showing children performing the feat and you’ll find a stylized cartwheel logo representing the city on stickers, posters, t-shirts and brochures. I visited the city during its annual jazz rally to find out just why it’s so easy to go head-over-heels for Dusseldorf.

Although Dusseldorf is a very old and historic city, it is also a place where modern architecture and design is heartily embraced. How the city makes this contrast work is most evident from Old Town, a section of the city that stretches out along the Rhine River. Old Town is one of the main draws for visitors and standing at one end of its riverside promenade is the Schiffahrt-Museum im Schlossturm, a shipping museum housed in a castle tower that is a remnant of a palace that burned down in 1872. In the fairly immediate area are many other old structures, including the town hall and its impressive statue of Elector Jan Wellem on horseback. Amongst the historic buildings you’ll find a footpath over the Dussel River; here the waterway that gave the city its name flows into the nearby Rhine. Adjacent to the bridge is the city’s founder’s monument, a complex bit of statuary that displays the various hardships that had to be overcome in order to establish a settlement here. The monument sits at the spot where the first chapel in Dusseldorf was constructed. Amazingly, a mere half mile down the riverside promenade, the city’s modern side is proudly on display. Here in an area called Media Harbor you’ll find buildings designed by the likes of Frank Gehry, Claude Vasconi, Steven Holl and David Chipperfield. Keeping an eye on everything in the area is the Rhine Tower, a giant communications tower that offers visitors an unparalleled view of the city from its observation platform and its revolving restaurant. This area is also populated with many places for the “hip” crowd to gather; nightclubs sporting names like 3001, MK2 and Harpoon are favorites.  Right on the edge of Media Harbor is one of the city’s newest venues, an art gallery called Kunst-im-Tunnel, or KIT. At the entrance to KIT you’ll see only a small building housing a coffee shop as the art gallery lies underground in what used to be a disused utility tunnel. Take the steps or elevator down and you can enjoy a space now dedicated to showcasing area artists who have a flair for the avant-garde. The whole Old Town/Media Harbor area is very easily navigated on your own on foot and the city has a tourist information center there where you can find maps or if you prefer, sign up for guided tours. Cruises along the Rhine are available too; you can take your chances by just walking up to the docks here but if you want to be sure to get on board it is best to make a reservation. Most of the cruises operate at least two times a day. And let’s not forget; this is Germany! We need to talk about beer!

At the Old Town end of the Rhine promenade is a bustling square called Burgplatz. This is the best place to start your Old Town tour and it is where the tourist office is. It’s also a great shopping and dining area and a wonderful place for beer lovers! Taverns of every size and sort line the streets and many offer outdoor seating so you can people-watch while you indulge in some schnitzel and a frosty mug. Some of the favorite beers in Dusseldorf are Schlosser, Frankenheim and Uerige and at many of the bars they’ll literally roll out the barrel for you! Barkeeps here don’t change the keg the way they do in the States; they do it the old fashioned way by using their feet to roll the wooden barrels of precious suds right up to the tap. Somehow these delicious beers taste even better when you know your glass is coming right off the top of a fresh barrel. The overall atmosphere at Burgplatz makes it the perfect location for the city to hold one of its most fun events---the annual Dusseldorf Jazz Rally!

Every May Burgplatz and the surrounding area come alive when dozens of performers and thousands of fans converge for the Dusseldorf Jazz Rally. The event celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2007 with a wide range of players sending their notes out into the night from dozens of mostly outdoor venues. The biggest “indoor” venue was a tented space set up on the bank of the Rhine called the Konzertzelt. Complete with a couple bars to serve the thirsty, this large, standing room only venue was filled to capacity every night and especially packed with fans on the festival’s closing night. The Konzertzelt was buzzing with fusion jazz that evening as Wolfgang Haffner took the stage and warmed up the crowd for perennial favorite Klaus Doldinger and his band Passport.  The sax man took bow after bow from the adoring crowd and obliged them with an encore of “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Down the street, at a completely outdoor stage, Blue Flagship had their audience dancing to a mix of well known early rock songs like “Kansas City.” Blue Flagship is made up of European musicians but the group has an American sound thanks to their lead singer, the Alabama-born Tommy Harris. The 2007 festival line-up was overseen by Ali Haurand of the International Jazz Quintet and he brought tremendous variety to the stages: Dotschy Reinhardt playing gypsy swing, contemporary jazz from the Daniel Kuffer Quartet, dueling pianos from Hauschka and Adam Butler, vocal jazz from Jazzox, Latin jazz from Kate the Cat, big band from the Young Sinatras, Dixieland from the Atlanta Jazzband and on and on to a total of more than 75 artists. Many of these shows were free; others required the purchase of a festival button to get in. The festival also hosts a couple of shows each year away from the Burgplatz area; these are the most popular acts that require a large venue. Local favorite Roger Cicero was the biggest headliner in 2007 and he performed in an LTU Airlines (now Air Berlin) hangar at the Dusseldorf Airport (shuttle buses ran about every ten minutes.) Yes, it’s enough to make a music lover want to, well, do a cartwheel!

Air Berlin has direct flights to Dusseldorf from many U.S. gateways. Find their flight schedule at: www.airberlin.com

I stayed at Lindner Hotels’ Rhein Residence Hotel which is where a lot of musicians appearing at the festival stay. It is about a 10 Euro cab ride away from Old Town and Burgplatz. There are a couple of lively taverns within walking distance of the hotel. www.lindner.de

For information on the line-up for Jazz Rally, go to: www.duesseldorfer-jazzrally.de

For more information on Dusseldorf, visit: www.duesseldorf-tourismus.de

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