The concert series “Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic” has set itself the ambition to reflect current developments and shifts in jazz, and in European jazz in particular, ever since it started. A new configuration of musicians is assembled for each concert, the focus is placed on a different theme, and the results have invariably been truly memorable one-off concerts. At the beginning, this approach might have seemed something of a risk, but the idea has evolved to the point where it has been described by Berlin's respected regional broadcaster RBB as “a successful formula for delivering very great concerts.” “Celtic Roots” was another in this line of triumphs; success has evidently now become a matter of habit.
This concert re-traced the paths taken by celtic music as it traversed European culture, and also charted its influence on jazz. Modern celtic music in all its depth and breadth has a continuous tradition which manifestly pre-dates the nineties wave of world music and ethno-music. Turning the clock back again, jazz had also been influenced by folk music long before the revivals of the sixties and seventies. Following the waves of emigration from Ireland and Scotland in the nineteenth century, elements of celtic music were present in the origins of American country music and of the blues, above all in the southern states of the US, but also later in New York.