From Another World
Willie Colon, Tangent Mek, Quentin Cholet Trio
Frequency Festival 2026
I’m sending this week’s newsletter from Chicago, where Frequency Festival, the event I organize every February here, mounts its tenth edition starting Tuesday, February 24, running through March 1. You can see the entire lineup here, and if you’re in Chicago I sure hope you’d consider checking one or more of the concerts. Lovely previews by Bill Meyer in the Chicago Reader and Hannah Edgar in the Chicago Tribune can provide some outside perspective on the lineup, because I’m certainly an unreliable narrator in this case.
Because I’m a little preoccupied with the festival, this week’s newsletter is shorter than usual and it also covers two weeks of recommended shows happening in Berlin, rather than one. The next newsletter will be published on March 9.
Adiós a El Malo
Due to my current situation I’m not able to meaningfully reflect on the passing of the brilliant bandleader, composer and musician Willie Colón on Saturday, February 21. We’ll steer clear of his political career, which tarnished his legacy, as he embraced Trump. But I would feel stupid for not marking his loss. Apart from forging and honing a singular strain of salsa, amping up the metallic bite of his trombone section so it bores into the cranium like a drill, he was the guy that introduced the world-at-large to singers Hector Lavoe and Rubén Blades, among others, and his tunes covered a remarkable spectrum of attack, mood, and form. Perhaps only Eddie Palmieri matched his vision, sense of innovation, and influence. His gangster image during his heyday with Lavoe remains a paradigm for myth cultivation and hard-ass persona. His discography is vast, but his years at Fania during the 60s and 70s stand as a highwater mark in modern salsa, and there’s no album I love as much as Lo Mato, a 1973 stone cold killer with Lavoe. The tunes, the arrangements, and the singing are all unfuckwithable, but I will forever associate Colón with “Calle Luna Calle Sol.”
Straddling Worlds With Tangent Mek
I’m incredibly excited to catch the Berlin debut of the Switzerland-based trio Tangent Mek on Sunday March 8 at KM28. I included their remarkable debut album Immutable Traveler when I collected my 40 favorite albums of 2025, and it’s maintained its hold upon me, piling up folk-flavored balladry, extended textural excursions, collective improvisation, and chamber music sonorities, not as distinct approaches but simply as evolving terrain as the moment calls for it. That disparate quality from French violinist Anouck Genthon, Greek flutist Marina Tantanozi, and Finnish viola de gamba player Anna-Kaisa Meklin shifts around so much it’s hard to be sure where the group’s center resides, but that’s hardly worth fretting over.
It’s delightful that an unabashedly beautiful vocal piece like the title track can be followed by the fiercely aerated drone, marbling breath and grain in a dynamic act of levitation “Say it clear, say it loud,” which you can check out below. Elsewhere there’s the stunning opening piece “Glass Harmonica,” where upper register flute and violin shapes float and collide over occasional strums and terse patters on viola de gamba suggest the eerie sound of the titular instrument, while the gradual accretion of fluttering, spitting, and cycling sounds in “Drizzle” conjures a cave-like atmosphere, thickening and intensifying as it unfolds. Tangent Mek’s tour is in support of Immutable Traveler’s reissue as a CD release from the French imprint Carton on March 6.
Quentin Cholet Keeps it Cool
It doesn’t matter how long I’ve lived in Berlin, the influx of new musicians is steady enough that I’m always playing catch-up and discovering new players. I’ve encountered Quentin Cholet’s name many times since moving to the city, but I’d never listened to his playing until encountering his terrific trio album Causerie Préliminaire (Boomslang) last fall. The group, with reedist Jeremy Viner and double bassist Felix Henkelhausen is playing at Donau115 on Friday, March 6, and it’s easygoing, often sensual attack is hard to resist. I don’t know much about Cholet at all, but he composed all of the music, which resides squarely in a post-bop vein, braiding elegance, measured exploration, and cooly effervescent grooves. Viner’s agile playing on tenor saxophone and clarinet takes center stage, navigating the modest but uniformly attractive themes which all transmit tender melodic grace.
Naturally, the trio format leaves everything exposed, so behind Viner’s eloquent improvisations we can also zoom in on the sure-handed, sophisticated machinations of Cholet and Henkelhausen. It’s a real treat to bask in the bassist’s crisp time and tonal precision, especially on a piece like the ballad “The Fin of a Fish in Water,” where each tone carries authority and full-bodied richness, both in the stepwise arco patterns and woody pizz. The leader possesses plenty of confidence, spreading the rhythms across his kit without ever sticking in any single feel for too long, while maintaining a cool equanimity even on the most propulsive material, such as “Exitus Letalis,” which you can hear below.
Recommended Shows in Berlin Over the Next Two Weeks
February 24: Geori (Dasom Baek, daegeum, Jung Jae Kim, saxophone, and Jared Redmond, piano, 8:30 PM, 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
February 25: Die Enttäuschung (Rudi Mahall, bass clarinet, clarinet, Axel Dörner, trumpet, Jan Roder, double bass, and Kasper Tom, drums), 8:30 PM, Panda Theater, Knaackstraße 97, (i.d. Kulturbrauerei, Gebäude 8) 10435, Berlin
February 25: Judith Hamann, cello, voice, tape; Sam Dunscombe, solo electronics, 8:30 PM, 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
February 27: Mari Boine, 8 PM, Philharmonie Berlin, chamber music hall, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin
February 27: Die Enttäuschung (Rudi Mahall,bass clarinet, clarinet, Axel Dörner, trumpet, Jan Roder, double bass, and Kasper Tom, drums), 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
February 28: Raymond MacDonald, alto and soprano saxophones, and Günter Baby Sommer, drums, percussion, with guest Ulrich Gumpert, piano, 8 PM, Alter Schwede, Schwedenstraße 11A, 13357 Berlin
February 28: Rudi Mahall Copenhagen Quartet (Rudi Mahall, clarinet, bass clarinet, Artur Tuznik, piano, Richard Andersson, double bass, and Kasper Tom, drums), 8:30 PM, Donau115, Donaustraße 115, 12043 Berlin
February 28: Philipp Gropper, saxophone, Marta Warelis, piano, synthesizer, Vinicius Cajado, double bass, and Marius Wankel, drums, 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
March 1: Ictus Ensemble play Steve Reich’s Drumming Part I – IV, 7 PM, Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstraße 50-51, 10557 Berlin
March 1: Rully Shabara and DJ Die Soon, 8 PM, Morphine Raum, Köpenicker Straße 147, 10997 Berlin (Hinterhof 1. Etage)
March 1: Earscratcher (Dave Rempis, alto saxophone, Elisabeth Harnik, piano, Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello, electronics, and Tim Daisy, drums, percussion), 8 PM, Exploratorium, Zossener Strasse 24, 10961, Berlin
March 3: Meshell Ndegeocello, bass, keyboard, vocals with Chris Bruce, guitar, Abe Rounds, drums, vocals, and Jake Sherman, keyboards, 7:30 PM, Pierre Boulez Saal, Französische Straße 33d, 10117 Berlin
March 3: Tanya Tagaq, PΞB, 8 PM, Berghain, Am Wriezener Bahnhof, 10243 Berlin
March 3: Baby Sommers Brother & Sisterhood (Günter Baby Sommer, drums, Matthias Schubert, tenor saxophone, Raymond MacDonald alto saxophone, Anna Kaluza alto saxophone, Silke Eberhard, alto saxophone, Frank Gratkowski, alto saxophone, flute, Gebhard Ullmann, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, Johannes Enders, tenor saxophone, Anke Lucks, trombone, Gerhard Gschlößl, trombone, Shannon Barnett, trombone, Didrik Ingvaldsen, trumpet, Lina Allemano, trumpet, Martin Klingeberg, trumpet, voice, Nikolaus Neuser, trumpet, Uli Gumpert, piano, and Maike Hilbig, double bass), 8 PM, Studio Zentri Fuge, Malplaquetstraße 35 13347 Berlin
March 4: Pool Position (Nikolaus Neuser, trumpet, Silke Eberhard, alto saxophone
Sunk Pöschl, drums), 8:30 PM, Panda Theater, Knaackstraße 97, (i.d. Kulturbrauerei, Gebäude 8) 10435, Berlin
March 6: Şivan Perwer, 8 PM, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin
March 6: Alexander von Schlippenbach, piano, Matthias Bauer, double bass, and Joe Hertenstein, drums, 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
March 6: Quentin Cholet Trio (Quentin Chole, drums, Felix Henkelhausen, double bass, and Jeremy Viner, tenor Saxophone, clarinet), 8:30 PM, Donau115, Donaustraße 115, 12043 Berlin
March 7: Tamara Stefanovich, piano, 7 PM, Pierre Boulez Saal, Französische Straße 33d, 10117 Berlin
March 7: Nduduzo Makhathini, 8 PM, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin
March 8: Tangent Mek (Anouck Genthon, violin, Anna-Kaisa Meklin, viola da gamba, and Marina Tantanozi, flutes), 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
March 9: Fred Frith, guitar, voice, and Liz Allbee, trumpet, electronics, 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin