Jazzfest Berlin Features Globe Unity Orchestra's Likely Final Concert

The Globe Unity Orchestra, celebrating six decades of existence, took to the stage at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele on 1 November 2026 for Jazzfest Berlin in what its founder and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach suggested could be a farewell performance. Speaking to taz ahead of the concert, von Schlippenbach said it was "most likely the last appearance" of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and that the ensemble intended to draw a kind of balance from everything it had done and experienced.

Von Schlippenbach founded the orchestra in 1966, after rejecting a Jazzfest Berlin commission for a string quartet with two jazz soloists and proposing instead to try free jazz with a larger group. The ensemble's name has two separate origins: "Globe" was inspired by composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann's concept of the spherical shape of time — the idea that past, present and future form a single unified whole — while "Unity" came from US jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, who always spoke of a "Unit," meaning a union of musicians.

From the 1980s onward, the orchestra shifted to playing entirely by free improvisation, driven by what von Schlippenbach calls the improvisatory impetus — an energy he regards as crucial to the music. He acknowledged that concerts did not always produce equally happy results, but described that inherent risk as part of the form's beauty.

Von Schlippenbach, born in Berlin in 1938, is considered one of the founding figures of European free jazz. He has long argued that free jazz must swing — a quality he sees as fundamental and unique to the tradition.