Don’t shout it out too loud but Dottendorf is rapidly establishing itself as a top address for the modern jazz scene. There are only around two hundred seats available at the Kulturzentrum anyway, and lately you need to get there early to secure one of them. Friday’s appearance by Berlin-based Lisa Bassenge was further proof of the quality music that Dottendorf has to offer jazz fans.

Bassenge enchanted everyone with her current stage show dedicated to the ‘mothers’ of popular music. There are some surprise names in that set too. Dolly Parton’s ‘Wildflowers’, was particularly special for Bassenge, who, as the daughter of an Iranian immigrant knows how it feels to be uprooted

“So I uprooted myself from my home ground and left. Took my dreams and I took to the road.

When a flower grows wild. It can always survive. Wildflowers don’t care where they grow”

An evening of beautiful songs, beautifully sung, taken from a varied and talented selection of music ladies. Tammy Wynette (‘Til I Get It Right’), Lady Gaga (‘Joanne’), Joni Mitchell (‘Woodstock’, Robyn (‘Dancing on my Own’). There were powerful interpretations of songs by men too, especially the meditational flow of Dylan’s ‘Don’t Think Twice’ and the moving Warren Zevon song ‘Keep Me In Your Heart For A While’. Nick Drake’s ‘Parasite’ too was memorable, with dramatic swirling, chaotic piano perfectly underpinning the swirling mind of Drake himself whose genius was blighted by depression.

Bassenge’s husband Andreas Langknew perfectly when to shine and when to blend in (“I loved his playing so much that I married him” she smiled). Almost as powerful as Bassenge’s voice on this emotional evening was the piano accompaniment of Jacob Karlzon who really made his keyboard weep and shout out throughout an evening that will long be remembered by those lucky enough to have discovered this little gem of a concert hall tucked away in Dottendorf.