This has to be amongst the highlights of this year’s Dottendorfer Jazznacht in Bonn. A breathtaking performance by two of Sweden’s finest: singer Viktoria Tolstoy and pianist Jacob Karlzon.

Tolstoy is the great-great-granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy, which puts me in mind of Meghan and Rebecca of Larkin Poe with Edgar Allen Poe as their Great, Great Great Grandfather. As with the aforementioned Larkin Poe, Viktoria Tolstoy’s success owes nothing to the family name — she has spent three decades working hard to become one of the most respected voices in European jazz, praised even by Pat Metheny, who once told her: “When you sing, the sun rises.” Add to that vibrant voice Jacob Karlzon, a pianist known for his warmth, technical brilliance, and gift for atmosphere who has been her musical partner for more than twenty years, and that closeness shows. Together they perform as an intimate duo, and on this particular evening in Bonn, the intuitivness between the two musicians was truly spellbinding.

In 1926, the rural municipality of Godesberg received a very special permission by decree from the Prussian Ministry of the Interior: it could call itself Bad Godesberg! Saturday (9 Sept) was the day for celebrating in 1920’s style but Friday saw a very special concert by the ‘Bad Godesberg All-Stars (‘Godesberger Glanzlichter) that showed BG in it’s very best musical light – Marcus Schinkel, Norfired Baum, Astatine, Uwe Arenz, Johannes Kuchta… local heroes all. So what if it rained a lot . We had something they didn’t have in 1926 – plastic rain ponchos!

May 7 2017 was a special evening at Bonn Folk Club. For one, the TV cameras of WDR came down to introduce the show to a wider audience. The other reason didn’t seem so important at the time, but proved to be – it was the appearance by a young man who had been drawing big crowds playing on the streets of Bonn. His name Melchi Vepouyoum. My REVIEW at the time said “Melchi is someone you might see playing on a street corner whilst the Justin Biebers of this world play to arenas. Is there any justice in this world? No there is not”. Well he still isn’t playing stadiums, but Melchi in 2026 has played Bonn Harmonie with his own band and at Stadtgarten this evening showed that early promise was no fluke. Together with the United Nations house-band reUNited this was an evening of familiar faces and once again proof that the streets of Bonn are paved, if not currently with gold, at least with excellent musicians.

Kunstrasen Bonn – 9 July 2026

The ‘Nutty Boys’ have now grown up it’s true (Suggs is now 65 after all) but Sax player Lee Thompson still finds time to fly paper planes into the crowd and Suggs himself rejoices in the politics of novelty UK Candidate Count Binface. There is a brief attempt to play the experienced advocate of good sense when Suggs warns young audience members to “get an education” and “Don’t become troublemakers like him!” at which point he waggles an accusing finger at Thompson, who has just retrieved his tambourine from the photopit after a failed attempt to throw it over a mike stand several feet away. They may not be nutty boys anymore, but Madness still know how to have fun, and the 3,700 strong audience at Bonn Kunstrasen are with them all the way – many wearing red fezzes in anticipation of ‘Nightboat to Cairo’.

The theme was ‘Dreams’ but Folk Club Bonn #169 looked in danger of of being a Nightmare for the organizers. Announcements that Bonn’s main artery the Nordbrücke was now completely closed off left many wondering about chaos on the roads, and gathering grey thunderhead clouds too suggested it might be a night to stay at home in the dry. Indeed, by the time things got underway a look at the rear balcony at Dotty’s revealed the slightly bizarre sight of people on the tennis courts with sunglasses on being pelted by a fierce rain shower.