Ben Kraef/Rainer Böhm Quartet

Advance booking 18 euros / AK 20 euros

Tickets are available from May 2026 at the local advance booking offices Touristinfo, theatre office and BBV Bocholt and online at https://www.tixforgigs.com/de-DE/Event/73655

Ben Kraef (saxophone), Rainer Böhm (piano), Henning Gailing (bass), Hendrik Smock (drums)

The guest of the 123rd Bocholt Jazz Evening is the Berlin-based German-Montenegrin saxophonist and composer Ben Kraef. Kraef was already a guest in Bocholt a few years ago when the Kinodrom was still playing. A scholarship enabled him to study with John Patitucci and Lee Konitz at City College in New York. He has also won prizes in various national and international competitions, such as the Biberach Jazz Prize, the Concours International de Jazz de Fribourg and the Yamaha Saxophone Contest. The list of jazz musicians with whom Ben has shared the stage is long: Lalo Schifrin, Archie Shepp, Phil Woods, John Abercrombie, John Clayton, Fred Hersch, Gunther Schuller, TaniaMaria, Jim Mc Neely, Peter Herbolzheimer, David Gilmore, Jeff "Tain" Watts, James Genus, George Garzone, Herb Geller, Vincent Herring, Pee Wee Ellis, Ari Hoenig, Charles Tolliver, the Bigband des Hessischen Rundfunks and the WDR Bigband. His debut album 'Berlin - New York' was released by ACT in 2010. 'Berlin - New York' was recorded in New York with John Patitucci, Marcus Gilmore and Rainer Böhm. Kraef's second album 'Think of One' (shoebill music) featured jazz legend Albert 'Tootie' Heath and John Patitucci. In addition to his artistic activities, Ben Kraef has been teaching at the Jazz Institute Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts) since 2021, and Rainer Böhm, with whom Kraef recorded his debut album, will be playing piano on this concert evening. Böhm is an absolute top-class pianist. He is a professor in Mannheim and Würzburg and a sought-after sideman. Together with bassist Henning Gailing and drummer Hendrik Smock, who is finally making a guest appearance in Bocholt again after a long time, he forms a brilliant rhythm section.