The Darmstadt Jazzforum is an international conference taking place every other year since 1989 and focuses on different topics in each edition. It is an unique mix featuring an international conference, concerts, workshops or exhibitions. Each Jazzforum has been documented in our book series “Darmstädter Beiträge zur Jazzforschung” (“Darmstadt Contributions to Jazz Research” published by Wolke, Berlin), a book series of eighteen volumes up-to-now which focuses on jazz scholarship and documentation.

Jazzforum 2027 - Call for Papers

The 20th Darmstadt Jazzforum takes place between September 22 and 26, 2027 . It will focus on the thematic field of archives, jazz, and questions of knowledge and sense-making. At its core, jazz is understood as a specific artistic practice that can only be partially represented within traditional archival and documentation frameworks. This raises fundamental questions about the relationship between event, document, and cultural transmission. Furthermore, archives are approached as active spaces of knowledge production: as sites of selection and canon formation, in the context of growing amounts of material and a broader shift from scarcity to excess. This also raises questions of how relevance is constructed and stabilised today.

The 19th Darmstadt Jazzforum(UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS – jazz, spirituality and the Blues of good life) ° took place from September 24 to 28, 2025. All lectures and discussions are expected to be published in the 19th volume of the "Darmstadt Contributions to Jazz Research" (Darmstädter Beiträge zur Jazzforschung) in fall 2026.

Previous Darmstadt Jazzforums dealt with subjects as “Darmstädter Jazzforum 89” (1989), “Jazz und Komposition” (1991), “Jazz in Europa” (1993), “Jazz in Deutschland” (1995), “Jazz und Sprache” (jazz and language; 1997), “Duke Ellington und die Folgen” (Duke Ellington and what next; 1999), “Jazz und Gesellschaft” (Jazz and Society; 2001), “Improvisieren…” (2003), “Verrat!!… oder Chance. Der Jazz und sein gespaltenes Verhälnis zur Popmusik” (Treason !!! … or Opportunity? Jazz and its ambivalent relationship(s) with popular music; 2005), „Begegnungen… The World meets Jazz“ (2007), „Spannung | Tension. Albert Mangelsdorff“ (2009), „Jazz.Schule.Medien.“ (2011), „Jazzdebatten / jazz debates“ (2013), „Gender and Identity in Jazz“ (2015), „Jazz@100“ (2017), „Positionen! Jazz und Politik“ (2019), „Roots | Heimat. Wie offen ist der Jazz?“ (2021), „Destination Unknown – Die Zukunft des Jazz“ (2023)