Big Relief 2025

The event is over. Big Relief took place on 10 and 11 May 2025. Registration for the next Big Relief will open in January 2032.

The project

From Saturday 10 May to Sunday 11 May 2025 there will be a 24-hour blues at the Kunst- und Musikschule der Stadt Brühl (Brühl’s municipal school of art and music, Liblarer Straße 12). “Big Relief” is the name of the venture: from 5 pm on Saturday to 5 pm on Sunday, the blues will be played in all kinds of line-ups, by everyone who wants to take part.

So while our blue planet turns once on its own axis, the music sounds without a break – the music that, like no other, embodies grief and vitality, beauty and fragility, passion and patience.

All of life in twelve bars!

Anyone can take part in this special event, whether student, amateur or professional musician. The blues can be simple or complex; it can consist of plain riffs or of virtuoso improvisations. Every contribution is welcome, and every kind of individual style helps to make it a success.

Everyone interested is also invited to come and listen for a while at any time of the day or night, perhaps have a drink and enjoy the music. When Big Relief was first held in 2018, 92 musicians and more than 500 listeners in all took part at different times.

The event is organised by Matthias Petzold and Andi Reisner. Several other teachers from the Kunst- und Musikschule will also be there to support the music.

How it works

If you would like to take part, you can register by e-mail. We have divided the 24 hours into 32 sessions of 45 minutes each. So that participants can form suitable line-ups and we can keep a better overview, you can sign up for particular times. Registered musicians are then entered in a table, so that you can see who already wants to play at which times. This table is updated weekly.

Registration:

• kums@bruehl.de
• via the contact form

Line-up table

Both individual musicians and existing bands can register. Taking part several times at different times is possible and welcome.

At all times a KuMs teacher will be present to keep a bit of order, deal with practical problems and support the music when needed. The aim in making music together is not perfection but creativity and spontaneous interplay. Just one thing: stop … the blues must never stop!

Chord forms and play-alongs

The key of the blues is G major; the groove and the tempo may vary. As a musical form, the blues is by nature stylistically very diverse and can include different harmonic variants. For two variants we have provided play-alongs that participants can use to prepare the blues.

The “original blues” with a shuffle groove:

Urblues (original blues)

The mainstream jazz blues:

Standard Jazz Blues

The arrangement

Since horn players always like to play from an arrangement now and then, we have arranged two specially composed blues themes and transposed them for all wind instruments. There is also a sheet of different horn riffs that can be used as needed.

For pianists and bassists who are unsure about playing from chord symbols, there is a written-out part.

On request, the music will be sent to participants by e-mail in advance.

The important thing is: these arrangements are not the piece. The piece is the blues, which keeps on going. The arrangements and riffs can be worked into the blues when it fits. But it is just as possible – and perhaps even more in the spirit of the blues – to play completely freely.

Workshops

To try out what it feels like to make music without a break, and to practise working with the arrangements and riffs and the changeover between different line-ups on the fly, we are offering two preparatory workshops that the musicians can attend.

The workshops take place on the following dates:

Sat 26 April, 3–5 pm, Room 114, led by Matthias Petzold
Kunst- und Musikschule, Liblarer Straße 12–14

Sat 3 May, 3–5 pm, led by Andi Reisner

We also ask you to register briefly for the workshops.

Matthias Petzold, Andi Reisner