Congratulations to the Luca Zambito Quartet for winning the Munich Jazz Award 2021.

On November 12, 2021, three ensembles contested the finals of the Munich Jazz Prize 2021: the Karoline Weidt Quartet, the Lukas Langguth Trio and the Luca Zambito Quartet.

"In the end, the race goes to the quartet around pianist Luca Zambito, not because it is a band of local heroes with saxophonist Moritz Stahl, bassist Nils Kugelmann and drummer Valentin Renner, but because of a collective playing energy that summarizes the modernity of combo jazz in one set with cheerful matter-of-factness. There are no walls of stylistic understanding torn down, but basics brought to the point: the common creative desire as a motor of inspiration, the prudent and effective handling of the dramaturgy up to ecstatic moments, the palpable joy in exactly this music at this very moment. During the award ceremony, the term "jazz jazz" is used with a mischievous wink. And in this case it does not have the connotation of art for insiders, but is intended as a predicate. That, too, is a discourse that was conducted at the Young Munich Jazz Award." (Ralf Dombrowski, Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 14, 2021)