The SWR NEWJazz Meeting project aims to help artists develop exciting projects that are difficult to realise under existing conditions. Since its founding in 1966, it has served as a driving force for new trends in jazz. Lukas Kranzelbinder, curator of the 2018 edition, has already established himself as one of the most active and versatile bassists of the young Austrian music scene. He brought together six artists for this project, including the novelist Fiston Mwanza Mujila, in a band called “On boit lumumba – We drink lumumba!”. The name of the band references Patrice Lumumba (first Congolese Prime Minister and African freedom fighter at the beginning of the 1960s) and the popular cocoa, milk and rum drink with the same name. To quote the curator: “There is of course an absurdity in this connection, which in turn relates to the topics Fiston deals with in his writings.”