So many record sleeves are stuck to the wall behind the bar at King Georg in Cologne that you can barely make out the green wallpaper beneath. It’s a decorative line-up featuring Duke Ellington at Newport, Hobo Flats by Jimmy Smith, Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown plus a whole host of other legends – the favourite records of owner Jochen Axer, as the club’s manager, Jan Vater, explains. “Jochen turned up with a boot full of colour photocopies of his favourite covers and started decorating the place,” he tells us.
Axer bought King Georg in 2018 with the goal of creating a club that would get a wide audience excited about something he loves too: great jazz. The Cologne-based businessman set up a firm, Milestones GmbH, to manage the club, preferring to stay behind the scenes and leave the day-to-day running of the business to Jan Vater and his artistic director, Martin Sasse.
Ties with the international jazz scene
Sasse is a well-known figure in the jazz world. He’s currently touring Germany and Switzerland in various combos but he also has close ties with the international jazz scene, reaching far beyond Europe’s borders. His award-winning documentary, “Blue – Magical Moments in Jazz“, showcased artists from Germany, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and the US. Since Jochen Axer was also part of Sasse’s network, appointing Sasse as artistic director was a no-brainer. The concert offering at King Georg benefits hugely from Sasse’s network too. It hosts some impressive names for a venue that only holds 120, including top international artists like Kahil El Zabar, Judy Carmichael and Alex Harding.
“You can just tell he’s really serious about it”
Jan Vater, manager of King Georg, on owner Jochen Axer
Vater was part of the team at the club even before it changed hands. However, the previous owner, André Sauer, placed the musical focus on indie pop and rock when he took over the reins in 2008. “It’s true, I wasn’t really into jazz before,” Vater openly admits. But he does like the new direction King Georg has embarked on. “You can just tell he’s really serious about it,” he says.
He doesn’t mean the seriousness people always associate with the stereotypical jazz fan though – old, white, whisky-sipping gentlemen who see themselves as members of an exclusive community of experts. On the contrary, the aim at King Georg is precisely to put the spotlight on the kind of jazz everyone likes to listen to. The club has also built a close relationship with the nearby university of music and dance, thanks to Martin Sasse, and the Young Talent concerts regularly feature its students. The average age of the audience is around 30 on the other days too, as Vater stresses: “People come to us to hear good music, not to discuss the finer points of jazz theory.” Sasse’s concept is centred around “jazz, straight-ahead, modern and more”. So there’s nothing obscure or experimental. Nothing that’s interesting for specialists but leaves the rest of us with sore ears.
Nostalgic elegance lends a warm and inviting feel
The change in musical direction at King Georg brought a change in the club’s appearance too, with a “modern nostalgia” look. The first thing Axer did when he bought the place was give it a complete makeover. Nothing is left of the ragged interior of its indie past. The new furnishings are well thought-out, with retro elements to add a touch of friendly elegance. In addition, Axer invested in noise control measures to avoid the kind of dispute the indie rock predecessors had with the neighbours.
The result is a true gem of interior club design. King Georg is a treat for the ears and the eyes without losing any of its down-to-earthness, as reflected in the fair prices for drinks and tickets. The relatively small concert space also creates the sort of warm and friendly atmosphere Cologne is renowned for. Despite the international stars that occasionally perform here, there’s always a bit of a living-room vibe. Having said that, make sure you don’t get too comfy if you’re attending the first event of the evening – to cover at least some of their expenses, King Georg uses a scheduling system that’s common at jazz clubs in the US too. Vater explains, “The first performance begins at 7pm and lasts two hours. Then the audience leaves and there’s a 30-minute break before the next performance starts, with a new audience.” The system seems to work exceptionally well – often, both shows are completely sold out.
Without subsidies, live jazz is a loss-making business in today’s world
Yet the manager concedes King Georg wouldn’t survive without subsidies. Though the club was able to make money even during the pandemic thanks to concert live streams and online subscriptions, every artist they invite would generate a loss if it weren’t for government funding. There’s the travel, accommodation, energy costs and the fair fee Axer wants to ensure they all get. If the club didn’t receive project-based grants (to the tune of around 20,000 euros in 2023), it would probably struggle to survive. It also won an APPLAUS Award for its live music offering in 2022, which brought in 50,000 euros in prize money. “It was nice to get that recognition,” Vater tells us.
In a city with a criminal past that once earned it the label “Chicago of the Rhine”, today’s King Georg almost feels like a bastion of good behaviour. The crooks that used to sit at the bar at the end of the 1960s, planning their next money-laundering project over a cigarette, have been replaced by young people, heads bobbing to chilled music and cocktail in hand as they soak in the sophisticated ambience.
King Georg Club&Bar, Sundermanstraße 2/Ebertplatz, 50670 Cologne, https://kinggeorg.de
Opening hours
Jazz club:
Mondays to Thursdays, 7pm* – 1am
Club bar with DJs:
Fridays and Saturdays, 9pm* – 3.30am
*If there’s no performance that evening (otherwise, at admission time)
Closed Sundays
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