I figure the guy in the beret playing keyboards is an American, perhaps picking up some work to satisfy Berlin's growing appetite for jazz. This turns out to be a silly assumption. Over a glass of Riesling between sets, the band leader, born and raised in Berlin, informs me that the pianist is actually a Cuban who had been sent to study classical music in the former Soviet Union and later settled in East Berlin. Like the bandleader, he has never set foot in the United States. Voice of America's jazz programs had jumped the Wall and captured his musical heart.
Jazz is one of many cultural stories that the new Berlin has to tell.
Indeed, Berliners, buoyed by a decade of unity, have re-created their city. Talk to anyone who understands this town, and he'll happily tell you that the place isn't what it used to be. Berlin now comes together in a new-millennium cultural renaissance, with bold explorations in music, art, architecture.and even wild indoor sports. The area that best symbolizes one of Europe's hottest cities is Potsdamer Platz, once the busiest square in Europe. Its bustle ended in 1953, when Soviet tanks crushed a popular democratic uprising.