Frenchy’s Fracas

General Info
Artist: José James || ||
Location: Paradiso, Amsterdam
When: 11 January 2008

Who?
Didn’t know anything about this artist; it’s yet another one of Hieronymus Fox’s discoveries. Thanks for the tip bro’!!
Check out some of his performances at .

The Show
Such a relaxed location, the smaller of the two locations at the Paradiso. Nice large number of people attending, show starts reasonably on time. A great setup: piano/keyboards, drums, bass and James’ vocal talents. Sound quality was quite good, lights weren’t annoying, everything fine..
Now, if you’re not of an adult age and you’re reading this post, get the hell out of here because I’m gonna use some faux exclamations. Parents, have you taken the children out of the room? Fine.

H O L Y S H I T ! ! !
M O M M A , T H I S A R T I S T I S F U C K I N G U N B E L I E V A B L E ! ! !

There, you can bring the kids back to this post..

Songs that Stood Out
Park Bench People
Heheh, HF and me recognized the bass from an old A Tribe Called Quest sample, used in the Sucka Nigga track.
The scat-rap-flow is beautiful and so unbelievably mature.

blackeyedsusan
Sweetness, this guy’s vocals make the lyrics ooze the sweetest honey.

Nola
Googling my black ass off; my mind keeps telling me I know this song from some other artist, but I haven’t found it yet.
Back to the track: the band is always an important factor for an artist, in this case the band adds extra support and lays the foundation for a perfect performance of a great song.

Overall, mister James doing his improvisations
Wow..

Conclusion
It’ll take me a coupla months to really define this guy’s voice. It’s not that he hasn’t his own voice, don’t get me wrong, but there are similarities with people like Bill Withers (Park Bench People). I’ll update every time I get another name that needs to be added.
The strong supporting role of the band needs to get special attention. Pianist Gideon Van Gelder had a particularly tricky roll: on the one hand his improvisations added extra brilliance to the act, but sometimes it got a bit too freaky, too self-indulgent. Guest appearance by Ben Van Gelder on the horn was nice.
I was very impressed with José James’s incredible voice and talent, using his vocals as an instrument in a totally jazzy way. Over the last coupla years we’ve been bombarded with jazzy singers, let’s call ‘em all Jamie, but Jose is more than that: he’s a jazz singers, and the Jamies in this world just have a fraction of James’ depth of talent.
The performance itself, well.. After the initial euphoria during the first five songs you notice a bit of a pattern. That in itself is fine, but it would be more interesting to here the band perform together a bit more. A drum versus bass improv or piano versus bass, whatever. Just not always the vocals and the piano for ten songs straight. A bit more diversity would help.
Next time this guy’s in Holland, I’ll be there and his album’s coming out in two weeks, boys and girls!!

Rating: (a great way to start the new year!)

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General Info
Artist: Me’shell Ndegeocello || ||
Location: Paradiso, Amsterdam
When: 26 November 2007

Who?
Ah, Meshell.. Just wrote a review of her latest album, The World Has Made Me The Man Of My Dreams, have a read here. Meshell is a very interesting and exciting artist and from experience I’ve learned not to expect her to go back to her earlier stuff, when her music was pure funk and jazziness. From that last album I knew to expect loud guitars and well, she didn’t disappoint me on that point.
Check out some of her performances at .

The Show
A.. Bloody.. Mess..
Meshell apologized for feeling a bit under the weather and that affected her voice, okay, fine, glad she still decided to get on stage. And most of the vocals were okay anyway.
Where things really were a bit too weird for my taste is where my girl Meshell’s constantly walking up and down the stage, switching guitars every other song, sometimes halfway, like she just decided to things differently. She was almost obsessed with the sound quality of her material and kept checking it through the monitor speakers. Really messy, I was wishing she just took a big chill pill and paid attention to her public.

Songs that Stood Out
Hmmmm.. tough one.. Most of her tracks were from the latest album, but she played Fool Of Me and Faithful from her album Bitter, which was a great and pleasant surprise. Fool Of Me is one of my alltime heartbreak songs. It was great to hear The Sloganeer: Paradise, that track is just incredible! She almost had me fooled with Evolution, they started playing it just straight with only the guitars, but happily she picked up her bass to do the second part, the tasty bass part, and me was a happy puppy!
Closing song was an excellent surprise: a cover of a Prince classic - All The Critics Love U In NY, fantastic!!

Conclusion
It felt like amateur hour, I’ve seen this lady perform before and never was the performance so chaotic and in need of some musical direction. She’s never the chatty type, but this was almost as communicative as a Middle East summit. If it wasn’t for Meshell, I’d probably left halfway the already very short performance.
Do.. not.. get.. me.. wrong..
Meshell and her band are incredible musicians but that didn’t compensate for the fact that the band was mucking about way too much.
Am I gonna go see her the next time she’s in Holland? Nothing, not even the bloody hordes from Hell (or Groningen) will be able to stop me from attending another Meshell gig, she’s too bloody brilliant to ignore. But please let there be some musical direction..
Still love me some Meshell Ndegeocello, that’s not gonna change, ever.

Rating: (1 point because it’s Meshell, half a point for playing All The Critics Love U In NY)

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General Info
Artist: Jill Scott || ||
Location: Paradiso, Amsterdam
When: 23 November 2007

Who?
Ah, Jill Scott.. One of my favorite artists and always a pleasure to see her performing live. This lady’s been working very hard for quite some time now and her reputation as one of the top black musicians of her generation is well deserved. I’ve listened to all her stuff since the Who Is Jill Scott? album and although not all her albums are top notch, you have to experience her live show..
Check out some of her performances at .

The Show
Ah, well.. We had quite some problems with the sound system and miss Scott kept checking with the audience if we could hear well enough. Another more annoying thing was the stupidity of some people in the crowd, yapping and yapping through the show instead of shutting up and paying attention to what Jilly was singing and telling us. With Jill Scott, it’s not only the music, it’s also the performance, chatting with the crowd, some poetry and some nasty and wicked fun. So if people in the audience really feel the need to talk, it’d be nice if they’d just leave the concert hall and go jump off a cliff or something..

Songs that Stood Out
She opened with Let It Be/The Real Thing, both tracks that didn’t really work for me on the album, but the Lady makes it all come together on the stage. I liked the fact that she skipped Getting in the Way without me even noticing it during the gig. She doesn’t (or ever did) need that track to entertain her crowd.
She really caught me off guard with Crown Royal, because for me the track was just a great party between the sheets track. But with It’s just a metaphore she took the track to a whole different direction. The change didn’t ruin the song, it just gave it another dimension.
When she started the first words of He Loves Me the crowd went totally mental and kept on cheering and applauding for a very beautiful minute or so (I get goose bumps thinking about that moment). And when she went all opera, it was literally awesome..
Her performance of My Love was another incredible show of strength, this woman will take your heart and soul to another level of feeling and loving. Loving yourself and feeling better about yourself regardless of the hurting and despair. You see a Strong Woman and she inspires.
Her incredible And I Heard at the end of the show was another great moment in Storytelling: she shares her poetry with her audience like a parent telling a bedtime story to a bunch of kids. We ate it all up like sweet candy.. And, this track puts the big G back in Gospel, my brothers and sisters!

Conclusion
The performers and the audience didn’t always click that well in the beginning, due to technical problems and a part of the audience who didn’t understand the importance of listening and paying attention.
But Jilly just kept on going with the show and together with those in the crowd who really came to see and hear this girl do her stuff, we all created a beautiful evening with words and sounds. Everybody needs to experience this lady perform her stuff live..
Thank you, Jill Scott.

Rating:

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General Info
Artist: Marcus Miller ||
Location: De Boerderij, Zoetermeer
When: 19 October 2007

Who?
Marcus Miller is one of the big boys of modern jazz or Big Boys Of Modern Jazz, same thing?
His track record includes collaborations with almost every great musician in jazz music, producing and playing along with Miles Davis and making funky tunes with my dear Meshell Ndegeocello.
I only have one album of his, Tales, and it’s a beauty! Saw him perform with his excellent band on North Sea Jazz these last two years and at that festival he’s one of the public’s favorite. Now, I got me a chance to see them perform on a smaller set, with a smaller audience. Together with my SweetLake Friends
Check out some of his performances

The Show
Oooh.. No opening hickups, straight dive into the music and the show. Mister Miller’s talented band follow his lead like an old-school big band and Miller gives them plenty of solo time. Another sweat thing is seeing and hearing all the band members play off of eachother in turns, improvising and battling!

The Band: the bearded giant Poogie Bell (a Muppet Show reference wouldn’t be too cheesy) on drums, the coolest of cool Patches Stewart on trumpet, the quiet but diverse Keith Anderson on sax, the seemingly bored Bobby Sparks on keyboards, and the horribly talented Gregoire Maret on harmonica.

Familiar tracks were performed, his inevitable classic Run For Cover still sends chills down this little boy’s back time after time. A great Miles Davis tune called Jean Pierre (lovely name) again showed the audience the pure musical talents of this band. Like I’ve said before: You don’t have to like it, but if your ears are working you know you’re listening to a masterful performance.
The funky version of the Beatles’ Come Together is another of the crowd pleasers and yes, it still is weird to sing the chorus

Conclusion
The performance was a bit short but tight and light, serious fun, a joy for any mainstream music lover and purist alike.
Just to tease Hieronymus Fox, Miller had a special guest on vocals: miss Jean Norris. Oooon and ooon and oooon.. that’s the only hint you’ll get, son!
Back to the show: it’s great to experience this band in a smaller setting, they seem to take more risks and that’s always fun!
My world wasn’t rocked, but I can advice everyone to go see these guys perform!

Rating:

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First things first: some cunts over at rotterdamjazz dot com are splogging my posts through Technorati - no way of contacting them yet, but I have my traditional greeting for them: choke on it and drop dead, pretty please with sugar on top..

The Acts
Bob Brookmeyer New Art Orchestra
Meh

Deelder Draait
The pride of Rotterdam, poet and Mayor of the Rotterdam Night Life: mister Jules Deelder! A jazz fanatic and he likes to preach to anyone who wants to listen: jazz is Jazz! - nice!

Africando
Another mix of styles, nice, but not really memorable - not bad

Dave Holland Quintet
Bassist Dave Holland has a great group of musicians to bring us excellent jazz music - sweet!

Hieronymus Fox:
I think I have never heard a guy playing the contra bass as tight as Dave Holland was. Great drummer, great blowers, great vibraphone and berimbau.. everything was so damn good!

Candy Dulfer & Friends
Just the closing fifteen minutes. I’m always amazed by this lady: her albums are mediocre at best, but her performance is something everybody should experience - solid!

Amy Winehouse
Who? The craziest of the craziest people in the music business at the moment, failed to show up and canceled. I guess I was lucky to get a chance to see her perform at Paradiso, because this is the second time the girl’s canceled a show in Holland this year. As I said before: this gal is one of the most incredible entertainers we have at the moment, but the way the anorexic drunk is behaving at the moment, I expect her to do a Hendrix in six to twelve months - Silly Rabbit..

Sly & The Family Stone
The One Everybody Was Waiting For.. Can’t find the words, I’ll probably post a seperate piece later on.. HF gives a great review:

Hieronymus Fox:
..What happened? The band started to play about five or six songs, playing straight ahead funky music. Timeless classics with a couple of the original band members still standing strong, but without.. Sly…
Anyway, at last he came on stage and yes, he looked hunchbacked, wore a strange XXL T-shirt, but was alive and active and when he sad down behing his Fender Rhodes and started to play and sing… aaaahh the old Sly was back! A deep soulful voice, sometimes soft, sometimes crying out loud. Shivers all over!

Sleepwalker
Japanese modern jazz/R&B - nice!

Snoop Dogg
WTF is Snoop Dogg doing at the North Sea Jazz?!? I mean, last year we had that horrible Kanye West, so this was a nice improvement, but still..

Conclusion
Third day was weird, we were dead tired, but we did get to see Sly & The Family Stone!!

Hieronymus Fox’s North Sea Jazz Journals at Last.fm:
Bob Brookmeyer New Art Orchestra
Dave Holland Quintet
Da Sole Selecta’s
Sly & The Family Stone

Pictures at Flickr.com

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