Frenchy’s Fracas

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
Steely Dan
Paid me some extra cash to see these guys and it was worth it!! I was afraid Messrs. Fagen and Beecker would be al uptight and anal about the whole thing but they were relaxed and even funny sometimes. They played a great mix of hits and what really amazed me was how the sound was set up: almost everything was tightly arranged and sweetly balanced. Kudos to the sound people! - excellent show!

A Special Performance from London (Secret)
Funny thing, we were standing close to the entrance to listen to the announcer and when it turned out to be Jamie Collum, we got the hell out of there. We were just in time to see the tsunami of people hearing the news and running to get inside - not my cup of tea, waaaay too safe.

Benny Golson & Johnny Griffin: Remembering Trane
I was expecting mister Ron Carter, but he canceled, so that was too bad. BUT the replacements weren’t some talented hacks, these elder statemen of jazz rocked the stage with Heart and Love putting quite a lot of younger artists to shame - some real jazz, fantastic!

The Cinematic Orchestra
Interesting band, gonna check them out a bit more. The show was okay, dedicated and purposeful musicians - definitely on my to do list

Wicked Jazz Sounds Featuring Phil Horneman & Leroy Rey
Saw/heard DJ Leroy do his stuff in Paradiso a while back and this guy is incredible! His knowledge of rare grooves and oldies is huge, wow.. And he is one hell of a performer, setting up a beat, a mood and directing his audience to a place of pure Fun - people, you must check this guy out!

Hiernoymus Fox:
The gig took place on the roof terras under the beautiful sun. The dj I saw was Leroy and he really blew the crowd away with his mix of jazz and funk! He’s also a great entertainer, which really added something to the whole.

Roy Hargrove
Last year he performed with his RH Factor band, this year it’s back to jazz, solid work by a great group of genius musicians - loved it!

Maceo Parker
When we dropped in the show was already half way, seeing Maceo doing his James Brown style of entertainment is okay, but seeing him without his saxophone is disconcerting - didn’t like it at all.

Hieronymus Fox:
Donald Fagen was singing like in his best days and Walter Becker played very well and added a comic note to the whole now and then. They realy seemed to enjoy themselves and so did the audience!

Lura
Hieronymus Fox suggested we have a look/listen and it was a great suggestion. This lady mixes music from Cape Verde with different styles to create a passionate and warm sound - liked it!

Conclusion
Best of the second day were Steely Dan and DJ Leroy, with Messrs. Golson and Griffin as the icing on the cake.

Hieronymus Fox’s North Sea Jazz Journals at Last.fm:
Steely Dan
Golson & Johnny Griffing: Remembering Trane
The Cinematic Orchestra
Wicked Jazz
Roy Hargrove
Lura

Pictures at Flickr.com

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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
Robin McKelle
First act of the first day: great voice doing the the jazz standards of the 30s thru 50s - moved on after four songs - nice performance.

Rob van de Wouw
Talented Dutch trumpet player, conservatory level, and this show is part of his more relaxed jazzy work. Liked it, nice vibe, great quality - not bad at all.

The Roots
Aha!! Check out my review of the gig I saw them do in Paradiso earlier this last year. Same setup but with one great addition: a tuba player! Roots are still the best band in the world, don’t matter if you like their stuff or not, your ears will tell you that I’m right - great show!

Hiernoymus Fox:
In my humble opinion The Roots are one of the best live bands in the world, period.

Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood
Well.. They performed in this great big tent and when we arrived the place was fully packed. So we stood by the side listening to the stuff, solid improvisational musicians, but not my thing - nice, that’s it..

Al Green
Every time the man started talking to the crowd I was aching for him to just shut up and do his Thing. And when he did do his Thing, man.. Goose bumps all over! Al Green is a Gift to music - great and unforgettable experience!

Hieronymus Fox:
Al Green is one of the last soul legends, nuff said. If you can see this man performing live for the first, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity feeling.
His performance was stunning. His voice is still in good quality and he’s a charismatic, born entertainer. Off course, he’s also a priest, so you get a mix from all of this and it felt good, good, good!

Ojos de Brujo
An interesting combination of a gazillion different styles of music, but mainly a combo of hip-hop and flamenco, Indian percussion and scratching - weird stuff, entertaining.

Conclusion
Great first day, the mix of Al Green and Roots had me floating back home (well, not really, my legs were dead, it’s my age, I guess, heheh..)

Hieronymus Fox’s North Sea Jazz Journals at Last.fm:
Robin McKelle
Rob van de Wouw
Al Green
The Roots
Ojos de Brujo

Pictures at Flickr.com

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General Info
Artist: Wayne Shorter Quartet
Location: Amsterdam Concert Hall, Amsterdam
When: 21 June 2007

Who?
Tricky stuff, for me the Name counted as a reason to go see this performance. Read more about Wayne Shorter here. This guy is one of the original Jazz Legends and when Hieronymus Fox told me about this wacky combo of classical music and a jazz quartet, I just had to go and experience it all for myself.

The Show
Hmm.. Unusual setup for me: two segments, the first part was just the orchestra playing three pieces and after the break they were joined by the quartet. The first part was a brand new sound experience for me: listening to an orchestra doing a live performance was incredible. The different sounds and volumes from all the different instruments had my ears working overtime. Just simply not used to listen to music in that way. Liked the pieces, especially the Duke Ellington Suite. Funny thing: my audio-memory couldn’t explain why the brass section’s sound came from way too much in the back; I was expecting it to be louder and more up front, just my musical freshmanship, I guess.
The second part was where mister Shorter and his quartet finally came on the stage. And well.. It was interesting, but it seemed like Shorter wasn’t really into it. These things happen, there may be a good reason, but as part of the audience, I got the impression that he really wasn’t participating. John Patitucci’s big smile on bass was the most entertaining part of the performance.

Conclusion
I was lucky enough to go to the show without any expectations and I guess that made the whole thing more interesting. It was great to hear an full classical orchestra play jazz-based music and arrangements. It was also great to see the combination of the quartet and the orchestra, I listened to it with my eyes closed to take in the awesome collection of different sounds coming from all directions. For the record: I’m totally aware that I was in the presence of great musicians, and while the show wasn’t that great, I was very much enjoying atmosphere of craftmanship and quality that surrounded me.

Rating:

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General Info
Festival: The Hague Jazz Festival
Location: The Hague (yep..)
When: 19 May 2007

What?
True fans of jazz in Europe (and possibly around the world) know that until last year, The North Sea Jazz Festival was held in the city of The Hague. That festival moved to lovely Rotterdam, but the people from our city of government didn’t take that change lying down, Hell No! They organised an alternative festival, same location, smaller attendance, smaller number of artists, but still full of love for the art of Jazz: the The Hague Festival was born.

The Shows
!Rhytem
Group of youngsters performing nice jazz-funk, these guys are about 18 years old, but there’s some freshness to what they bring. Their sound wasn’t set up correctly at the beginning, so their trumper player was doing his stuff without anybody being able to hear it. These little mishaps could become part of their legend in twenty years

Bennink Borstlap Gierum
Three Dutch jazz musicians who gave an incredible performance! These guys oozed classic jazz, mixing up standards with great improvisations and details. I was very happy to hear this type of jazz, high point of the day.

Marcos Valle / Brooklyn Funk Essentials
Hmmm.. Two interesting concerts, different locations, starting at the same time. Choices, choices. Went for Marcos Valle, a Brazilian National Treasure, but sadly, the gig started way late and had a lot of technical problems, so Hieronymus Fox and I went on to see that evening’s main attraction. Too bad about Brooklyn Funk Essentials too

Koop
Those wacky and talented Swedes, Koop were our closing act for the evening and boy, did they entertain the crowd! These guys mix up great feel-good jazz with mild electronics; I always reckoned they’d be limited to studio quality, but I was wrong: a full band with vibraphones, trombones and an Apple laptop. The cherry on the cake was of course the swinging vocals of miss Yukimi Nagano. Miss Nagano’s vocals were just a bit too brittle for live performance that evening, but it didn’t matter that much: Koop is a brilliant live band.

Conclusion
Great festival, the organisation did have some technical and scheduling problems, but if everything went smoothly, it probably wouldn’t be that enjoyable. I’m really a happy puppy because now I have two great jazz festivals to visit every year!

Rating:

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General Info
Artist: The Brand New Heavies
Location: Paradiso, Amsterdam
When: 13 May 2007

Who?
This band, The Brand New Heavies, used to be one of my favorite bands back in the 90s - they have this great retro thing going on: classic Soul with a hint of modern influences; back then, they called it acid jazz.
Their first, self-titled album still triggers sweet memories of a more personal nature (yep, it’s private, so bugger off gently..). And their second album, Heavy Rhyme Experience, Volume 1 is one of my favorites. After more ten years, I got a chance to see these guys performing live again!

The Show
Due to a small scheduling screwup by yours truly, we arrived just minutes before the show started (sorry about the Hieronymus Fox ;)). You really could feel a bit of anticipation in the crowd and I think most of them weren’t disappointed. For me, the new songs didn’t work at all but when they did their classics like Dream Come True and BNH, I was a happy little puppy. My all-time favorite, Stay This Way took me back to Nostalgic Times!
But still, something wasn’t quite right: the band played a solid set and miss N’Dea Davenport’s vocals were excellent, yet it all seemed a bit.. routine, I guess..

Conclusion
Excellent band, some high points in the set combined with some low and uninspired points. The 90-minutes set (including 2 encores) didn’t feel like the uplifting experience I expected from seeing and hearing this band again; but that could be just me not properly managing my expectations, heh.
Maybe Nostalgia only gets you that far.

Rating:

UPDATE: Here’s Hieronymus Fox’s review on Last.fm.

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