Frenchy’s Fracas

Well, I attended two days of the North Sea Jazz Festival and it was quite a mixed bag of candy.
Location: Ahoy Event Halls, Rotterdam
When: 11 and 12 July 2008
Last.fm:
Tag: northseajazzfestival

Day 1

Eliane Elias “A Tribute to Bill Evans”
A very calm and relaxed performance by Eliane Elias, accompanied by bass and drums. Have to school myself about mister Bill Evans, but the songs were sweet and highly enjoyable.

Jazzdiggers
Nothing to do with Jazz, just an excellent DJ playing groovy Classics like Prince, Zapp, Latin stuff and other Original Prime Cuts.

Concha Buika
I’m officially In Love With An Artist. Again. Wow..
Her music is very nice too
A musically Talented lady giving a passionate performance.

Angie Stone
An absolute riddle: a talented vocalist and a performance that just couldn’t get me excited. It’s me, I know, I know..

Abdullah Ibrahim Trio
Way too serious stuff for me: it’s like attending your first class in maths and the teacher starting off with Nobel Prize winning theories. Intricately beautiful, but boggled the mind.

Jill Scott
We went to see Abdullah Ibrahim, so we just caught the final three songs by JillyFromPhilly. HieronymusFox lamented choosing Ibrahim over Jilly. And boy, was he right!
The lady should ‘ve gotten the biggest venue in stead of the smaller Maas location. The festival director should use his brains next time and share the Greatness Of Scott on the biggest stage possible!

Bootsy Collins
Meh, we left just when he got on stage, tired after a very weird and crowded festival day.

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General Info
Artist/Group: Brasilintime - Sujinho CD release
Location: Paradiso, Amsterdam
When: 09 May 2008

Who?
An interesting mix of artists collaborating on a musical experiment. Have a look at the intro..

View Other Videos

Some of the artists:
Madlib
Tony Allen
Ivan “Mamão” Conti
and a whole list of other performers.

Impressive, right?
Well, the group gave a show in Paradiso and I just had to go have a look.

The Show
The warm up session was nice but waaaay too long so when the show finally started after more than an hour, I was really psyched for some action. And boy, the opening was impressive! The setup: three drum kits and a small percussion set in front; in the back two DJs and Madlib behind keyboard and sample kit.

The set was played as a jam session: one large and uninterrupted performance of a number of songs and compositions.

The rest of the show is hard to describe: it’s a mix of extremes. On the one hand, some stuff was really horrible and noisy crap. But on the other hand there was almost Perfection in what was performed. The third element: I experienced what it is to discover something you’ve never heard before. Something you know you won’t be able to understand. Like a caveman looking at a computer, I felt out of my league and I loved it!

What stood out for me was the discipline these guys showed: keeping the different drumming actions in sync (or sometimes willingly out of sync) and the DJs and Madlib doing their different things as layers of sounds, mixing it all up to interesting music, noises and soundscapes.

Conclusion
I was totally exhausted after the concert, mulling over all that I just had experienced. Like I said: some of the music was not that good, some was incredibly great. And some parts were just An Experience and An Education. Some stuff was just Complex Science and I hope to get old enough to really understand in time what I’ve heard this evening.
And I’m gonna get me the DVD asap!

This concert should’ve been programmed for the North Sea Jazz Festival: it’s fresh, it’s experimental and risky and it’s friggin’ great. That’s what the festival should be about.

read hieronymus fox’s review here!

Rating:

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General Info
Artist: Rad. ||
Location: De Melkweg, Amsterdam
When: 01 March 2008

Who?
I know Rad. or Rose Ann Dimalanta from her 1992 album Radified. It’s a nostalgia thing, love the album. Read she’d be performing live with a great band including saxophone majesty Eric Leeds, I was curious.
Check out some of his performances at .

The Show
Ouch.. The place was at half its capacity and it showed. Rad. did their best to give a prodfessional show, and they succeeded, more or less.

Songs that Stood Out
Homegirls Cha Cha Network
Great nostalgic feeling.

10 (Madhouse track)
Listen, boys and girls: Madhouse is one of my favorite bands, read my review of one their albums.
So to get the chance to hear a track from them co-performed by original band member Eric Leeds, was an absolute treat!!

Wishy
That’s when we left..

Conclusion
Hard to rate this concert: on the one hand, the material wasn’t that captivating. While on the other, the band commanded respect for their hard work.
It just didn’t work. Thrilled about Eric Leeds, and I wasn’t the only one: former Paisley Park co-worker and Dutch sax-diva Candy Dulfer was in the crowd along with her dad, Hans Dulfer, another sax-master from the Lowlands.
Meh, nostalgia doesn’t always work, I guess..

Rating: (Mostly because of the band, not the gig itself)

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General Info
Artist: Koop || ||
Location: De Melkweg, Amsterdam
When: 21 February 2008

Who?
Liked their recent release Koop Islands, saw them at The Hague Jazz last year, thought it’d be fun to go see them again.
Check out some of his performances at .

The Show
The Melkweg is an excellent location for this kind of concert: practical, nice acoustics and not too steaming hot.
The guys started on time, and the moment the band was on stage, you knew you were getting a show from performers that love their music and love to share it with the audience. Although, somehow there still is this disconnect between crowd and band, can’t put my finger on it.
I really am getting old coz I was ready to choke some people in the audience for talking all the frigging time through almost all of the songs. You know what? If you wanna chat with your friends, move the frak out of this building and go find a bar, pretty please, with sugar on top?
Stand-in vocalist for this evening, dunno her name, but she almost made me forget the cute and lovely Miss Yukimi Nagano. This did a great job performing the songs in her own way and boy, does she now how to perform..

Songs that Stood Out
Come To Me
Closing song, always a crowd pleaser.

Koop Islands Song
Probably the opening track, strong presence from leading vocal lady

Unknown Song Relaxin’ at club F****n
Possibly on earlier albums, a great dance track straight from the laptop where the band joins in almost instrument by instrument. Better up-tempo work, something the show really needed.

Conclusion
The band has a limited playlist and seeing them again within twelve months doesn’t help either. It’s friggin’ weird: on the one hand, the show felt a bit boring and tame; on the other, you really get pulled into the excitement of the band’s excellent craftsmanship.
But that’s just not enough for me this evening.
Go see them if you get the chance, just don’t go for a second time within a year.

Rating:

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General Description
Artist/Band: José James || ||
Album Title: The Dreamer
Year: 2007

Hard work, just rewards

How I Got Into This Music
The evil man, Hieronymus Fox, all his fault
He took me to see the guy perform in Paradiso about a month ago. And I was seriously impressed!
So when his album was released I had to have a listen.

Google Search for reviews of this album || Album details at ||
Video clips at ||

Tracks that got my attention:
The Dreamer
Title track, takes you directly to the essence: jazzy trumpet, omnipresent piano and a lazy but sweet bass on the background. What? The vocals? Ooooooow, so sweet! It’s got this dreamy, lullaby softness mixed with booming vocal peaks, damn!
This song’s a classic Walk Along The Beach theme.

Velvet
The song’s strongest point is (how Zen) also its Achilles heel: the slow, repetative and grinding build up to this.. climax, I guess. And that climax isn’t that satisfactory.

blackeyedsusan
Damn, this track’s close to perfection. James’ smokey and brittle voice is great. Nice piano solo.

Park Bench People
Sample from A Tribe Called Quest’s Sucka Niggahs. Now I got to find me the original, heheh..
Interesting social commentary, soft and sharp edges at the same time.

Nola
Hauntingly beautiful song. Melancholy in a kind way.

Red
Another excellent track. Puts him in the true Jazz Vocalist category, forget Collum and those crooner types.

Winter Wind
This one’s a Walk In The Park On A Sunny Winter Day kind of track.

Desire
A bit too heavy on the drama.

Love
Nice up-tempo track; a pleasant change of style.

Conclusion
Go see this guy perform live.
This album’s a great product of hard work, devotion and soul. It’s just a bit too repetitive for my taste. It’s not James’ vocals, that’s diverse enough to take you to heaven and back. But the tracks all have the same setup, his vocals and the piano/keyboards are the main instruments. The other musicians are purely there for support, only the trumpet gets some minutes in front, that’s it.
Same thing occurred to me when I saw the band at Paradiso: how hard is it to let the drummer and the bassist join in? Again, it’s the one-sideness that caught my attention, everything else is bloody top notch.
It’s probably gonna be the same thing as with The Roots: I’m not very impressed with the albums but I’m 100 per cent sure that I’ll be seeing them play live again, the first chance that I get. I’m seriously hoping José James and band will perform during North Sea Jazz this year.
And as I said before, this guy is not of the J Collum class of easy listening crooner babies. Do not confuse crooning with jazz vocals: different disciplines and José James is of a greater quality.
Go see this guy perform live.

Rating:

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