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
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

Share This

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:

Share This

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.

Share This

Oooooo, daddy-o! Those crazy people of the North Sea Jazz Festival have anounced their line-up/program!! And it’s an interesting collection of artists that will be performing during those hot and sweaty days in July; here’s a few names:

• Amy Winehouse (still sober?)
• Snoop Dogg (WTF?)
• Steely Dan (the masters of silky pop)
• Sly & The Family Stone (xcellent surprise)
• Joshua Redman
• Ornette Coleman
• Wynton Marsalis (arrogant legend)
• Al Green (YES!!!!)

Me am happy, me start saving cash for three days of music, me am happyhappy!

Share This

Second gig that evening.. A nice follow-up to Terry Callier ’s show earlier that evening!

General Info
Artist: Fertile Ground
Location: Paradiso, Amsterdam
When: 23 March 2007

Who?
Well, this time Hieronymus Fox was totally clueless, he never heard of these guys. So this time I wasn’t the only ignoramus, heheh..

The Show
After a great soul and blues gig, this concert by Fertile Ground was a nice switch. A master behind the keyboards, a solid drummer, trumpet player and sax man. And a strong and beautiful Black Woman on vocals: a powerhouse!
These guys played a powerful set for about an hour and the crowd in the smaller venue went wild. Although sometimes, they did tend to get a bit to overeager in showing their prowess, but that wasn’t too annoying.

Conclusion
Very nice show, these guys are an act that’s worth watching and listening to. Hope to see them play live again soon.

Rating:

Share This