Frenchy’s Fracas

So, uhm..
I’ve just had a look at this year’s schedule for the North Sea Jazz Festival and.. it’s nice and complicated!

Friday, July 11:

• My girl Jill Scott; Adele, the New Girl; Cassandra Wilson, a Voice
• Instrumental: Herbie Hancock Quintet and Ron Carter Quartet

Saturday, July 12:

• Victor Wooten (HellYeah!); Roy Hargrove Quintet
• Vocalists: José James; Chaka Kahn (can the lady still do it?)
• Paul Simon; Christian Prommer’s Drumlesson (yes, HF..)

Sunday, July 13:

• Brad Mehldau Trio(Sweetness..)
• Pete Philly and Perquisite
• Bobby Hutcherson Quartet

Now, I’m not sure if I’ll be doing all three days again, I really want to see Mehldau, but the rest of the schedule that day seems a bit thin, we’ll see!
Another chance to see Jill from Philly is great too!

I do love me some music, boyz-n-girlz..

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General Info
Festival: NuMoonFest
Location: Lantaren/Venster, Rotterdam
When: 13-15 December 2007

What’s it about?
Well, read about the festival here. It’s an interesting combo of different styles of jazz, electronic music, etc. and also movie documentaries. It’s my second visit, read my review of last year’s experience here. I’m a bit late with this review so my recollection might be a bit hazy, sorry..

Day 3 (15-Dec)
So remember, you never know what to expect on this festival and this year’s shows were diverse as ever. First off, a not so interesting performance at the cafe podium from Haale. The stuff didn’t work for me, oh well.
After that we got a very big black guy accompanied by guitar and accordion/squeeze-box, singing this incredible falsetto, which was nice. Picked up the closing fifteen minutes from Reboot Your Soul, a Dutch jazzy band fronted by Rob Van Der Wouw. Not bad, saw them this summer at the North Sea Jazz festival, the contrast was noticeable: the crowd was about a tenth of what was at NSJ, but they carried on as good as they could.
In the same hall we were treated by the good people of the Silent Disco. If ever you get a chance to see and hear this event, please do try it out!! It’s an simple concept but a bit hard to explain: everybody get headphones to listen to what the DJ is playing. Imagine a crowd with headphones on dancing to something you’re not hearing and having some wicked fun!
Back to the festival, in the main hall the Numoonlab Orchestra was performing an incredible set. The core band played from beginning to end during the whole evening and other performers would come up and do their thing and then move off.
For me the high point was the enigmatic and energetic and weirder than weird miss Ursula Rucker. She did her poetry like a fierce lioness, wow!!

Conclusion
With this year’s edition there were too many uninteresting performances and quite some main stream stuff too. But the Numoonlab Orchestra was an incredible experience! Miss Rucker was the wacky cherry on top!! I’ll be there next year, because it’s a chance to discover stuff..

Rating:

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General Info
Artist: Herbie Hancock
Location: Vredenburg, Utrecht
When: 12 December 2006

Who?
Well, read about this grand old man of jazz, fusion and almost everything concerning music here. Was there with me mate, ArAm.
I knew HH from his incredibly weird video for the Rockit track from 1983 (holy $#!t). And later on, I discovered his jazz talents through his excellent Round Midnight soundtrack.
This musician’s always been on my radar as one that I have to see performing his stuff live, and now I finally got the chance!

The Show
Tough call describing this concert, but I’ll try anyway: wow!
Incredible musicians:

• Vinnie Colaiuta, on drums
• Nathan East, on bass
• Lionel Loueke, on guitars

Great selection of tracks
There a lot of stuff I didn’t know or recognize but his Watermellon Man and Cantaloupe were incredible. Some tracks were strange because although I didn’t like some parts of the tracks (a solo, a theme), I still was overwhelmed by the pure passion and craftsmanship that shone through. This was even the case with their version of the much hated I Just Called To Say I Love You by mister S. Wonder.
On one piece, the guys were driving me nuts: the bass was doing his own stuff on a different tempo and beat from the drummer. That kept on for a coupla minutes, I was totally flabbergasted.. The solo performance by Lionel Loueke was also great.

I also liked the way Hancock MC’d the whole event: sometimes funny, sometimes interesting, never uninterested.

Conclusion
It’s nice to be right about a hunch: I expected a great concert performed by genius musicians and that it would be possible that some of the music wouldn’t work for me. I knew/guessed that just seeing and hearing (lousy acoustics btw on the top level of the hall) these guys would be inspiring and possibly influential. I also knew that I’d be writing a review that sounded like a total a$$-kissing fanboy, heheh..

Rating:

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General Info
Festival: NuMoonFest
Location: Lantaren/Venster, Rotterdam
When: 9/10 December 2006

What’s it about?
Well, read about the festival here. It’s an interesting combo of different styles of jazz, electronic music, etc. and also movie documentaries. It’s my first visit, but it’s definitely a great experience! Was there with me mates, Hieronymus Fox and DenDen.

Day 1 (09-DEC)
Hazy recollection, it’s the apfelkorn and sleep deprivation, bare with me Enjoyed a nice set by Belgian band Sweet Coffee, but was very much impressed by young Dutch talent Jeruma. The guy has a great voice!
The main attraction of the evening for me was that crazy combo of ultimate weirdness: Benny Sings with Rednose District. Awesome performance, played a lot of stuff I like of their album. These guys were a bit too mellow sometimes, chatting with each other and almost neglecting the audience, but hey, they’re Superstars (at least, here in Holland). I didn’t mind that too much coz when they connected with the audience, it was very good stuff!
This evening’s closing act: C-Mon and Kypski. Wow! These guys are funny and off-beat combining all possible styles of music and instrumentation. Much, much better than the stuff I heard on their myspace site.

Day 2 (10-DEC)
Slow start of the evening, still a bit hung over, but all for a good cause, heheh.. First surprise of the evening: Miss Sabrina Starke, damn! A very young and talented soul singer who for sure will mature into a songstress in the near future. At this moment she sounds a bit like Randy Crawford (but with more depth) and that’s quite an achievement! Dutch singer Corey was performing on another stage at the same time, but she really lost out to Starke.
Next on the menu: Monsieur Dubois, a Dutch jazz band with great musicians and a groovy modern feel. Great performance, but after ten minutes, Hieronymus Fox told me we should go listen to the best thing happening during this festival: Leslie Nielsen!! Nope, not the actor, but a small three-piece band with excellent musicians. These guys work hard, very very hard to entertain their audience and seem to have fun in doing so. They were playing at the same time as Monsieur Dubois and again the smaller stage drew the largest crowd. Lady Sherma did a coupla tracks on (guest) vocals and totally blew the roof off the place!

Final performance by Briskey was interesting: a Moloko/Portishead hybrid with incredibly motivated musicians - liked the lady doing the vocals: she dominated the stage with her presence.

Conclusion
It’s safe to say that for me, this festival was a great experience: listening to artists trying something different, something new. And listening to musicians I never heard of before offers both rewards and annoyances (Nelson & Djosa). So, yep, it was highly enjoyable!

Rating:

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Our impressions of our second day at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam:
[Hieronymus Fox - HF; Frenchy - F]

RH Factor (Roy Hargrove)
[HF]
Couldn’t follow whatever the performance was about. The vocals weren’t that good. Mostly a ragtag set of tracks
[F]
Finally some jazz! Kept feeling the story told in most tracks ended a bit unfinished. Not impressive

Marcus Miller
[HF]
BassMaster! Great version of Miles Davis‘ Tutu. Great harmonica performance. Solid performance.
[F]
I dislike this guy, he’s way too good ;o) Also impressed by harmonica player (very, very impressed).

Erykah Badu
[HF]
Delay resulted in a shorter show (too bad). Compressed and hurried, not enough time to set up a real performance
[F]
Ultimate diva, a bit distant at the beginning, warmed up to the audience at the end. Great setup with sampler. Loved the I Want You track!

Paul Weller
[HF]
Very beautiful. Enjoyed it, sitting quietly with my eyes closed. A very restrained but personal performance
[F]
Grand old man of British music (cut your wrists if you’re thinking: BritPop). Solid performance.

Marcelo D2
[HF]
Samba hip-hop party. Great interaction with the crowd. Language barrier. Sauna temperatures at the Yukon venue
[F]
Best performance, best new personal discovery. Great artists!

Jhelisa
[HF]
Saw just a coupla minutes, too short. Nice, but didn’t seem to work with the crowd or the Yukon venue, should’ve gotten a better jazz location
[F]
Great singer, just didn’t work for me (getting a bit tired)

Kanye West
[HF]
Great setup with the live violins and harp. Nice make-up on the same performers. Not impressed enough by performance to start buying his stuff. Doesn’t click, doesn’t have it. Excellent DJ, though.
[F]
Never liked his stuff (still can’t really explain it). Funny to see the appeal this guy has: a very wide selection of people were really enjoying his performance.

Honorary Mention
The DJ at the Yukon who played in between acts. Very, very great work and prime quality selection of music!

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