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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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
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 Description
Artist/Band: Visioneers ||
Album Title: Dirty Old Hip Hop
Year: 2006

Excellent grooviness..

How I Got Into This Music
I’ve been enjoying 4hero and Marc Mac’s Chess Cadet All Stars for about a year now. This album’s another of Marc Mac’s projects and I just had to listen to it..

Google Search for reviews of this album || Album details at Artistdirect.com || || Discogs ||

Tracks that got my attention:
Replay ft. Voice
Mellowness taking the listener on a flashback trip through the history of quality rap musicians and producers like A Tribe Called Quest, Jazzy Jeff, Gangstarr and The Pharcyde. Love the smooth vocals by Voice.

Runnin’
Never thought people would be so smitten with the original version by The Pharcyde, but I ain’t complaining! I remember hearing the intro of this version with Hieronymus Fox and we were both jumping like happy kids; when we noticed it was an instrumental version, we stopped acting silly.. for about thirty seconds

The World Is Yours
Laidback bass and keyboards, catchy loops. Love the bass solo, but not that much else happening.

Funk Box ft. Capitol A
Familiar vocals by Capitol A, who also worked with Jazzanova. Basic quality, groove and funkiness.

It’s Simple
A very relaxed version of Simple Folk, a track from Marc Mac’s project from yesteryears, The Chess Cadet All Stars.
More jazzy influences, the flute working some nice magic in the background with the guitar, and that bass? Love it.

Dirty Old Bossa Nova
Damn, got me scanning all my CD’s from A Tribe Called Quest, grmbl.. Hold on.. Nope, I give up, can’t find it, argh!
Back to the track itself: lovely bossa groove!

Run For Cover
Yep, pure gold. Great way of using a central theme in the track, and then the sudden double tempo variant at the end? Great stuff!

55 Dollars
Oooooh.. Flashback to all those TV series from the seventies. Love the horns..

Paul’s Guitar Story
Hmmm, jazz guitar track, sounds nice, just a bit too bland for my taste.

Days Gone By (Egyptology)
Much better guitar work on this track. The track sounds a bit like Jill Scott’s Slowly Surely, I’m sure that’s intentional since they’ve worked with eachother in the past on Jill’s Experience album.

Conclusion
I think my love for previous work by Marc Mac and 4hero has kinda spoilt me a bit. Dirty Old Hip Hop is a great album and very tightly produced too. But… For me, there’s not a lot of new things happening. That’s why this album’s not one of my Favorites. Still very curious to hear the remix version called Dirty Old Remixes!

Rating:

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General Description
Artist/Band: Jill Scott ||
Album Title: The Real Thing (Words And Sounds Vol.3)
Year: 2007

Almost had me fooled..

How I Got Into This Music
One of my favorite musicians/songwriters of this decade. Love the lady’s talent, sharp mind, open hearted lyrics and wicked smile. Her previous album wasn’t that much of a joy to listen to, but I saw her perform live and that’s more than enough compensation, GO SEE THE WOMAN PERFORM LIVE!
Now that I’ve ruled out any chance of an objective review of this latest album, let’s get to business..

Google Search for reviews of this album || Album details at Artistdirect.com ||

Tracks that got my attention:
Let It Be
Each opening track on her albums is an incredible introduction to this lady’s talents: a mix of dry drums, vocal changeups from soft whispers to bombast opera hall and clear declaration of her love for music.

Hate On Me
Much discussed first single release. The drum beats are great, the rest of the production is okay, nothing really exceptional. But the lyrics are what it’s all about, not clear to me if this is a simple venting of emotions concerning her recent marital breakup or a pure and simple declaration: you do not wanna cross a pissed-off Jilly..
I’m thinking both.

Crow Royal
I love it when Jill turns on the nasty lyrics, DAMNDAMNDAMN!
Your hands on my hips pull me right back to you
I catch that thrust, give it right back to you
You’re in so deep, I’m breathing for you,
You grab my braids, arch my back high for you
Your diesel engine, I’m squirting mad oil
On down on the floor til my speaker starts to boil
I flip shit, Quick slip
Hip dip and I’m twisted
In your hands and your lips
And your tongue tricks
And you’re so thick and you’re so thick
And you’re so..
Crown Royal on ice
Crown Royal on ice (On Ice)
There are parts of the song that a heterosexual man can’t sing out loud without getting weird looks from the people around him, heheh.. See if I could give a flying fork
Back to track, the brilliant simplicity: laidback keyboard effects, a very subdued bass line, a bit of percussion and Jilly on the double-dubbed vocals - my favorite track of the album (in case didn’t guess that yet)

Epiphany
Uhm.. Me Am Blushing.. Go Google the lyrics.. Best part of course is the final line. The track itself, it reminded me of.. of.. can’t put my finger on it. Another very simple setup, with the emphasis on the lyrics.

My Love
Nice track, a mix of Walk In The Park and Getting In The Way from her first album. The lyrics are compact and cut through diamonds. The bridge has a great lavish string arrangement on the background.
Cause ohh,
All I ever do is think about you baby
I hold you in my arms inside my dreams
And I know what I know and what I know is
That no matter where you go
You will always think of me

How It Make You Feel
If My Love was about not accepting the ex-lover moving on, this track’s more about strength: putting the black man in his place if he ever thought he could do without a black woman. For me, it’s a no-brainer, but maybe some guys still need this education

Only You
Waaaay too many flashbacks to the Songstress, Miss Anita Baker.

Wanna Be Loved
Yep, back on the quality train with this track. Vocals arranged smoothly, another laidback setup and incredibly honest lyrics.

Breathe
This could be called a Real Jill Scott song: great soul vibe, brainy lyrics and Lady Scott ruling the mic!

Conclusion
Here’s Jill’s own comments on her album (no, I’m not that lazy, my own comments follow after)
“I’m feeling gutsier, I’m feeling much more bold, free. In many ways, it’s closer to my first album. My original concept was to show different women – you know, like the housekeeper, the stripper, the congresswoman - but as I started writing and recording, I started taking on all these characters. I put myself in each woman’s place…and found that it became more about me, all of it, with the envy, the anger, the frustration, the loneliness, the joy, the passion and the rapture.
And that’s what makes it juicy…”

Well, that explains quite a lot. For me, the first coupla times listening to this album was a bit boring, seemed that she was keeping things nice and simple, not really attached. But when I started listening and reading the lyrics, shit changed dramatically. I still think that a lot of tracks are way too lazily produced and performed (yes, I know, I will burn in Hell or White Heaven for that remark). But the tracks that stand out like Crown Royal, How It Make You Feel and others, really, really do stand out for their high quality of Soul and True Pen(wo)manship and, sadly, because the other tracks are below average.
So, I still prefer her first album and the live record better than this one, and, yes, The Real Thing still is a great album. Not just a Favorite of mine, ohwell..
And come November 23rd, I’ll be jumping, dancing, grooving, moving, singing, shouting, smiling and even crying of joy when I see this Lady Of Soul perform her stuff live again. GO SEE HER SHIT LIVE!!

Rating: (Did I already mention you should go and see her live on stage?)

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