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 2

Victor Wooten
The incredibly talented bass player, Mr. Victor Wooten, is always a joy to be entertained by. A very solid performance with a great band (including an additional bass player).

Deodato
Not my cup of tea, and that percussionist scared me a lil’ bit..

Chaka Khan
After the incredibly horrific performance I saw from her on MTV with a certain K. West, I was very, very delighted to hear the Lady strut her stuff like the true singer she is. Excellent!

José James
The up-and-coming and yet already here-to-stay vocalist José James gave another fantastic performance, getting everyone excited and grooving.

Lizz Wright
Symptomatic for this year’s festival: arrived half an hour before the set started and there already was a line of a coupla hundred people! It used to be that the smaller stages were problematic, but now even the medium sized locations were overcrowded, sheesh..

Marc Broussard
Short visit and listen, but the man does have a great voice!

George Benson
Great instrumentalist and vocalist, delivers the goods.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Another great tip from Hieronymus Fox: if Otis Redding was listening from the grave, he’d gave Sharon a thumbs up. Let’s not forget the Dap-Kings!
It really is possible to keep on playing that old Soul groove without being a blatant copycat: carrying on the Good Cause and extending the music.

Christian Prommer’s Drumlesson
Closing act: fantastic band mixing up different electronic, groove and jazz stuff!

Conclusion
This festival wasn’t that great, sad to say. The line up didn’t work for me that much. Saw and enjoyed quite a number of acts, but the overcrowded venues were more of a problem this year than before.
But closing my eyes and thinking of the incredible miss Sharon Jones just keeps putting a smile on my face.

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# - NorthSeaJazz2008: Jose James doing his nasty stuff.. A true live performer!

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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 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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General Info
Artist: José James || ||
Location: Paradiso, Amsterdam
When: 11 January 2008

Who?
Didn’t know anything about this artist; it’s yet another one of Hieronymus Fox’s discoveries. Thanks for the tip bro’!!
Check out some of his performances at .

The Show
Such a relaxed location, the smaller of the two locations at the Paradiso. Nice large number of people attending, show starts reasonably on time. A great setup: piano/keyboards, drums, bass and James’ vocal talents. Sound quality was quite good, lights weren’t annoying, everything fine..
Now, if you’re not of an adult age and you’re reading this post, get the hell out of here because I’m gonna use some faux exclamations. Parents, have you taken the children out of the room? Fine.

H O L Y S H I T ! ! !
M O M M A , T H I S A R T I S T I S F U C K I N G U N B E L I E V A B L E ! ! !

There, you can bring the kids back to this post..

Songs that Stood Out
Park Bench People
Heheh, HF and me recognized the bass from an old A Tribe Called Quest sample, used in the Sucka Nigga track.
The scat-rap-flow is beautiful and so unbelievably mature.

blackeyedsusan
Sweetness, this guy’s vocals make the lyrics ooze the sweetest honey.

Nola
Googling my black ass off; my mind keeps telling me I know this song from some other artist, but I haven’t found it yet.
Back to the track: the band is always an important factor for an artist, in this case the band adds extra support and lays the foundation for a perfect performance of a great song.

Overall, mister James doing his improvisations
Wow..

Conclusion
It’ll take me a coupla months to really define this guy’s voice. It’s not that he hasn’t his own voice, don’t get me wrong, but there are similarities with people like Bill Withers (Park Bench People). I’ll update every time I get another name that needs to be added.
The strong supporting role of the band needs to get special attention. Pianist Gideon Van Gelder had a particularly tricky roll: on the one hand his improvisations added extra brilliance to the act, but sometimes it got a bit too freaky, too self-indulgent. Guest appearance by Ben Van Gelder on the horn was nice.
I was very impressed with José James’s incredible voice and talent, using his vocals as an instrument in a totally jazzy way. Over the last coupla years we’ve been bombarded with jazzy singers, let’s call ‘em all Jamie, but Jose is more than that: he’s a jazz singers, and the Jamies in this world just have a fraction of James’ depth of talent.
The performance itself, well.. After the initial euphoria during the first five songs you notice a bit of a pattern. That in itself is fine, but it would be more interesting to here the band perform together a bit more. A drum versus bass improv or piano versus bass, whatever. Just not always the vocals and the piano for ten songs straight. A bit more diversity would help.
Next time this guy’s in Holland, I’ll be there and his album’s coming out in two weeks, boys and girls!!

Rating: (a great way to start the new year!)

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