North Sea Jazz Festival In Rotterdam

Bert,

lucky you!!!

Yes please tell us about Mary J. Blige (does she still have the same power as "1" with U2?), Branford Marsalis and John Legend

Have a great Jazz weekend

Hi Bert,

I will have a look at Branford Marsalis, Mary J not sure, John Legend most probably not. But will keep you updated. 

Great first day highlight Avishai Cohen, more at breakfast time

So a bit more of background. The festival I think is rather unique. It blends the tradition of jazz with some of the big names in soul and pop music. Creating a unique atmosphere. You can at any given point in time choose which of the odd 10 concerts you would like to see. This leads sometimes to some though choices. For yesterday it was still more or less ok, for today and tomorrow I will have a difficult time to make the right choices...

Ps - better pictures to follow on Monday...

The first concert for me was the Tyshawn Sorey Trio. Based around the unique drummer and music which is more or less a group improvisation. While as such of high interest I found it to hard as a start into my festival weekend. While I am sure that in the right mental mode it would be a high quality free type of jazz...

The next concert I saw was from the Dominic J Marshall Trio. Wow this was a great experience. A pianist with a great rhythmic sense which was well supported by electric bass and drums. I am sure going to get some music from these guys. Refreshing but also with a pleasant piano sound.

Next was Vijay Iyer Trio for me. Three outstanding musicians which have been playing from the last album break stuff and had a flow from number into number. The interplay was very tight and at some moments there was some pure magic in how the band members where interacting with each other, especially some challenging rhythmic passages have been a delight. Unfortunately I couldn't sit in to the end as I had to move to the concert of Chich Corea and Herbie Hancock....

The concert with Chick and Herbie started a bit late which was a pity. It was one of the plus concerts which required special tickets which needed to be scanned. For this evening I at least know that I can wait a bit longer before going to the concert so that I don't loose time in the row waiting.

the concert was a combination of some stuff on keyboards and on grand pianos. The keyboard stuff was not so much my thing, but of course sounded modern and surprising. I was there for the work of the grand pianos and was well rewarded. Some pure magical moments in the interplay of these great masters of the keyboard. They of course net through some of the famous numbers of each and close with a kind of special adaptation of Concerto do Arunjuez..... No encore which would have been nice, but that's one of the disadvantages of such a festival setup

Then I went to see the end of the Casandra Wilson set. What was especially interesting besides that she of course has an impressive way of interpreting songs was the quality and groove of her supporting band. She was of course reaching out a bit to her last album, which I don't find her best, but it still was rather enjoyable, so happy I saw her....

The highlight of the evening was for me Avishai Cohen. For the occasion he had extended his trio with some heavy weights on trumpet, trombone and guitar. And it was a feast from the beginning to the end. Especially starting with the 2nd song where the bass was cranked up in the mix based on requests from the audience. Master musicians giving a top performance. While I was tired and had difficulty to stay concentrated this concert could have taken longer....

With the choices I made I of course also missed some great concerts which I partly wouldn't have expected. Lady Gaga seemed to have a hidden talent for jazz vocals with Tonny Bennett according to the reviews. And of course I missed Mary J Blige, not my favorite, but it would have been nice to see her as well. As mentioned more pictures and some better ones will follow from my camera. My iPhone was dead at the end off the evening that's why you kiss some picture of some of the concerts....

Ps if you look for this guy, he is also acting as DJ - so my delight is specifically related to the jazz trio setup.....

Bert, superb !! Really love your impressions !

iver

Just back from the 2nd day. A very special one I can say. With absolute highlights in Jamie Cullum and Thomas Echno. More to come at breakfast tomorrow.

Missed out on mentioning Brian Blade's Fellowship Band....

When I started yesterday I had a short look at David Sanborn. As expected very smooth and rounded, not so much my thing....

The first real concert yesterday was a surprise to me. I had not heard Brian Blades Fellowship Band before and was a bit skeptical. Even in the first number of the concert I stayed a bit skeptical as it was this typical artistic jazz type of start of the concert, long tones, small gestures etc..... But boy what and experience I was up for. It was incredible how they played with the dynamics and where really pulling the solos off. Brian Blade is really somebody special behind the drums how he can become a growling monster by hitting the drums and the cymbals. So obviously afterwards I bought his music....

After that I did a bit of switching around. I first was some time with Ron Carter Foursight. As expected high quality interplay in the rhythm section. It gave me a kind of Oscar Peterson feeling while the pianist was not really playing so much in the forefront of the mix. And that also was immediately the challenge of this concert as you heard a lot of drums, percussion and bass....but less of melody..... So while good and while interesting on it self I did switch, after a couple of numbers as it couldn't keep me captivated....

Then I shortly switched to David Virelles, but this was too much artistic for me....

After the concert of Jamie Cullum which is will describe in a bit. I went to Thomas Echno Trio. What a treat I was up to. I just recently bought his music via Qobuz, but wasn't half way prepared for the super concert I experienced. Such lyrical and gentle piano playing combined with such a masterful support of bass and drums. This concert could have taken much longer for me, it was just a dream kind of experience........

Bert, it sounds like you had a good time, it looks a fun festival. I hope they had small intimate stages as well? I often prefer Jazz this way as the audience can interact more easily with the musicians making it feel really 'live'

Simon

Hi Simon,

I am very happy to have still one day left with some great acts. It's indeed a good combination of big and small stages. They have stages for thousands of people in which you will find the great soul artists like John Legend, Lady Gaga..., the medium sized stages for big jazz, and the small intimate stages for the specific not so we'll know acts (Like Thomas Echno) which I described. I like it all as it all has a right of existence on it's own. I could recommend this festival to anybody - I really think it's the best of it's kind given the program and the condense setup of three days with 7 hours of music a day between 12 stages at any given point in time. It's so good that I would recommend you guys to leave your Island for a weekend.....

The last reports of the concerts of yesterday are falling apart in the ones I in my heart wouldn't 100% like to appreciate as they are also building a lot of the excitement of show tricks......but I liked them and even a lot in one case (Jamie Cullum and John Legend), and the one concert I would like to like, which was good but where the music is not so accessible as one would hope (the Bad Plus and Joshua Redmann)

Had to re type this one due to switching for the pictures ...Hate it.

so was very skeptical for Jamie. Yes he has created some attractive music, easy to listen to, but at the same point in time it's ok to my ears and not great.

but was I in for a surprise.... He started the concert and in my skepticism I was reading in my mind, yes he is pulling all the usual tricks in the book, using the piano as percussion instrument, standing on the piano, playing a snare drum while signing, running around, a fat big band type of support sounds......

but it very soon I lost the thoughts and was just captivated by a great concert which pulled off all the aspects which make a great concert - great songs, in a good order, with Intimate moments, with ongoing changes, with an excited band .......

so so still I will not listen so often to his albums, but if you have have Jamie live, do invite me please....

Jamie ended the concert with a brilliant solo piano version of please don't stop the music, my favorite song...

Finally I listened to the bad plus with Joshua Redmann. It was from an artistic point of view definitely a great concert, but they are playing the songs from the last album, and I don't find that all to be a highlight of the recordings from the Bad Plus or Joshua Redmann. So while good it didn't captivate me as much as the earlier concerts on the day. 

For or die hard fans of the Bad Plus though this would have been of course a great concert.....