Media & Reviews

During my breakfast, I like listening to classical or jazz music. I always tune in on a German radio station that features a good selection of music (right before they turn to the "Wort zum Tag" by some church dude) and it sort of gets me in the right mood. A couple of months ago, I heard a fantastic Jazz song but forgot to look the artist up soon afterward. Then, this Monday they featured another song by the same guy and I immediately grabbed my Moleskine and marked down "Look up Moondog"... which I did, and I came across an very interesting wiki article and album selection on iTunes. Moondog or Louis Thomas Hardin was a blind jazz musician / philosopher / instrument inventor / hobo spending most of his days in the streets of Manhattan wearing his homemade Thor (the god, not the protein, sorry to disappoint you) costume. I can highly recommend him to any avant-garde jazz percussion fan!

I just received a phantastic Japanese Jazz CD from FarSide Music. Shibusashirazu (渋さ知らズ, Shibusashirazu, roughly, "we don't understand/are unaffected by cool", Wikipedia.org) is sort of a freestyle neopsychedelic acidjazz bigband orchestra, to put it roughly into words. Check out samples here or watch the youtube below. I find in marvelous that such a band is playing at festivals such as Fuji Rock etc, and that they are able to thrill so many people. I think Japan is probably one of the only countries where such bands can really make it into the charts, reminding me of the "success" of Ego-Wrappin'.

On Saturday, I had the chance to go to the annual Jazz and Blues Rallye held in Luxembourg City in the Grund. Unfortunatly I had forgotten to bring the program, so I just strolled through the whole event with my parents. I was furious to miss André Mergenthaler's concert, but luckily, Thierry had was kind enough to upload a video of the performance. All in all, I did not enjoy the event as much as I did the years before. Usually I always made some amazing discoveries the years before, such as the marvelous Tennyson & Keiser performance in the Melusina a couple of years ago. Also, 90 % of what I heard was Blues. Don't get me wrong, I love Blues, but somehow I feel that Blues in best consumed Wednesday evenings at Radio ARA...You see, listening to a Jazz CD and hearing the concert live are two completely different things. I cannot say this from Blues, maybe I'm wrong, but I guess everyone has his favourite music!

Yesterday, I was at the Bird's Eye again for a wonderful Jazz concert, from one of the most progressive and simpy best African Jazz bands out there. Their sound was full and sophisticated, they played very energetically without pausing a single time during the whole set! Ngqawana played instruments I've never seen in my whole life, well what more can I say, it was simply pure Jazz from the heart! 

Zim Ngqawana: alto-/tenorsax/flute/vocals
Nduduzo Makhathini: piano
Herbie Tsoaeli: bass
Ayanda Sikade: drums

Zim Ngqawana ist wohl der progressivste Jazzmusiker des neuen Südafrikas, ganz sicher aber einer der vielfältigsten. Durch seine unermüdlich frische musikalische Betrachtungsweise findet er immer wieder neue Standpunkte.
Seine oft gut tanzbaren Kompositionen beruhen auf dem sicheren Fundament der Folk- und populären Musiktraditionen Südafrikas, beziehen sich aber auch auf die klassische Musik Indiens und Europas, auf Weltmusik und Avantgarde. Mit ihren südafrikanischen Wurzeln weisen sie stark perkussive und improvisierte Elemente auf, werden von einer immensen, an Coltrane erinnernden Energie vorangetrieben und von der grossen Spiritualität Ngqawanas getragen. Diese Basis musste sich Zim Ngqawana, der 1959 in Port Elizabeth in der östlichen Kapregion geboren wurde und erst mit 21 Jahren Flöte spielen lernte, hart erarbeiten, bevor ihm Erfolg beschieden war, und er unter anderem mit Abdullah Ibrahim, Hugh Masekela und Max Roach zusammenarbeiten konnte. Für seine Auftritte bei uns wird der Saxophonist von Herbie Tsoaeli, einem der begnadetsten Bassisten Südafrikas, begleitet. Er stellt uns aber mit Ayanda Sikade und Nduduzo Makhatini (der das Basler Publikum schon als Pianist von Simphiwe Dana begeisterte) auch zwei jüngere und weniger bekannte Musiker seiner Heimat vor.
http://www.zimology.com/

LISTEN TO A SAMPLE MP3.

Last Saturday, I went to a concert of the famous Italian Jazz-musician Paolo Conte in the Rockhal in Esch Belval. Although I did not know all of his music, I wanted to hear him perform live, as there is nothing better than live jazz music. Well, after the concert, I went home with mixed feelings. The music was great, don't get me wrong. His performance was very good, his voice cracky as ever, and he had a wonderful band. But, being used to small jazz concerts, sitting next to the musicians, I had expected more. A good deal of his music was lost simply due to the fact that he was performing in a room build for rock concerts for 5000 people. That's not how you can enjoy good jazz music. Although we had good seats, I somehow got the feeling that they were playing playback (I know of course they weren't), as the music came from the cold 100KWatt boxes and not from the warm harmonious instruments... A pity, nevertheless, the merformance and music were very good!

Link: http://www.milesgriffithmusic.com/

Some people go to church, others visit their psychiatrist. Well I go from time to time to the Jazz Club. Every now and then, I pay a visit at the Bird's Eye here in Basel, this time it was for one of my favourite Jazz Singers, Miles Griffith. It was one of my first Jazz concerts where I had heard him sing, and he sure as hell haven't lost his talent nor his humor. Miles an New York original, his music is full, his voice is loud and his beat is very catching. His latest album is Smile Again, if you do like Jazz here's some samples: Arisio, Here's that rainy day, Too high, and We see.

Their playing was fantastic, each musicians personal notes could be distinguised, melting together to one big jazzy amalgam of rythm. One of the best concerts I heard so far at the Bird's Eye!Here's what the Bird's Eye writes about them:

Der herausragende Posaunist Glenn Ferris steht zwar nicht zum ersten Mal auf unserer Bühne. Zum ersten Mal jedoch tut er dies mit einer von ihm geleiteten Formation, auf die man zu Recht gespannt sein darf. Geboren in Los Angeles, lernte Glenn Ferris bereits ab dem zarten Alter von acht Jahren die Posaune und deren klassisches Repertoire. Mit 16 traf er Don Ellis, durch den er zum Jazz wechselte und in dessen experimentierfreudiger Big Band er bald mitspielte. Zeugnisse seiner beträchtlichen Vielseitigkeit wurden später die Zusammenarbeiten zum Beispiel mit Frank Zappa, Bonnie Raitt oder Stevie Wonder. 1980 wanderte er nach Frankreich aus, wo er seither als freier Musiker und Professor in Nîmes und Paris arbeitet und die europäische Jazz-Szene bereichert. Charakteristisch für Glenn Ferris ist heute seine ab 1980 erworbene einzigartige Fähigkeit, seinem sonst doch eher lautstarken Instrument laufend hauchzarte, spinnwebenfeine Töne, einen geschmeidigen Sound und eine poetische, subtile Sprache zu entlocken, der es bei aller Weichheit und Diskretion doch nie an Charakter, Selbstbewusstsein und Definition mangelt