[part 2 of 2] SUNDAY, 25.08.02 14:30 JEWELS AND BINOCULARS "The music of Bob Dylan" Netherlands, USA Michael Moore: saxophone, clarinete Lindsay Horner: bass Michael Vatcher: drums Nice, but overly pleasant - no surprises in the music, to me. Every tune pretty much sounded like faithful, groovy folk-jazz. Horner almost constantly vamped. Too safe for my tastes. I hadn't heard the album, and expected more from this trio. 16:00 DANIEL HUMAIR "Liberté Surveilée" France, USA Daniel Humair: drums Marc Ducret: guitars Bruno Chevillon: bass Ellery Eskelin: tenor saxophone Was looking forward to this, having liked the Sketch cd, and they did play well. Ellery sounded off his game on the first solo, but sounded much better on the second tune (though for some reason Humair and Chevillon seemed to keeping that solo from getting out like it was trying to). Ellery is a bit the odd man out here - the trio is really locked in together, and they sounded good. Ducret put in another strong performance, and the drum/bass tandem was constantly entwined. Overall, they seemed to hover just beneath really tearing it up, but I'm guessing that was due to the rather uncomfortably warm temperature in the tent around this time. Bleah. 17:30 FAST'N BULBOUS: The Captain Beefheart Project feat. Gary Lucas and Phillip Johnston USA Gary Lucas: guitar Jesse Krakow: bass Richard Dworkin: drums Phillip Johnston: alto saxophone, arranger Rob Henke: trumpet Joe Fiedler: trombone Dave Sewelson: bariton saxophone The worst sound of the festival - volume too high, and the mix way too sibilant and bright. Really annoyed me. Another "party music" entry - big, fast, loud arrangements of Beefheart tunes. Decent overall, though I would have preferred more pure blowing, as these are good blowing tunes. I listened to most of it from the food area, as it sounded so loud and bad. 19:00 SEPTETO ROBERTO JUAN RODRIGUEZ feat. David Krakauer "El Danzon de Moises" USA Brad Jones: bass Marcus Rojas: tuba Mary Wooten: cello Meg Okura: violin David Krakauer: clarinet Ted Reichman: accordion Roberto Rodriguez: percussion Perhaps the biggest hit of the festival - this was wonderfully fun Jewish/Cuban music, with the awesome sound of Krakauer on top. The crowd loved it. 20:30 URI CAINE Bedrock USA Uri Caine: piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano Tim Lefebvre: bass Zach Danziger: drums and additional sounds (forget his name - wasn't listed): turntables I was skeptical when this started - Uri noodling on the Fender Rhodes, it initially sounded like him doing MMW. But man, Danziger started in with some laptop techno/club type sequences, and drummed like mad on top, and I was totally won over with the sheer hyperkinetic antics of this group. Majorly infectious. ========== SHORT CUTS (afternoon gigs in a smaller venue) o MEPHISTA Ikue Mori, Sylvie Courvoisier, Susie Ibarra This was pretty good free improv, with Ikue on laptop, and Courvoisier playing half in, half out the piano. Good interplay. o NIGHT Misha Alperin, Anja Lechner, Hans-Kristian Kjos Sorensen A charming mostly composed folk-classical-type suite, piano/cello/percussion. Pretty inventive writing, and well-executed. There were a couple fairly lame turntable gigs that I don't feel like writing about. Unfortunately, I arrived to late to hear the Amsterdam String Trio and a Patrick Pulsinger group that feature Werner Dafeldecker, Franz Hautzinger, and Boris Hauf (which sounded from the personnel like it would have been the most experimental of the festival concerts). Oh well. ========== So, the tally: Really liked: Lucas Niggli Tim Berne Roberto Juan Rodriguez Uri Caine Enjoyed: Billy Bang Muthspiel bros. John Scofield Daniel Humair OK: Martin Koller Dejohnette/Suso Lacaille/Brozman Eric Truffaz Jewels and Binoculars Fast 'n' Bulbous Nonplussed or disliked: Bugge Wesseltoft Sussan Deyhim Hm, 50%. Not so great. Regarding booking, I really think quality would improve if they'd concentrated on quality while keeping with their attempts at variety, particularly with the 'party' stuff. Gigs like Scofield, Rodriguez, and Caine were both major crowd-pleasers and interesting music. Seems to me those would have been enough to sustain a reasonable-sized crowd looking for a "good time", while freeing up more room for real variety and substantive music (than some of the other gigs). But that's just mho. -- Vincent Kargatis np: Thelonious Monk - "I Surrender, Dear" (Brilliant Corners)
Vincent Kargatis wrote:
[part 2 of 2]
SUNDAY, 25.08.02
19:00 SEPTETO ROBERTO JUAN RODRIGUEZ feat. David Krakauer "El Danzon de Moises" USA
Brad Jones: bass Marcus Rojas: tuba Mary Wooten: cello Meg Okura: violin David Krakauer: clarinet Ted Reichman: accordion Roberto Rodriguez: percussion
Perhaps the biggest hit of the festival - this was wonderfully fun Jewish/Cuban music, with the awesome sound of Krakauer on top. The crowd loved it.
Sounds interesting. Krakauer has good chops. But was this Cuban music melded with Jewish music or Jewish music from Cuba? Alan Lankin lankina@att.net http://jazzmatazz.home.att.net
AL> > Perhaps the biggest hit of the festival - this was wonderfully fun AL> > Jewish/Cuban music, with the awesome sound of Krakauer on top. The AL> > crowd loved it. AL> > AL> Sounds interesting. Krakauer has good chops. But was this Cuban music AL> melded with Jewish music or Jewish music from Cuba? it was definitely one of the best concerts of the festival, i agree... it was said to be the music of the jewish community of cuba... Tim mailto:TimBlechmann@gmx.net ICQ: 96771783 http://www.nyds-exp-discogs.tk np: Mstislav Rostropovich: Bach - Cello Suites (EMI) Heiner Goebbels: Eislermaterial (ECM) -- The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!" Jack Kerouac
But was this Cuban music
AL> melded with Jewish music or Jewish music from Cuba? astuff deleted...
it was said to be the music of the jewish community of cuba...
Tim mailto:TimBlechmann@gmx.net You might get an idea when listening to this 2002 Tzadik release: Roberto Luis Rodriguez: El Danzon de Moises (Radical Jewish Culture no. 58, TZ7158)
It has Krakauer, Darriau, Mark Feldman among others. And oh yes: Brad Jones is playing the 'bajo' it says in authentic cuban style, on the back of the cd. I like it the way I liked David Gould's (plus Jamie Saft's) Adonai In Dub release: interesting, and although slightly far fetched, still a good way for a musician to explore cross-breedings and new sonic combinations in a workshop kind of fashion. But timeless and perfect masterpieces they are not, IMHO. Let's see what happens next... Regards, Remco Takken
From: "Alan Lankin" <lankina@att.net>
Vincent Kargatis wrote:
SEPTETO ROBERTO JUAN RODRIGUEZ Perhaps the biggest hit of the festival - this was wonderfully fun Jewish/Cuban music, with the awesome sound of Krakauer on top.
Sounds interesting. Krakauer has good chops. But was this Cuban music melded with Jewish music or Jewish music from Cuba?
At the time, I guessed the former, even though Rodriguez actually *stated* the latter, which I interpreted as a joke. But the Tzadik web-site states: "[Rodriguez] excavates the fascinating world of Cuba's little-known Jewish community. Roberto's firsthand experience with both Cuban and Jewish traditions [...] have resulted in a brilliant recording blending the two into a seamless new music." So I suppose both interpretations are possible, but given their statement that the *recording* blends them, perhaps my initial inclination was correct. -- Vincent Kargatis np: Joe McPhee - "Pablo" (Oleo)
participants (4)
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Alan Lankin -
Remco Takken -
Tim Blechmann -
Vincent Kargatis