By Ken Pickering, Coastal Jazz's Artistic Director
Part One: Northsea Jazz Festival (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
September is just around the corner and that signals the impending conclusion of the international summer jazz festival season. Just a few more festivals left before the days get very short – Mulhouse (France), Saalfelden (Austria), Monterey (USA), Guelph (Canada) etc. – are among the best of those upcoming or are currently taking place.
The Canadian jazz festival season kicked off in June – bringing great music to communities in urban centers across the country. Without a doubt, our celebratory 25th annual VIJF was one of the most enjoyable, gratifying and memorable events ever; an amazing program of the most creative sounds on the planet – Globe Unity, Barry Guy / Michel Gagne, Joshua Redman, MOPDtK, Eric Boeren 4tet with Han Bennink, Schlippenbach Trio, Bill Frisell, Tomasz Stanko, Youn Sun Nah/Ulf Wakenius, Renee Rosnes/Bill Charlap, Harris Eisenstadt, Mario Pavone and so many more! It was a gas.
As much as we’d like to relax and savour the post festival experience heading into the warm summer months, the Coastal Jazz offices have been a beehive of activity and staff has been extremely busy in every department, as we take the opportunity to begin the process to strategize and re-imagine what the next 25 years might look like for the VIJF.
On a personal front, I was fortunate to be invited to extend my festival experience through a good portion of July. That meant visiting 3 additional festivals (Northsea, Nickelsdorf and Molde); all with very distinctive widely diverging programming visions (yet much creative music in each of them) and all taking place in far flung corners of Europe. Many might consider this plan completely insane from both logistical and health viewpoints – attending festivals and being “present” for the music is demanding and requires a phenomenal amount of adrenalin, intestinal fortitude and energy. Being well rested is a state of being that is rarely in the cards; you grab a few minutes when you can. Musicians that spend inordinate amounts of time on the road have my compassion. (Actually I’m in awe of them). Although each day is exhausting, the music, networking, camaraderie and the inspiration inherent in the music encouraged me to soldier on through 4 different countries and 3 festivals in rapid succession.
I’ve been back in the office for about a month now and although there seem to be few moments to catch a breath and recharge the old battery, that's ok; there’s a sense of renewal in the air and the energy is slowly returning. Coastal Jazz is entering a transitional period (with our new ED - Fatima Amarshi at the helm) and the team is energized and ready for exciting new challenges moving forward. Now that there’s been some time to reflect on my month long festival experience, I thought it would be nice to give a bit of a snapshot of the festivals; with the occasional anecdote, some photographs and some nice clips that will give you a sense of the atmosphere at three very different European festivals. The knowledge and experience I gained on this journey will be treasured, not to mention the incredible memories created that are so special and indeed once in a lifetime. A lot of amazing talent was encountered and there's no doubt that some of those great bands will appear on Vancouver stages over the next couple years!
Huge crowd of Netherlands supporters watching the World Cup (vs. Spain) on the final evening @ Northsea
First stop was the legendary Northsea Jazz Festival (in Rotterdam); (Amsterdam was my hub via a KLM flight to Europe) a 3 day event that packs an awful lot of great programming into a long weekend. The festival (formerly in the Hague) takes place in a mega convention center with around 12 different venues of varying sizes (the largest having huge capacities) running simultaneously through the festival and is accessible by purchasing a daily or weekend pass. So one has to be fleet of foot to get around a catch as much interesting music as possible. Lots of friends were in attendance, both on the bandstand and in the audience (from all over Europe and the USA as well as my esteemed colleagues Johanne Bougie and André Menard from the Montreal Jazz Festival and Lars Mossefin from Norwegian Jazz in a Nutshell).
Lars Mossefin (Norwegian Jazz in a Nutshell) @ Northsea - was great to hook up
Highlight concerts included: Ornette Coleman – with his regular quartet (two performances), plus with the Master Musicians of Jajouka and then a great couple of trio tunes were performed by Ornette, Charlie Haden and Denardo. Blood Ulmer and Joshua Redman also participated in a special Ornette project.
Ornette - both on the big screen and on stage at Northsea
Joshua Redman’s Double Trio completely tore it up; when Chris Potter joined them on Joshua’s invitation for a large chunk of the set, all I can say is insanity ensued (in a good way). They cranked it to another level. I’ve heard Chris often and always enjoy his playing but on this night I was floored by the complexity of his lines and even more by the sheer power of his sound. Monstrous.
Other notable sets: Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors (watch out for these guys.. a really interesting approach that is less about solos and more about a unique ensemble approach – modern yet down home rootsy kind of vibe); Earth, Wind & Fire were amazing – this was an old school soul revue with full horn and percussion section. They were the real deal (not for the Vegas / Casino crowd) and had 1000’s of people dancing up a storm. Lee Konitz Quartet was stellar (scored a front row seat) – a beautiful group with Ethan Iverson (Bad Plus) playing very spare and tastefully, Ben Street (bass) and the perfect drummer for his music, Jorge Rossi (who spends most of his time on piano and composing these days). Braam/de Joode / Vatcher played a great set with Louis Sclavis as a guest; Darcy James Argue (with the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra) has developed a very modern hybrid approach to orchestration that takes the Maria Schneider / Bob Brookmeyer inspiration and tweaks it with some indie / pop / rock influence that can be most notably heard in his unique employment of modern guitar language.
Trio Braam de Joode Vatcher with Louis Sclavis at Northsea
The final Sunday coincided with the grand finale of the World Cup (soccer/football) beween Spain and the Netherlands. Along with some crazy weather the previous evening (serious rain storms and flooding) brought some logistical challenges to the organizers that they worked hard to overcome. It was apparent that the festival would have to accommodate the game in some way, so the solution ended up being the erection of numerous screens around the site and pushing Stevie Wonder’s show in the Nile venue back by 90 minutes or so to allow for the game. It was mayhem. Check out the photos! I ended up watching part of the game from the pressroom and then checked out Eivind Aarset’s Sonic Codex Orchestra (while the game played out on a screen on the back of his tented venue)! Too bad the Netherlands side was defeated, but all was cool.
The World Cup on a big screen on the outside of one of the tented stages (with Eivind Aarset Sonic Codex performing inside (below).
More fine sets from Michael Moore’s Fragile Trio, Vijay Iyer Trio, Gretchen Parlato (catch her Coastal show October 23rd), the amazing– Shibusa Shirazu Orchestra – from Japan, with butoh, live painting, go go dancers and a wicked ensemble that brings to mind Zappa and John Zorn. A complete multi-media experience. Definitely a band that we must get to Vancouver!
Shibusa Shirazu Orchestra @ Northsea
So much other great music: Sharon Jones, Steve Lehman, Los Van Van, Elvis Costello, Jason Moran, Eric Vloeimans, Timucin Sahin, and plenty plenty more. Northsea was a veritable feast of riches that seemed to be over in a flash.
Michael Moore at dinner - an impromptu hang over "salads" on a roasting hot evening at Northsea.
Thanks for the kind hospitality of the Northsea team: Jan Willem, Michelle, Sander, Kim and Frank. Also thanks to Danielle for the hang and helping out in Amsterdam. Great to see everyone there!
Michelle Kuypers (programmer) hard at work. All my other photos of Northsea staff were completely lame, not that this one is awesome, but I did wanted to include at least one shot and this was the best of the lot (plus it's my good friend Michelle!)
(All photography by: Ken Pickering)
Upcoming:
Part 2 – Nickelsdorf (Austria) – Konfrontationen 2010
Part 3 – Molde Jazz (Norway)
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