Just got back from Vienne. The music as a bit mixed this year with the Club De Minuit, usually being the one venue guaranteed to produce some ear-popping music being given over to non-jazz acts, groups which had previously performed elsewhere the same day or even not operating as was the case this Monday evening.
As ever, even against the backdrop of increasing commerciality (I generally missed as much as the non-jazz stuff which started before I arrived in Vienne but still caught pop acts like Ben L'Oncle (surprisingly good), Joe Satriani (too soaked to stay and listen to this guitarist and former Tristano pupil perform all his shredding set) or the 1970's supermarket music of Sergio Mendes. A lot of criticism was heaped on this year's programming which was didn't feature as many star names as possible yet the free gigs at the Scene de Cybele were, in my opinion, the best ever.
Curious to check out the "reality" of what is going on in jazz with what is often perceived to be the case on this board with the fact that jazz retains to dig in to it's ability to dig deep in to it's traditions and re-invent itself. My first gig saw The Orchestre national de Lyon under the baton of Leonard Slatkin perform an all Gershwin programme with Stefano Bollani featuring in "Rhapsody in Blue. " Never heard this music performed live before but was impressed. This was followed by the stunning Korean singer Youn Sun nah whose band included Ulf Wakenius. There is a debate to be had as to whether she is a jazz singer as she is so original but the clarity of her voice and outstanding range as well as shear unpredictability makes her out to be a hugely compelling. The following Quincy Jones night was a bit of a swizz as the great man turned up and presented a set by young talent including Andreas Varady from Slovakia who is about 18 and has a 13 y.o. brother. With their father in bass, this was a frightening experience as they were incredibly mature. The Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez was also staggeringly brilliant . Not so impressed with singer Nikki Yanofsky who has gravitated towards pop 8 years after emerging as a 12 year old jazz singer. The second half was a set by the amazing Keystone big band who performed a broad range of Q's arrangements and were directed by him on the closing "Manteca" - this was sensational.
Blues night saw the great Buddy Guy on terrific form but the wonderful Tedeschi Trucks band stole the show. The best group of the festival as far as new discoveries were concerned. Loved their professional and exciting brand of large blues ensemble with Derek Trucks matching Buddy Guy. Buddy Guy is monster on his instrument and a great MC, making the audience laugh with the comments about the lyrics of a song which referred to a 19 year old girlfriend ~ "Don't look at my like that, I didn't write the F/ing lyrics!!" Tedeschi Trucks where, however, were incredible, the brass riffing as hard as Basie but driving by the power of two drummers.
The "Soul Night" concluded with a review produced by the Apollo Theatre in New York (80 years old this year) which was like a 1970's time warp get the French soil singer Ben L'Oncle surpassed the veterans. Opening 14 year old organist Matthew Whitaker's trio dipped in to the Big John Patton / Grant Green bag with panache and hopefully he will be another amateur night winner who can follow on in the footsteps of Ella. A tremendous talent and one to bring tears to the eyes of someone like Bluesnik.
A "guitar night" was salvaged by the entertaining Lucky Peterson who doubled on guitar and organ and produced a greasy set of blues that put a smile on everyone's face. I'm a big fan of this musician and thoroughly enjoyed this set. Not so good was the following night's singer's set which featured the bizarre French phenomena that is Thomas Dutronc whose music is a mixture of Jazz Manouche and Leon Redbone. Jamie Cullum was more lively and he fronted a British big band which sometimes played jazz and sometimes didn't. Anyway, for all that is said about British jazz, this was not a good group and would have been destroyed by French counterparts like Keytone let alone the American college bands who performed for free.
French jazz night was better. The Moutin Factory Quintet was fashioned in the kind if post-bop Brecker style and wrapped their very impressive set up with a blinding number. Not difficult to understand All abou Jazz's effusive praise for this fantastic band. Next up was Daniel Humair's more introspective which included a soprano sax and an accordion whilst producing some intricate and thoughtful music. A journalist from Jazzwise told me this was his favourite set of the festival - difficult to disagree with his enthusiasm. The headline act was Manu Katche's all-star band which incuded Eric Legnini ( a favourite of mine), Stefano Di Battista and Richard Bona. I didn't feel they pushed the music out too far and it did lend towards Smooth / fusion sometimes albeit masterfully done.
Highlight of the week otherwise was Kenny Garrett's quintet which flew the flag for great, unfettered jazz. The opening two pieces were in a Coltrane style and exposed how lightweight some of the earlier groups in the festival had been. A calypso that followed only served to heighten the impression that the music was right on the button and even before the rousing finale of "Happy People" Garrett had worked the audience in to a frenzy. For what it is worth, Kenny Garrett is probably one of the greatest jazz artists you can expect to hear in a live setting these days. He was followed by Bobby McFerrin's next project "Spirityouall" which was largely a string band playing Gil Goldstein charts of old spiritual tunes. The ace in the pack was the inclusion of her daughter to sing the alto vocal parts which lifted the music several notches for me. I enjoyed this double bill best of all.
The Brazilian night opened with the legendary song-writer Vinicius Cantuaria and he was followed by Elian Elias' quartet that included her husband Marc Johnson on bass. The music initially fell in to the Dianne Krall sphere of things albeit with oodles of more improvisation and if the music may have included a number of tunes associated with peripheral jazz figures like Jobim and Chet Baker, the closing "battle" between the pianist and her drummer was totally gripping. This was a professional and assured set. The finale of Sergio Mendes as a unique chance to hear some Easy Listening music performed in a live environment but most people had filed out of the theatre before the set had concluded fed up with the shear pointlessness of it.
Last night's African night was a curious affair. Having to catch a train early this morning, I missed half of Youssou NDour's set but this was pop music and I wasn't overstruck. The opening melange of the great Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca and the brilliant Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara was a sublime coming together of the music from two continents, the pianist proving to be an essential force in contemporary jazz whereas Diawara has a sensational voice and a stage presence which is marking her out as the latest superstar performer from Africa. The following set was wired. Billed as a meeting of the Chicago blues of the great Taj Mahal and Bassekou Kouyate's Malian musicians, each group performed some wonderful music themselves but when they joined forces for the closing two numbers the result was a staggeringly serendipitous piece of inspired music making. I really hope this collaboration makes it on to disc.
As ever, even against the backdrop of increasing commerciality (I generally missed as much as the non-jazz stuff which started before I arrived in Vienne but still caught pop acts like Ben L'Oncle (surprisingly good), Joe Satriani (too soaked to stay and listen to this guitarist and former Tristano pupil perform all his shredding set) or the 1970's supermarket music of Sergio Mendes. A lot of criticism was heaped on this year's programming which was didn't feature as many star names as possible yet the free gigs at the Scene de Cybele were, in my opinion, the best ever.
Curious to check out the "reality" of what is going on in jazz with what is often perceived to be the case on this board with the fact that jazz retains to dig in to it's ability to dig deep in to it's traditions and re-invent itself. My first gig saw The Orchestre national de Lyon under the baton of Leonard Slatkin perform an all Gershwin programme with Stefano Bollani featuring in "Rhapsody in Blue. " Never heard this music performed live before but was impressed. This was followed by the stunning Korean singer Youn Sun nah whose band included Ulf Wakenius. There is a debate to be had as to whether she is a jazz singer as she is so original but the clarity of her voice and outstanding range as well as shear unpredictability makes her out to be a hugely compelling. The following Quincy Jones night was a bit of a swizz as the great man turned up and presented a set by young talent including Andreas Varady from Slovakia who is about 18 and has a 13 y.o. brother. With their father in bass, this was a frightening experience as they were incredibly mature. The Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez was also staggeringly brilliant . Not so impressed with singer Nikki Yanofsky who has gravitated towards pop 8 years after emerging as a 12 year old jazz singer. The second half was a set by the amazing Keystone big band who performed a broad range of Q's arrangements and were directed by him on the closing "Manteca" - this was sensational.
Blues night saw the great Buddy Guy on terrific form but the wonderful Tedeschi Trucks band stole the show. The best group of the festival as far as new discoveries were concerned. Loved their professional and exciting brand of large blues ensemble with Derek Trucks matching Buddy Guy. Buddy Guy is monster on his instrument and a great MC, making the audience laugh with the comments about the lyrics of a song which referred to a 19 year old girlfriend ~ "Don't look at my like that, I didn't write the F/ing lyrics!!" Tedeschi Trucks where, however, were incredible, the brass riffing as hard as Basie but driving by the power of two drummers.
The "Soul Night" concluded with a review produced by the Apollo Theatre in New York (80 years old this year) which was like a 1970's time warp get the French soil singer Ben L'Oncle surpassed the veterans. Opening 14 year old organist Matthew Whitaker's trio dipped in to the Big John Patton / Grant Green bag with panache and hopefully he will be another amateur night winner who can follow on in the footsteps of Ella. A tremendous talent and one to bring tears to the eyes of someone like Bluesnik.
A "guitar night" was salvaged by the entertaining Lucky Peterson who doubled on guitar and organ and produced a greasy set of blues that put a smile on everyone's face. I'm a big fan of this musician and thoroughly enjoyed this set. Not so good was the following night's singer's set which featured the bizarre French phenomena that is Thomas Dutronc whose music is a mixture of Jazz Manouche and Leon Redbone. Jamie Cullum was more lively and he fronted a British big band which sometimes played jazz and sometimes didn't. Anyway, for all that is said about British jazz, this was not a good group and would have been destroyed by French counterparts like Keytone let alone the American college bands who performed for free.
French jazz night was better. The Moutin Factory Quintet was fashioned in the kind if post-bop Brecker style and wrapped their very impressive set up with a blinding number. Not difficult to understand All abou Jazz's effusive praise for this fantastic band. Next up was Daniel Humair's more introspective which included a soprano sax and an accordion whilst producing some intricate and thoughtful music. A journalist from Jazzwise told me this was his favourite set of the festival - difficult to disagree with his enthusiasm. The headline act was Manu Katche's all-star band which incuded Eric Legnini ( a favourite of mine), Stefano Di Battista and Richard Bona. I didn't feel they pushed the music out too far and it did lend towards Smooth / fusion sometimes albeit masterfully done.
Highlight of the week otherwise was Kenny Garrett's quintet which flew the flag for great, unfettered jazz. The opening two pieces were in a Coltrane style and exposed how lightweight some of the earlier groups in the festival had been. A calypso that followed only served to heighten the impression that the music was right on the button and even before the rousing finale of "Happy People" Garrett had worked the audience in to a frenzy. For what it is worth, Kenny Garrett is probably one of the greatest jazz artists you can expect to hear in a live setting these days. He was followed by Bobby McFerrin's next project "Spirityouall" which was largely a string band playing Gil Goldstein charts of old spiritual tunes. The ace in the pack was the inclusion of her daughter to sing the alto vocal parts which lifted the music several notches for me. I enjoyed this double bill best of all.
The Brazilian night opened with the legendary song-writer Vinicius Cantuaria and he was followed by Elian Elias' quartet that included her husband Marc Johnson on bass. The music initially fell in to the Dianne Krall sphere of things albeit with oodles of more improvisation and if the music may have included a number of tunes associated with peripheral jazz figures like Jobim and Chet Baker, the closing "battle" between the pianist and her drummer was totally gripping. This was a professional and assured set. The finale of Sergio Mendes as a unique chance to hear some Easy Listening music performed in a live environment but most people had filed out of the theatre before the set had concluded fed up with the shear pointlessness of it.
Last night's African night was a curious affair. Having to catch a train early this morning, I missed half of Youssou NDour's set but this was pop music and I wasn't overstruck. The opening melange of the great Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca and the brilliant Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara was a sublime coming together of the music from two continents, the pianist proving to be an essential force in contemporary jazz whereas Diawara has a sensational voice and a stage presence which is marking her out as the latest superstar performer from Africa. The following set was wired. Billed as a meeting of the Chicago blues of the great Taj Mahal and Bassekou Kouyate's Malian musicians, each group performed some wonderful music themselves but when they joined forces for the closing two numbers the result was a staggeringly serendipitous piece of inspired music making. I really hope this collaboration makes it on to disc.
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