I’m not sure if this was the fourth or fifth time I saw The Cinematic Orchestra, but what I do know is that they never disappoint. When the band got on stage J Swinscoe promised us a selection of tracks from the entire TCO discography, and that is what we got. Most of the tracks started with that recognizable looped sample, when one by one the musicians stepped in. In quite a lot of tracks they kept on building and improvising until it became a real wall of sound. It was not noise however, all the little intricacies and notes were still audible, making for several goosebumps moments. Maybe they took their ad libs and solos a little too far occasionally, but only moments later the groove was back.

Richard Spaven, Heidi Vogel, Stuart McCallum, Tom Chant, Phil France, … they all shone on stage. A question that kept popping in my mind though was why those samples can’t be played by the band? A full size Cinematic Orchestra, wouldn’t that be something? A minor niggle however, I had a marvelous time!

The Cinematic Orchestra

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All pictures © Bruno Bollaert

Next up were Kruder & Dorfmeister. 16 years after their debut, the godfathers of triphop (I bet they hate that phrase!) have swapped their spliffs for tuxedo’s and champagne. They’re touring the globe again with a ‘live’ show, backed by an impressive videowall of 12 big ass screens. The gig was split into three parts: past, present and future. The past was basically nothing more than a K&D Remix Megamix™ – great nostalgia for the fans, who were present in great numbers. It felt very scripted though, which is partly unavoidable with all those visuals, but still…
The present part was more like a regular DJ set, with very long housetracks. I didn’t recognize a lot of tunes although I heard that Christian Prommer version of Nights of the Jaguar. The third and final part of the show showed us a glimpse of the G-stone future but to be honest, it sounded like more of those long house tracks from the present. Assisted by MC’s Earl Zinger and Ras MC they reached a few stomping house peaks. The gig had its moments and the big crowd loved it, but subtle or memorable, it was not.

On sunday we had something more exciting to look out for: Soil & “Pimp” Sessions! Like The Cinematic Orchestra, I have seen them a few times now and they never disappoint either. Their totally of the hook death jazz sound still blows away first time spectators and stays fresh for the long time fans. Of particular interest this time was the J.A.M. intermezzo in the middle, where Josei, Akita Goldman and Midorin played some new tracks from their upcoming second album. I heard superfast Brazillian bossa like only Japanese can play it!
And you can say what you want about Shacho, the agitator of the band, but without him most people would just see a bunch of weird freak jazz musicians on stage. Add him to the picture and you get an entertaining show that the audience can relate to and – most importantly – dance to!

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

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All pictures © Jurriaan Persyn

A couple more over here or join the Beyondjazz Flickr group for more visual candy.

Hypnotic Brass will release a Heritage ep later this month. Make sure you’re on the look out for that and support independent musicians. Oh, and a thumbs up for dj’s Lefto & Azer for great sets in between & after. Great night!

The Belgian band Briskey had the honour of opening the second weekend of the Gent Jazz festival, focused on cross-over/fusion acts. But we only got there just when Leela James started. Her job was to get the crowd warmed up with her spicy melange of soul and funk: catchy, but not really remarkable. Her show was a mix of highs and lows, while she tried a little too hard to get everyone involved. The audience loved it though, and the tent was buzzing when the headliner came on stage…

Jamie Lidell came, saw and conquered. In just a handful of years he has managed to evolve from an obscure electronica-wizard to a top-notch mainstream performer. Not that he wasn’t good back then, but he sure gets a lot more attention now – the crowd was huge! Not that surprising considering he has four or five ‘hits’ by now, which the spectators could easily sing along.

He skillfully grasped everyone’s attention and didn’t let go until he left the stage. That alone was an amazing accomplishment, given that the band was incessantly experimenting, with live recorded loops, sampling the audience’s ringtones, freaky voice effects, a customized digital saxophone/vocoder, et cetera. Sonically they went all over the place: pop, funk, hard rock, psychedelica, techno, jazz, you name it. As a true chameleon Jamie perfectly fit in. He clearly enjoyed it himself, and we did even more! Check our video of some footage of the concert.

Jamie Lidell (more pictures below) (© Bruno Bollaert)

July 17 – José James & Jef Neve, Rodrigo Y Gabriela

The second Friday opened with the fourth Belgian concert of José James. The vocalist and composer from NYC is slowly but surely building up a heavy reputation in our country, especially after teaming up with Belgian pianist Jef Neve. The two jazz cats seem to get along quite well, and the organisers were smart enough to program them as a duo again. José and his band, including London’s finest Richard Spaven on drums and Glenn Gaddum on bass, played a couple of songs from the debut album (a.o. Park Bench People) and a cover of Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers’ Moaning. We heard some previews of new work too, presumably from the upcoming album on Brownswood Black Magic. Particularly the rendition of a tune called Stay With Me was excellent, with Jef Neve’s piano solo being among the best things I’ve ever heard live. It was a delight to see how much pleasure José and Jef had on stage. So much chemistry, in fact, that Mr. Spaven and Mr. Gaddum were almost background personas for most of the gig. (Also noting that Spaven’s drum solo wasn’t his best yet, in an otherwise great performance.)

José took the time to really elongate the tracks and freely scat all over the place. (Too much? I thought not.) We found this gig definitely a step up from the previous one we saw at Jazz Middelheim, seeing José perform his songs in an even deeper and more thorough way. Check our video of some footage of the concert.

Later that night the sensational Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo Y Gabriela were the top of the bill. Wielding a lightning fast and marvelous technique the two virtuosos made more than a few jaws drop. Strumming, picking, banging and knocking on the strings and the wood around it, the two forged a sort of flamenco-rock-house sound wall that must be heard to be believed. While there may not have been a lot of progress and variation in their set, it was yet another memorable closing act.

José James (more pictures below) (© Bruno Bollaert)

July 19 – Jamie Cullum

The final day of Gent Jazz was all about the British piano wonder boy Jamie Cullum, but not before some local talent gave it a shot. The HoGent Jazz Orchestra is an occasional formation, consisting of graduates from the HoGent music academy, now active in some well-known local bands. They did a very nice job, playing tunes from Moiano, Earth, Wind And Fire, Jim Cole and other soul and funk classics.

Next up was Lady Linn & Her Magnificent Seven, a Belgian band that has made steady progress over the past years, earning the reputation of solid crowd-gathering festival material. They play swing and big band jazz wrapped in a poppy package – the type that gets your hips shaking and your feet tapping in no time – topped with Linn’s sweet vocal cords. I was pleasantly surprised by their performance!

But as said, the true hero of the night was to be Jamie Cullum, and he did not disappoint. He brought a carefully balanced set with both catchy hits, steamy grooves and unpretentious ballads. There was something for everyone – young and old, connoisseur and newb – and thus he managed to bring jazz to a broader public. Not an easy task.

It was the kind of concert where the band is laughing, making fun and enjoying themselves while actually making damn good music. Which subsequently lead to the audience participating heavily. His sometimes long talks between songs were great and didn’t even pull the tension out of the gig.

Jamie Cullum

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All pictures © Bruno Bollaert

Final notes…

While watching Jamie I realized the Gent Jazz crew had successfully tried to bring not only great musicians on stage, but at the same time great performers and entertainers. The Nina Simone Tribute singers, Jamie Cullum, José James & Jeff Neve, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Jamie Lidell, … they all masterfully entertained the huge audience, which in turn gave a lot of love back.

I’ve never seen so much people at the Gent Jazz festival (it was a record edition), and I truly hope they keep this thing going strong!

Gent Jazz’s strategy has always been to attract an audience with a couple of big and popular names, and meanwhile introducing some of the lesser known talents. The festival has brought us George Clinton, Soil & Pimp Sessions, Erykah Badu, The Cinematic Orchestra, … so we’d call ourselves regular visitors. In this first festival weekend, we picked the second day with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, the Fred Hirsh Trio + 2, and the Nina Simone Tribute concert.

The Brussels Jazz Orchestra is a 16+ piece jazz band with excellent musicians, playing the kind of jazz you expect to hear at a standard jazz festival. The concert showcased 4 compositions that made it into the finals of their International Composition Contest. Later that evening a clearly surprised Sakiko Masuda went home with the audience’s as well as the jury’s award.

After a half hour break that our friend, regular Beyondjazz guest and the evening’s dj Christopher filled with a lovely MJ cover track and lots of other of our favorite jazz anthems, the Fred Hirsh Trio + 2 got on stage. (“+ 2” meaning added trumpet and saxophone.) Impressive music by excellent musicians bringing a powerful concert, which is half a miracle considering Fred Hirsh has spent half of 2008 in a coma. (Fred Hirsh has been HIV positive for more then 20 years now.) Where half of the tunes of the band definitely were too technical for me, the other half (coincidentally being the uneven tunes – heh?) did somehow captivate me. Other reviews have indicated this concert as one of the definite highlights so far this year.

Highlight of the night was the Nina Simone tribute concert. Nina’s band leader for 41 years, Al Shackman, started the “Sing The Truth” concept the year Nina died of breast cancer at the age of 71, now 6 years back. The musicians from the original band invited spectacular vocalists like Lizz Wright, Dianne Reeves, Angelique Kidjo and Nina’s daughter Simone Simone to bring us a selection of fantastic songs from Nina Simone’s repertoire.
Mr. Shackman took the time to share stories about how it was to play, tour and live with Nina, and he sure had lots of experiences to tell us about. Maybe a bit too much talk? That, and the fact that every 2 tracks the singer switched, took away some of the flow of the concert. But, luckily, that didn’t prevent magic from happening. Lizz Wright was truly spectacular, and also Dianne Reeves left us stunned with versions of truly classic songs by the high priestess. Inspired versions of “I Put A Spell On You”, “My Baby Just Cares For Me” and “I Loves You Porgy” gave us goosebumps. A tribute night is never the real deal, but with 4 amazing singers like these, this was about as close as you can get to paying honors to the amazing singer Nina Simone was and through her records still is.

Nina Simone tribute: Lizz Wright

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Dutch speaking readers are recommended to check the local news blog Gentblogt, that has a write-up of every single day so far. Author of those is Bruno Bollaert, who’s also sharing a whole bunch of his great photos of the festival – and most other jazz concerts in and around Gent, for that matter.

For the second part, these acts are on the roster on Thursday; Briskey, Leela James and the ever-awesome Jamie Lidell on that first day. For the closing day we hope Jamie Cullum will get us convinced. And on Friday we’re looking forward to the collaboration between Jef Neve and José James.

Jef Neve is a very talented Belgian jazz pianist and composer. With his weekly radio programme on national radio Klara (classical and jazz), he’s also an important taste-maker for the jazz crowd in Belgium, so we’re glad he picked up Beyondjazz favourite José James.
On the tour that Jose James did to promote his debut album, Jef Neve’s show was one of the stops. Those who were there for the live recording, will agree there was an awesome chemistry, when the two young jazz cats played together. Ever since, they kept in touch and decided to share the stage whenever their agendas match. Jef Neve already guested in Jose’s performance at the Ancienne Belgique (Brussels, BE) earlier this year, but we missed that one, so we’re eager to know what they’ll be up to now. On www.jefneve.be we read there’ll be a Coltrane project from the two this autumn. We can only expect the best. Great music on the best sound system we’ve heard ever at a festival. Bring it on!

Briefly mentioned in our summer festival round-up, the Gent Jazz festival deserves a special mention. After all, it’s all happening in the backyard of the Beyondjazz homebase: Gent, Belgium. It’s also one of the longest-standing topics on Beyondjazz, from the time it was called the Blue Note Festival. Browsing the archives, you’ll find reviews from every single year. There’s 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008!

So, for the seventh time we are looking forward to seeing some of the names on the programme, and relaxing on the athmospheric patio of the festival. Of interest to the Beyondjazz audience in chronological order: the Nina Simone tribute night with Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright, Angelique Kidjo and Simone (Nina’s daughter). Guitar maestro George Benson is also coming by – I hope he will keep it straight-up jazzy and funky, and no slip into too smooth territory.
The second weekend brings the contemporary jazz offspring, by the names of Jamie Lidell, José James (with his Belgian buddy Jef Neve) and Jamie Cullum. Also worth noting are Rodrigo y Gabriela, Lady Linn, Briskey, and dj’s Born to Jazz and Christopher (of Beyondjazz fame).

It may not be the strongest or most diverse roster ever on this festival, but if the big shots deliver, it will be worth it! See you there …

The official website: http://www.gentjazz.com