Trombones, strong voices and a seagull at North Sea Jazz

Spread across the stage are keyboard instruments: a grand piano, various synthesizers, the campy white key-tar is also ready. keyboardist Herbie Hancock takes his title artist in residence quite literally, he does indeed live at North Sea Jazz. It is his thirtieth time at the festival that is experiencing the 45th edition. And the 82-year-old American has made the new RTM stage – an asset with great sound and beautiful view – his living room.

Perhaps because of the many old acquaintances in the programming, that homely atmosphere dominates during the festival Saturday. The gaps that fall due to illness are also cleverly filled with reliable guests. Could it be true that the audience is less rushed than before, less stressed about missing out? Or is this because of the wider design?

The nice thing about a family friend like Hancock is that he brings other friends with him. First Hancock produces spacey effects on the synthesizer, and later Loueke makes his guitar sound like a funky alien instrument on Actual Proof. Also wonderful is the contribution of trumpeter Terence Blanchard to ‘Footprints’, an ode to Hancock’s good friend Wayne Shorter.

Round a room away Trombone Shorty his pumping jazz party with classic ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’. Shorty pulls crackling notes from his slide trumpet, supported by more pumping brass and rock guitar. But North Sea Jazz would not be North Sea Jazz if this fixed value was not a surprise. In one of the smaller upstairs rooms, the South African uses Malcolm Jiyane Tree-O the same instrument but whispering, tenderly and intensely. Behind him are even more talents from the fast-growing South African jazz scene.

As the evening progresses, the emphasis shifts from the instrumental to the vocal. Singer Melody Gardot turns Hancock’s living room into a jazz bar. With a lot of cool – in high heels, the sunglasses under long blond locks – she sings her drawl bossa novas in English, French and Portuguese. Even more than the trombone, the voice has many applications. In a low room where the double bass almost pokes through the suspended ceiling, the trio of the Swiss Lucia Cadotsch† Her bassist and saxophonist are Swedish improv artists. Cadotsch keeps the improvisation accessible with perfect voice control and technique. Hopefully next year in a bigger room.

Yet nothing beats the throat of Lady Blackbird† She comes on with a big black hat slanted against the white fluffy hair, wears long gloves and little else: a black body with what looks like a thong. Her voice is great. She appropriates soul and jazz classics with a lot of vocal bombardment, without kitsch.

Then a bird appears. A real. Lady Blackbird borrows her name from a Nina Simone song. In it Simone uses the blackbird to sing about the restricted position of black women: ‘Why you want to fly Blackbird, you ain’t never gonna fly† Just as Lady Blackbird is singing this, a huge black-backed gull alights on the iron beams for light and sound right above the singer. The large animal is trapped in the covered room.

The black and white gull does not seem to panic. When the song is over, as if it was meant to be, the animal hops over the beams to behind the grandstand where it can escape to the outside area of ​​Ahoy.

If there had been a camera attached to the seagull, you could see how the audience formed a circle around the outdoor stage Zoe Modiga† This great South African singer has just come off the stage to dance to conclude her set of jazz songs based on the culture of Kwazulu Natal. They are songs about social struggle and freedom. The great examples of Modiga are, yes, Nina Simone and Erykah Badu, who at that moment starts a magnificent performance in the large Nile hall.

Also read: Discharge and amazement on the first day of North Sea Jazz