Friday
the 13th is a horror movie of killing teenagers and chopping heads.
This year, 2007, in Rotterdamit was the start of the North Sea Jazz.
Luckily Jason Voorhees wasn't there, instead there was a great line-up
of artists to perform on stage everywhere. From Memphis, Tennessee there
was Al Green, from the Islands on the West African coast, there was
Lura, the Cape Verdean.
The saveoursoul
crew went to Rotterdam for three days to be part of this festival. There
are so many artists playing on one day which means you have to make
a choice who you want to see.
JULY 13th
NSJ 2007
The first day of the 32nd edition
of the North Sea Jazz festival had great acts like: Terrence Blanchard,
Marlena Shaw, Al Green, The Roots, Marcus Miller and David Sanborn.
The Roots:
The
Roots from Philadelphia was one of the best bands that performed on
the North Sea Jazz festival in Ahoy Rotterdam. Rapper Black Thought
with his beautiful voice started solo and immediately brought the audience
into ecstacy with his sublime rapping which went on for some minutes.
The rest of the crew joined in and continued the party keeping the tempo
high. There was never a dull moment in the show and the The Roots kept
the public in fascination, leaving it breatless with excitement. Their
Sousaphone player gave an outstanding performance just as Captain Kirk
who did the Erykah Badu vocals in "You Got Me". At the end
of the show The Roots played some funky James Brown melodies and the
crowd could not get enough. They probably will remember this show of
The Roots for a lifetime.
Al Green:
Al Green came all
the way from Tennessee to bring us that sweet soul music. The crowd
loved him and he convinced them that he loves them too. Al was in good
shape He started off with "I'Can't Stop". His mimic was awesome
andthe people loved it.The preacher took us back in time with songs
of his Hi record period with Willie Mitchell. Further he reminded us
where the soul music comes from by singing sweet classics like "Sugar
Pie Hunny Bunch", "Wonderful World" and "I Got Sunshine
On A Cloudy Day". Also songs like "How Can you Mend A Broken
Heart"originally from the Bee Gees and "Let's Stay Together"
were greated with round applause from the enthusiastic crowd.
JULY 14th
NSJ 2007
Saturday the North Sea Jazz
festival was sold out, this was very noticable because it was difficult
to move from one stage to another in the huge crowd. Lots of people came
to watch artists like Steely Dan, Raul Midón, India.arie and Lura.
Steely Dan:
Steely Dan whose songs has been sampled many times was on stage in the
Nile. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker made sure they were accompanied
by the best musician around like bass player Freddie Washington. They
began kind of jazzy but as soon as the band started to play the evergreens
like "Hey Nineteen" "PEG" and the title track of
their album "Aja" the crowd went mad. The band was fabulous
and their horn section with saxophonists like Walt Weiskopf and Roger
Rosenberg was great.
India.Arie:
Later on that evening it was India.Arie who had to perform on the same
stage as Steely Dan. She came up in an orange colred dress and wearing
a wig while singing the song"I'm not my hair". India.Arie
did her show perfectly and she had no expection of how big the crowd
was until she was on stage. Almost everybody loved her and people were
quite impressed with her performance. Her style is unique and not always
very accessible for a big audience. You have to get used to it. The
last song she did in the show while playing the flute was impressive.
JULY 15th NSJ 2007
This last day of
the North Sea Jazz 2007 started with a disappointment when was announced
that the Amy Whinehouse concert was cancelled, but there was much more
to see then Amy. Such as Africando, Ronald Snijders, Sly and the Family
Stone, Candi Dulfer and Snoop Doggy Dogg.
Ronald Snijders Extended
Funk Band:
There was the Ronald Snijders Extended Funk Band from Suriname. A small
country like Suriname has delivered great soccerplayers and great musicians.
One the greatest musicians at this moment is Ronald Snijders. He is
the most swinging flutist of the Netherlands. His music is jazzy, it's
funky and he has mixes it with snippets of traditional music from his
home country which gives it that extra hot musical sauce.He has been
playing the flute for more than four decades and is a master of that
instrument. He composes and writes his own songs which makes him a very
unique musician.
Candi Dulfer &
Friends:
From The Netherlands we also had the best known saxophone player Candi
Dulfer on stage. She grew up with a daddy playing saxophone and has
learnt a lot from him. Now she's doing her own thing very good and she
blew the roof off the Nile.
Sly
& The Family Stone:
A band people have been waiting for so long was the legendary Sly &
The Family Stone. The Band started without Sly and kept us waiting anxiously
for the big man to arrive. In the meantime they treated us on funk from
the highest level. Songs like "If You Want Me To Stay" , "Dance
To The Music" and "Don't Call Me Nigger Whitey" sounded
like music to soothe your ears and made the audience sing along. The
band is a mixture of the younger and the older generation.It was a pleasure
seeing them act together. After a while finally Sly, the man himself
came on stage.The camera's has been following his walk to the stage
from his dressing room and the crowd that at first was excited didn't
really know how to react when Sly came closer to their sight and they
noticed that he wasn't the man he used to be. He was however appreciated
by the audience because of the good things he has done for the music.
Thank You, Sly!
Snoop Dogg:
The last act of NSJ 2007 was Snoop Dogg. He appeared in his typical
outfit with his own mark microphone. Outside the building his music
was nice to follow and there must have been plenty people who enjoyed
it inside the building as well because the hall was packed. (TA)
