(Review by Steve H/Photos courtesy of Ken Drew)
As already mentioned in the afternoon’s summary of Jazz De Luxe this was the latest of a series of annual events showcasing contemporary European jazz. Previous years had seen the Netherlands and France feature, both major jazz nations, so it might have seemed a bit of a stretch for the tiny country of Luxembourg to be able to supply the same level of creativity and talent of the aforementioned European giants.
My past impressions of Luxembourg had been unfortunately tarnished by my one and only stay in the Grand Duchy where an unfortunate incident almost led to my friends and myself being turfed out of our hotel for a relatively minor infraction which we need not go into here. Additionally, we have all been continually bored to death by a seemingly infinite amount of World Cup and Euro qualifiers against their unsurprisingly limited football team. Sunday night, however, had the effect of banishing all negative feelings towards this tiny European nation to the past as a series of performances from a selection of the country’s finest musicians provided an outstanding evening of top quality inspirational modern jazz.
The evening kicked off with Jeff Herr’s Corporation featuring excellent playing from both Bender on tenor and Payfert on bass. Herr’s drumming was simply magnificent, subtle and dynamic - driving proceedings with a wonderful flourish. A great start was followed by one of the ‘pick up’ bands which are a feature of these annual Euro all-dayers.
The evening kicked off with Jeff Herr’s Corporation featuring excellent playing from both Bender on tenor and Payfert on bass. Herr’s drumming was simply magnificent, subtle and dynamic - driving proceedings with a wonderful flourish. A great start was followed by one of the ‘pick up’ bands which are a feature of these annual Euro all-dayers.
Our own Faye MacCalman and John Pope teamed up with vocalist Sascha Ley to produce a delightful improvised piece which seemed to be based on Coltrane’s masterpiece Afro Blue. The trio combined seamlessly and no one could have guessed that this was their first performance together.
Klein, the brainchild of pianist Jerome Klein produced an eclectic set of electronic, cinematic music which took the listener on quite a journey. Despite what appeared to be some sort of unpleasant bass backing track, I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. The combination of vibes, electronics and drums really did conjure up some sort of celestial experience.
The final ad-hoc band of this year festivities featured once more home-based John Pope and from overseas Jeff Herr on drums. The trio was completed by Jean-Yves Jung on piano who had just flown in from Dusseldorf that very day. Despite this band being literally thrown together at the last minute, another highly enjoyable set was delivered.
The all-dayer was brought to a close by Maxine Bender’s Universal Sky a fairly rocky end to proceedings with Jung now on Hammond organ and Jerome Klein previously on piano now playing the drums I wonder what Freud would have said about that?
So another great and adventurous event came to an end congratulations and thanks should go out to everyone involved in the day. I can’t wait till next year and wonder which country it will feature, Might it be Liechtenstein’s turn or maybe even Malta’s? Whoever it is I’m sure it will be an artistic and cultural triumph just like the last three years have been.
Photos.
Photos.
Steve H
JEFF HERR’S CORPORATION - Jeff Herr (drums); Maxime Bender (tenor sax); Laurent Payfert (bass)
SASCHA LEY, FAYE MACCALMAN & JOHN POPE
KLEIN - Jérôme Klein (piano, keyboards); Pol Belardi (bass, vibes); Niels Engel (drums)
JEAN-YVES JUNG,JOHN POPE & JEFF HERR
MAXIME BENDER’S UNIVERSAL SKY - Maxime Bender (tenor & soprano sax); Jean-Yves Jung (Hammond Organ); Manu Codjia (guitar); Jérôme Klein (drums)
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