Hugh Masekela & The Mahotella Queens
...But: SOLD OUT!
[Parece incrivel, mas com tantas passagens e estadias na Africa do Sul e arredores, nunca tive uma oportunidade de ver este que e' um dos meus maiores idolos do Jazz Africano (depois do nosso eterno Manu Dibango) ao vivo... e, parece mentira, mas ainda nao foi desta!]
...But: SOLD OUT!
[Vi-o ao vivo ha' ja' alguns anos em Lisboa no Centro Cultural de Belem, numa noite absolutamente inesquecivel, com a Paula Tavares, a Luisa de Almeida, o Jean-Yves e a Zarito (esta, por quem tenho grande estima e que e' irma de um certo minion de triste memoria neste blog... Lembro-me de, por aqueles dias, enquanto tomavamos o pequeno almoco de domingo numa esplanada nos jardins de Belem, perante as minhas repetidas queixas sobre o comportamento - estupido, crapula e cabotino, para dizer o minimo - do seu irmao para comigo, ela me ter dito: "Porque que nao cortas com ele? Corta, Paula!"...
{Zarito e Jean-Yves no meu quintal de limoeiro, nespreira e roseiras-trepadeiras em Belem - algures na ponta final dos anos 80 ou no inicio dos 90 (a toalha de mesa ainda (r)existe after all these years...) - foto JEA}
... Pois, mas levou-me todos estes anos ate' ao ano passado - desde que, com a criacao deste blog, ele nao perdeu a primeira oportunidade para manifestar mais uma vez a sua pequenez incuravel, so' que desta vez atraves do tal de NJ de igualmente triste memoria neste blog - para que eu me decidisse definitivamente a acatar o sabio conselho da Zarito... O que tambem se deveu ao facto de nao ter tido qualquer contacto com ele durante estas ultimas quase duas decadas, excepto brevemente quando estive em Luanda em 2001, ocasiao que tambem nao me deixou particularmente boas memorias dele... (e, by the way, nessa ocasiao ainda tive a insensatez - na verdade na altura disse de mim para cumim: "isto e' perola para porco"... - de lhe oferecer como prenda de Natal um CD que e' uma verdadeira enciclopedia de vida, musica e cultura dos Khoisan, do que muito me haveria de arrepender porque nunca mais consegui encontrar e comprar outro para mim!...).
E' que, quando alguem, como eu, valoriza sobremaneira, ainda que frequentemente incompreendida, a amizade e a familia - por uma questao dos agora tao "badalados" valores e principios! -, esta' sujeito a engolir muitos sapos, porque familiares e amigos ha' que, perante a nossa aparentemente infinita compreensao e tolerancia, acabam por tornar-se absolutamente insuportaveis, ate' que... o "corte" se torna inevitavel!
Mas, nao pretendo, com esta triste recordacao, estragar completamente a memoria de uma noite inesquecivel ao som vibrante do Sonny Rollins com aqueles que naquela altura eram alguns dos meus amigos mais proximos em Lisboa. Portanto, que fique apenas registada a pena de nao o poder ver e ouvir mais uma vez nesta que talvez tenha sido a ultima oportunidade de o fazer - e' que ele esta' a celebrar os seus 80 anos...]
Herbie Hancock...
[Tambem o vi ao vivo em Lisboa no mesmo Coliseu em que vi o Miles Davis, com o meu filho, nos dois ultimos concertos que deu naquela cidade, em 1989 e 1991 (tendo sido este ultimo no mesmo ano em que, alguns meses mais tarde, ele deixaria este mundo e em que, como aqui se da' conta, se estaria a programar uma sua possivel ida a Angola: “Nós tínhamos combinado levá-lo a Angola, estávamos a tratar disso para 1992 porque tínhamos pessoas em Luanda que queriam. Era demais. Fantástico.”)
Gostava de ver Herbie mais uma vez (nao sei se ainda terei muitas oportunidades futuras para o fazer uma vez que ele tambem ja' esta' nos seus 70...), mas porque tinha em mente as 'prioridades' acima nao o pude, infelizmente, incluir no meu programa inicial... and now it's too late!
Mas ouvi-o ontem numa entrevista em directo para o programa Jazz on 3 da BBC Radio 3, que cobriu ao vivo o lancamento deste festival a partir do legendario Ronnie Scott's (tambem a celebrar os seus 50 anos): fiquei assim a saber que o Herbie, apesar da sua "idade avancada", continua "tao bem parecido, energetico e criativo como sempre" (segundo o entrevistador, obviamente...) , o que ele, por entre uma sonora gargalhada, atribui a "evitar o stress", e que a piece de resistance da sua participacao neste festival e' o seu Imagine Project, baseado na obra do John Lennon e em que ele integra piano snippets by Kongo traditional musicians - I can't wait to check it out on CD!]
So, I'm now looking forward to this one:
Terence Blanchard Band + Robert Glasper Trio
[Terence Blanchard: um nome incontornavel do Jazz Contemporaneo. Nunca o vi ao vivo e devo confessar que o meu maior interesse em ve-lo e ouvi-lo deve-se aos seus film scores para o Spike Lee e ao seu ultimo album, Choices, com a participacao do "meu amigo" Cornel West...
I can't wait to see him tomorrow in the same Barbican where I saw, over a decade ago, our eternal African Jazz legend, Manu Dibango, for the first time - the second was at the 2006 edition of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival pictured here]
THAT WAS GREAT!
After a sizzling warm-up at the FreeStage brought to us fresh from New Orleans by the Soul Rebels Brass Band, we had just about three hours of some of the best contemporary jazz - before us was what Terence Blanchard said is the future of jazz to his mind (although also adding something like "people speculate all the time about the future of jazz, but to me there's no point in that: the future of jazz will be what it's going to be"...): opening for him, The Robert Glasper Trio (Glasper – whose artistic world is said to be “where the iconic record label Blue Note gets back to the streets, marrying hip-hop with the free flow of a classic piano trio, merging jazz and contemporary sounds”, and who also served us Herbie Hancock's "I Have A Dream" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" – on piano; Derrick Hodge on bass and Mark Colenburg on drums) and, then, alongside himself on trumpet and Bruce Wilson on tenor saxophone, the three young players on his own Quintet (Fabian Almazan on piano, Joshua Crumbly on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums).
[There was something funny in between the two group's performance: another drummer, Chris Dave, replaced Mark Colenburg and Terence Blanchard just came on the stage and started playing his thing unannounced with the Glasper's Trio for about 10-15 minutes until their time on stage was over... Many people became quite agitated thinking that it was all for the night and I started saying "these guys can only be joking!"... and they were: it was just the interval before the Blanchard real thing!]
Blanchard offered us parts of his most recent creation, ‘Choices’, where we could hear Cornel West’s voice talking about subjects such as political consciousness, music, love and humanity: from the hurricanes Katrina and Obama, through how Beethoven considered music to be deeper than philosophy, to the love that existed between Miles and Coltrane… in short, about the human condition.
Through and through (with a few jokes about some of his band members’ personal details in between: the pianist – "a very shy guy" from Cuba; the bassist – "a scared to death" recent graduate from the Juilliard (..."you know, there's some intelligent people up here... at least one of us!", he said...); the drummer – a record label owner from Texas "who makes no money with it"; the saxophonist “who came from where it all began: Toussaint, Arizona!” ... Well, this one led to a few other jokes about the first time we hear Arizona and Jazz on the same breath and the woman who approached him at the end of one concert to rebuke him for his 'downplaying' of jazz in Arizona and presenting herself as the president of the Toussaint Jazz Society, and then the pilot who one day popped into him and Herbie Hancock on a plane and introduced himself as the brother of the president of the Toussaint Jazz Society!...], the main man of the evening fulfilled the promise in the words he was presented to us:
“Terence Blanchard is one of the few contemporary horn players who can truly claim to inherit the legacy of jazz trumpet giants Miles Davis, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard. Born in New Orleans, as a child he played alongside friend Wynton Marsalis in summer band camps – later in life Wynton was to recommend him to Art Blakey as his replacement in The Jazz Messengers, becoming its lead soloist and musical director. By the 1990s, Blanchard had become a leader in his own right and had embarked on a highly successful partnership with film maker Spike Lee, writing the scores for every one of his films since 1991, including Malcolm X, Clockers, and the Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke for HBO.
His film credits are extensive with over 40 scores to his name. He maintains a regular studio presence, recording his own original music and has been nominated for 11 Grammys, winning four. He stretches himself stylistically, working with other musicians such as Stevie Wonder and Dr John. His last Concord album Choices is probably his most radical yet, with readings by philosopher Cornel West and vocals by neo-soul singer Bilal over a meld of speculative post-bop, experimental yet accessible song forms, and jazz-initiated atmospheres to create a compelling, instructive and uplifting work.”
OTHER FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
Esperanza Spalding
The 26 years old rising star who counts Obama among her biggest fans...
Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers + Ibrahim Maalouf
AfroCubism
Featuring Eliades Ochoa, Toumani Diabate, Bassekou Kouyate, Djelimady Tounkora, Kasse Mady Diabate.
Charles Lloyd Quartet + Winstone/Gesing/Venier
Terence Blanchard Band + Robert Glasper Trio
[Terence Blanchard: um nome incontornavel do Jazz Contemporaneo. Nunca o vi ao vivo e devo confessar que o meu maior interesse em ve-lo e ouvi-lo deve-se aos seus film scores para o Spike Lee e ao seu ultimo album, Choices, com a participacao do "meu amigo" Cornel West...
I can't wait to see him tomorrow in the same Barbican where I saw, over a decade ago, our eternal African Jazz legend, Manu Dibango, for the first time - the second was at the 2006 edition of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival pictured here]
THAT WAS GREAT!
After a sizzling warm-up at the FreeStage brought to us fresh from New Orleans by the Soul Rebels Brass Band, we had just about three hours of some of the best contemporary jazz - before us was what Terence Blanchard said is the future of jazz to his mind (although also adding something like "people speculate all the time about the future of jazz, but to me there's no point in that: the future of jazz will be what it's going to be"...): opening for him, The Robert Glasper Trio (Glasper – whose artistic world is said to be “where the iconic record label Blue Note gets back to the streets, marrying hip-hop with the free flow of a classic piano trio, merging jazz and contemporary sounds”, and who also served us Herbie Hancock's "I Have A Dream" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" – on piano; Derrick Hodge on bass and Mark Colenburg on drums) and, then, alongside himself on trumpet and Bruce Wilson on tenor saxophone, the three young players on his own Quintet (Fabian Almazan on piano, Joshua Crumbly on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums).
[There was something funny in between the two group's performance: another drummer, Chris Dave, replaced Mark Colenburg and Terence Blanchard just came on the stage and started playing his thing unannounced with the Glasper's Trio for about 10-15 minutes until their time on stage was over... Many people became quite agitated thinking that it was all for the night and I started saying "these guys can only be joking!"... and they were: it was just the interval before the Blanchard real thing!]
Blanchard offered us parts of his most recent creation, ‘Choices’, where we could hear Cornel West’s voice talking about subjects such as political consciousness, music, love and humanity: from the hurricanes Katrina and Obama, through how Beethoven considered music to be deeper than philosophy, to the love that existed between Miles and Coltrane… in short, about the human condition.
Through and through (with a few jokes about some of his band members’ personal details in between: the pianist – "a very shy guy" from Cuba; the bassist – "a scared to death" recent graduate from the Juilliard (..."you know, there's some intelligent people up here... at least one of us!", he said...); the drummer – a record label owner from Texas "who makes no money with it"; the saxophonist “who came from where it all began: Toussaint, Arizona!” ... Well, this one led to a few other jokes about the first time we hear Arizona and Jazz on the same breath and the woman who approached him at the end of one concert to rebuke him for his 'downplaying' of jazz in Arizona and presenting herself as the president of the Toussaint Jazz Society, and then the pilot who one day popped into him and Herbie Hancock on a plane and introduced himself as the brother of the president of the Toussaint Jazz Society!...], the main man of the evening fulfilled the promise in the words he was presented to us:
“Terence Blanchard is one of the few contemporary horn players who can truly claim to inherit the legacy of jazz trumpet giants Miles Davis, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard. Born in New Orleans, as a child he played alongside friend Wynton Marsalis in summer band camps – later in life Wynton was to recommend him to Art Blakey as his replacement in The Jazz Messengers, becoming its lead soloist and musical director. By the 1990s, Blanchard had become a leader in his own right and had embarked on a highly successful partnership with film maker Spike Lee, writing the scores for every one of his films since 1991, including Malcolm X, Clockers, and the Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke for HBO.
His film credits are extensive with over 40 scores to his name. He maintains a regular studio presence, recording his own original music and has been nominated for 11 Grammys, winning four. He stretches himself stylistically, working with other musicians such as Stevie Wonder and Dr John. His last Concord album Choices is probably his most radical yet, with readings by philosopher Cornel West and vocals by neo-soul singer Bilal over a meld of speculative post-bop, experimental yet accessible song forms, and jazz-initiated atmospheres to create a compelling, instructive and uplifting work.”
OTHER FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS Esperanza Spalding
The 26 years old rising star who counts Obama among her biggest fans...
Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers + Ibrahim Maalouf
AfroCubism
Featuring Eliades Ochoa, Toumani Diabate, Bassekou Kouyate, Djelimady Tounkora, Kasse Mady Diabate.
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