This album is already for sale on iTunes, but Vagrant Records still decided to stream the entire album. A wise decision, cuz when you listen to this abum, you can only love it! John Gold has made a great record!
So after the silent weeks & 3 days of Jazz @ North Sea Jazz Festival incl. previews & the warm afterglow i had yesterday, today is the day i've come back to the regular bloggin' and what a great re-start this is with Letting Up Despite Great Faults's fantastic track Teenage Tide. There's the sun shining and girls walking around in short skirts and there's this fine tune on the headphones. It is a good day already! check out their website for 2 more tracks and the Paper Crush EP is set to be released August 2nd.
After spending 3 days at the North Sea Jazz the only right way to celebrate a new week is with something great from this weekend. Kytecrash was very good show on the Saturday, this was not their best part of the show, but YouTube doesn't offer a lot at this moment, which is pretty strange considering the dozens of people i've seen at every show recording shows with their lousy mobile phones.. Have a good week!
No time for a proper preview, as i'm leaving within the hour and there's a stop in the hospital planned somewhere between now and then.. 1 thing i'm surely gonna check out today is James Blake. Check out his live-version of The Wilhelm Scream here. simply brilliant!
North Sea Jazz 2011 Day 2: less talk, more music. I'm heading back to the festival in 90 minutes and there's still work to do at home..check my expected highlights of today here.
Madeira - 17.30: Antonio Farao Trio
Maas - 19.00 Kytecrash
Madeira - 19.15: Arve Henriksen
Yenisei - 19.45: Harmen Fraanje Trio
(you'll have to delete the guitarist on this vid, cuz they play as a trio tonight)
Mississippi - 21.00: Charles Bradley
Yenisei - 21.30: Portico Quartet
Yenisei - 23.15: Gerald Clayton Trio
Congo - 23.45: Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
And the best thing of this Saturday is the EBU European Jazz Competition Finalists playing in Volga all evening. Which are 5 performances of 45 minutes with great upcoming artists. Quality guaranteed!
Every year the 2nd weekend of July Rotterdam hosts the biggest indoor Jazz festival of the world, the fabulous North Sea Jazz Festival. And if i'm not mistaken this is gonna be my 6th year of being present for the whole 3 days. Just like with other music festivals the fun is not only in the 3 days of getting soaked with fantastic music, a great atmosphere and the occasional drink, but also in looking forward to these things. Usually i start a few weeks before the big weekend spending hours & hours listening to just about every artist that is visiting the festival. Due to the unforseen situation that has controlled my life over the past 2 weeks and is still very present, i haven't had any time for this, but i'm determined to prepare myself as good as i can. And so i set my alarmclock early this morning and i have spend the morning checking out the Friday Schedule, marking the things i just might find myself listening to this weekend. Check out my personal Friday tips right now, right here:
Mississippi - 19.45: Dulfer 7.0 Server incl. Rob Van De Wouw Last year this concert was cancelled after 20 minutes during the pouring rain, but it was 1 of the best shows i've ever seen @ North Sea Jazz. Hope this year will be as good and will make the full 75 minutes.
Finally something new from the most populair breakthrough band 2010 had: Mumford & Sons. They visited a Colorado radiostation recently and played this new track live and it's as good as you would expect from the band. Can't wait to hear the studio-version and more new material, but this is a great little teaser!
The 18 greatest songs i've discovered in the 2nd Quarter of 2011 almost completely combined on 1 great mixtape. Just 3 tracks are missing on this Mixtape, due to the fact that these are not free to share. Click the image to download the full file and listen to the 3 non-included tracks right below, which are among the best things i've heard this year!
It's only a few days 'till the best (jazz) festival in the world takes place: North Sea Jazz in Rotterdam. And aside from all the great jazz music i've discovered there, it's also the place i 1st heard about Fink. A great acoustic singer-songwriter with a raw voice. Over the years he has found his way to my record collection, but i must admit i don't listen to his records very often. The main reason for this is that not all his songs are equally great. His new record 'Perfect Darkness' which has just been released is not that different from the older material and with some ok-ish songs come the brilliant ones. Like the one up here, which is a song i can easily play over and over again, because it's intense, a little raw & extremely beautiful!
After a 10-day silence the situation has improved enough for me to spend some time on the internet again; there's some good tunes waiting for me and later today i will spend some time gathering the songs for the Plug in Baby! Best of 2011 - Part II mixtape. For now here's the latest collaboration by rappers Nas & Common, called Ghetto Dreams. It's a banger! Which is no real surprise with 2 rappers this great.
