Collectorz.com Connect Blog

Finally our music connect page is there. So I can write my first blog post as well (jay!). Why? Because I don’t watch a lot of TV or Movies, don’t play games and my comic days go back a while. So is there anything I do besides programming the Collectorz application? Yes! I just love music. I listen to music all the time, especially lots of rock and jazz (sorry Mark). I also attend concerts regularly and in the past weeks I went to see 3 jazz concerts. Not just your regular 13 in a dozen quartets but I watched some of the masters at work.

Joshua Redman Trio at the Bimhuis Amsterdam, 6 November:

This guy is one of my favourite sax players currently. I’ve seen him play before and every time he surprises me what he can do with a sax. He brought bass player Omer Avital and the amazing drum player Greg Hutchinson. Man these guys were on fire! There was a lot of interaction between the musicians and they were pushing each other to the limit. Greg Hutchison was really beating the hell out of his drum kit now and then switching to whisper soft notes at other times. Joshua Redman was proving again why he is one of the best tenor sax players at the moment, playing a lot of songs from his latest album “Back East” that is kind of a tribute to one of the greatest of all, Sonny Rollins, and his album “Way Out West”. A nice moment was when at the end of the concert Joshua Redman asked people not to clap at the beat of a song he was playing at that moment. After all, it’s not the Night of The Proms people!

Sonny Rollins at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, 26 November:

Talking about the master himself. He was playing a couple of weeks later. I was really looking forward to it. To see one of the greatest in jazz playing. One of the last masters of the pioneers in bop jazz. Of course he’s already old and you can’t expect him to play as in his best days I had to see him. Tickets were really expensive but what the hell! He played for 1,5 hour and occasionally the old magic was there. Although the concertgebouw is not really the best place for jazz concerts (it’s a concert hall for classical music mainly). Some of the subtle notes got lost and the drums didn’t sound great. But still it was great to see Sonny play. After all it may have been my last chance.

Javon Jackson - Jimmy Cobb Superband at the Bimhuis Amsterdam, 10 December:

And once again (yes I had a good month) one of the masters in jazz was playing, Jimmy Cobb. Being a drum player myself I had to see him. I was suprised to see that it wasn’t sold out. Although it was great to see Jimmy Cobb play the concert itself wasn’t really what I expected. It was good but I missed the interaction between the musicians. They weren’t really challenging eacht other. The piano player Ronnie Mathews however played some beatiful solos.

Well tonight one of Holland’s best bands is playing in Paradiso, De Dijk. So I’ll tell you all about that next week.