For this series of bloggy interviews, I’ve shared questions with young artists and musicians living in New York. This time: bass player Louis Alexander Gasser Londoño. I’ve met him through Berklee College of Music, since we were studying at the … Continue reading
We were ready for Christmas when we got a message from Shiho; ‘NHK, Japanese Television wants do to a mini-documentary about ChocoJazz, do you have any events coming up?’ Obviously, her deadline was approaching and the holidays were approaching, but we said: … Continue reading
For the recording of NewVelle Records special Vinyl series, I was invited to sing a beautiful version of ‘Embraceable you’ with Kenny Werner, Dave Liebman, Terri Lynn Carrington, and James Genus!! What an honor to work with such heavy cats. It’s coming … Continue reading
Here are a few pictures of my trip to Puebla, Mexico for the National Fulbright Conference. There were around 400 super inspiring people from all over the world, specializing in different fields of work. I did a 10-minute plenary talk … Continue reading
Let me tell you a little bit about my collaboration with Robin Koerts. You might have seen some clips or pics on the internet of us performing at various shows, but it’s pretty hard to get what we actually do … Continue reading
Ok, a little update for now. After graduating in Berklee I had a long break – almost 3 months – in the Netherlands. It was so great to be back and see my family and friends and have some quiet … Continue reading
There comes a point that I really need to go to NYC. Sometimes that city will mix you up and you’ll always get some new inspiration. I wanted to see my friend Joanne, and guitarist Joe Cohn, and my Parisian friend Felix Lemerle (who will study guitar on a Fulbright in NYC next year!)
Also there were some Dutch people in the City I would try to meet, Hans Mantel, Mirjan van Leijenhorst and Ahmet Polat. They were on a trip for Jazz festival Delft to meet some people for their project “ the jazz dream“ connecting renowned artists with young talents. (http://www.thejazzdream.nl)
The plan was to stay with Joanne, but I hadn’t clearly communicated my stay, so on saturday afternoon I needed to find a place to sleep, but, its NYC, anything could happen. I went to have a coffee with Sajda, a friend that studies art philosophy in NYC, then went to the after diner hang with the Dutch jazz – peeps and Mirjan told me (thank the lord!!) that she had a hotel room with two beds, and I could just stay there 🙂 …
I went to the concert of Joe Cohn in a sushi place where I met Felix and after hanging with Joe for a bit I went with Felix to another jazz – restaurant where we sat in, singing a bit.
The next morning it was really nice to have breakfast in the hotel with Hans Mantel and catch up a bit. Then I talked for a while with a art journalist from the Gardian (UK) which was really interesting. I went to see Joe Cohn’s concert in Brooklyn and had an amazing diner in that place. That evening I would stay at Joe’s place so we went to his house to drop off my bag and make some music. Joanne was performing in this acrobat show in Brooklyn and it happened to be a really cool show, people juggling, trapeze, aerial hammock, aerial straps, Chinese pole and fire eating … wow.. .that was really something else!
http://www.themusebrooklyn.com
Here some pictures 🙂
November 2013 I played my first gig in NYC, in the metropolitan room in Manhattan. A full hour concert with all original songs. Really exciting! I spend a lot of time working out the program, doing the marketing and preparing the show.
This opportunity arrived last year, when I went – after a long day of recording sessions – with bass player Ray Parker to a show in the Metropolitan room NYC. Annie Ross was performing. I am big fan of her, so I was really excited to see it. Ray was friends with JP the sound engineer and after the show we all had a drink. He listened to my cd – polaroid – and thought it was so nice that he told the programmer. So it happened, my first gig in NYC… I planned for November.
My wish was to play with Florian Weber who I met in NYC when he was playing a show with – Dutch trumpeter – Eric Vloeimans. Florian liked my compositions and we talked a lot about composing, lyrics and life.
Then it was finally there, that weekend I traveled to NYC, and met up with Florian for a rehearsal on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. The concert was on Sunday night and it all went well, but I must say; playing in NYC is a whole different thing. Here are the recordings 🙂
7/8/9/ dec NYC
Net voor (en na) de grote storm – de tentamens en Sandy – moest ik toch nog effe naar NYC. Ik kwam donderdag avond aan bij Joe. En hij was een beetje hyper, dus het zou een late avond worden. We keken een film over drugs handel in Mexico. En we hadden mijn bed op de vleugel geinstalleerd, want het was een beetje een rommeltje in de woonkamer (m.n. op de bank waar ik normaal slaap). Het sliep relaxt want het is lekker hoog van de grond, maar je moet natuurlijk niet halverwege de nacht je omdraaien en dan van de piano afvallen. Gelukkig is dat niet gebeurd.
Vrijdagochtend ging ik naar Brooklyn, om te ontbijten met Jason Linder, hij was de hele maand op tour geweest naar Japan, Italie en Israel. Het was leuk om bij te praten, het is een inspirerende pianist. Hij heeft jaren les gehad bij Barry Harris en weet precies wat jazz is. Maar op dit moment maakt hij meer modernere jazz, wereld muziek, odd meter, en gaat het hem vooral om vernieuwing, en gebruik maken van verschillende kleuren… Je hoort rock en blues en gypsy in zijn muziek. Na de lunch zijn we met de taxi naar Manhattan gegaan, hij had repetitie voor zijn concert waar ik hem savonds weer zou zien. Ik heb toen de hele middag n beetje door de east village gelopen, en ben toen savonds naar Drom gegaan, waar het concert van Jason was. Hij speelde met Panagiotis Andreou, Mark Guiliana het materiaal van zijn cd NOW VS NOW. Kijk op zijn website: www.jasonlindner.net
De volgende dag ben ik naar de kerst markt op union square gegaan. Superleuk, allemaal handwerk en exclusieve, creatieve mensen. Houten stropdassen, sokpoppen, en kerstkransjes. Savonds Lasagne gekookt voor Joe Cohn en wat vrienden van hem.
Zondag uitgeslapen, en wat gestudeerd. Toen naar de Blue note gegaan waar ik Gregory Hutchinson trof. Samen gingen we met de auto naar zijn concert met Jimmy Heath, Jeb Patton in the First Presbyterian Church (Mount Vernon, NY). Tof concert, vooral om ook backstage de verhalen van Jimmy te horen, hij heeft net een nieuw boek uit, over zijn leven, “Walking with Giants”. Jimmy is geboren in 1926…. en echt een opa, maar wat een energie, grappen vertellen aan de lopende band… Na het concert ging ik met Greg weer naar Manhattan, en we stopten even in Smalls waarna ik door ging naar Fatcat. Joe Cohn moest daar spelen met Ehud Asherie. Daarna heb ik nog wat pool gespeeld met Joe en Floanne, dit duurde tot laat, en toen ik de volgende (maandag) ochtend de bus van 7 uur pakte had ik dan ook maar weinig geslapen…
12 oktober 2012 Ik kwam dus rond 5:30am terug bij Joe, en hij was nog wakker (?!). Hij vertelde me dat hij wel 10 uur piano had gestudeerd en dat hij klaar was om piano te spelen. We speelden liederen … Continue reading