New online guide; new club; new artist. This was a fabulous return to jazz in Koln. I'd been told factoids about Koln before this visit, like 4711 was the first eau di cologne and it's just that, a fragrance from Cologne, and that Koln was the site of the first tertiary jazz education in Germany thus a jazz centre. And the WDR Big Band is here, too, of course. Firstly I found JazzStadt Koln https://jazzstadt.de/. I don't remember that from fours years back. Or King Georg jazz club. I asked at the door and apparently it turned to jazz ~four years back. That fits. It's very close to where I last stayed so I probably would have found it. It's a little club, rectangular with a big bar space and a floor level stage space with some seating. Entry is not too cheap but same as Frankfurt JazzKeller, our $A is very poor, but we were ridiculously close and perfectly comfortable. They also have a €5 live stream option like Smalls and others and looks like a great program. With luck I'll get to Gilad Hekselman on Thurs and a very interesting Kara Linn on Saturday. But this concert was was a French signer and her band. I had a good feeling; in the end it was a stunner.
Camille Bertault had studied classical piano and composition, opera, theatre and dance, writing, singing and improv over various courses. She'd written the music and lyrics and presented with a connecting presence and dance-like performance, this time in tails. Now there's composition and composition but this was not just 1-4-5; this was interesting, all odd and changing times and written grooves and hits, all structured neatly with effective repetition and space for solos of all manner. And there's lyrics and lyrics and this was not just moon-june-croon love-dove songs, but social and political themes that she introduced, although all in French which slipped by me. Like the best of Paul McCartney, my guess is the melody follows the lyrics. Also there's stage presence and..., you get it, and this was effectively interpretive dance with an obvious smile at the solos and connections and occasional guiding glances and a willing conversation with the audience (in English). She started solo, with just a tap on a xylophone for pitch, then looping three voices and the melody of My favourite things over. Otherwise all original other than an encore from Hermeto Pascoal. About 20 songs over 2 sets with a strong band, tight, driving, regular and insistent, occasionally expansive in solos from trumpet or piano, a hugely un-straight-jazz presence in intriguing tango drummer and general jolly-maker, Minino, and a very effective first concert with this band from new bassist Sylvain. There were trumpet/vox pairings and ecstatic scat-like vocals of the most intriguing type, all intervals and patterns with classical awareness. And always this presence, this joy, this connection, this purpose. Should I say I was blown out? And BTW that she's worked with WDR BB, Chris Potter, Dan Tepfer, Jeff Ballard, Christian McBride, Mat Penman, Eric Harland, Ben Monder and the like and got 5 stars from Downbeat and is lauréate artiste vocale 2023. All impressive but her gigs are better. Loved it immensely.
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