Mike Roelofs: Carte Noire

On November 9, 2009, I attended a great jazz concert of pianist Mike Roelofs in Café Thembi in Maastricht. As from September Roelofs performs each month on a Sunday afternoon at Thembi accompanied by different outstanding musicians (a concert series called ‘Cart Noir’). Last Sunday the piano player played together with Claudius Valk (sax, bass clarinet), Dennis Frehse (drums), and Werner Lauscher (bass). I witnessed the first set of the performance and this set of music was really wonderful. The band played a mixture of own compositions and jazz standards. I especially liked Roelof’s own work, like the song Catharsis. All presented songs were nice spherical tunes where the musicians had plenty of opportunity to improvise. I liked the skilful improvisations, and also the alternate use of both sax and bass clarinet as leading melody instrument.

Too bad I could only watch the first half of the concert. Next time I hope I’m able to watch the whole concert. The following concert of Mike Roelofs at Café Thembi will be at December 7, 2008. Be there!