Harmen's Lab

On Sunday 21 December 2008, the Harmen Fraanje Trio played an outstanding set of music at Café Thembi in Maastricht. The jazz music peformed by Harmen Fraanje (piano), Stefan Lievestro (double bass), and Pascal Vermeer (drums) was both energetic and breathtaking. The musical interplay between the musicians was great to look at (although Fraanje had some difficulty communicating with his fellow musicians because of the position of the piano), and it was obvious that the musicians were either very skilled team players or had played together more than once (and I assume both ;-)). I also appreciated the musicians 'own' musical styles and their great improvisations. In 2009 there will be a follow up of Harmen's Lab at Thembi. This initiative deserves recognition!

Mike Roelofs: Carte Noire II

On December 7, 2008, another Carte Noir concert of Mike Roelofs was organized in café Thembi in Maastricht. I saw the first half of this concert and what I saw and heard was really good. This time Roelofs was accompanied by saxophonist Dick de Graaf, double bass player Werner Lauscher , and drummer Dennis Frehse. For me the highlights of this afternoon concert were the versions of the jazz standards 'Lament' (J.J. Johnson) and 'Bolivia' (Cedar Walton). I think I witnessed a high standard performance at Thembi. Hopefully this café is willing to organize a follow up of this concert series in 2009.

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!

Jazz Maastricht Promenade

October 12, 2008, we went to an interesting Jazz concert in Maastricht. In Café Thembi we listened to a great concert of the Toon Roos Quartet. With Hein van de Geyn on double bass, Karel Boehlee on piano and Joost van Schaik on drums, Toon Roos (saxophones) played two energetic sets of jazz music. The ballads were sophisticated and the up-tempo pieces exciting. High quality music on a sunny Sunday afternoon: what more do you want!