Ah! I missed that - thanks very much!
My first concert on the 3rd day of North Sea Jazz was Maria Schneider with a Spanish Big Band. They played music from Maria but with a Flamengo type of feel to it and added Spanish vocals - as always it was great to hear Maria live with a big band.
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The 2nd concert on the third day was the 2nd concert of Pat Metheny for the weekend. This time around it was his “normal” band playing recent music from him. It was requested to not take photos and videos which most of us honored including me - till the end of the concert. And it indeed supported being completely emerged in a fantastic concert.
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The next concert on the 3rd day was another interesting concert with Dee Dee Bridgewater. She had a great supporting all female band. She played a lot of music supporting black and women rights. She was in great form and I really enjoyed the concert.
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The next concert was another great one. Hiromi and Sonicwonder where as usual taking the audience by storm. Unbelievable playing of Hiromi and her band. While I belief without a trumpet she would be as interesting as most interesting interplay happens between bass and piano. Not saying that the trumpet player was not good as he definitely is a great player…
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The concert of Terence and Ravi was the last of the festival for me. Usually this is in all cases the firework concert. However this one was a pure dissapontment. The playing was not that exciting and also the concept Miles and Coltrane was not represented well in the concert. It was actually songs of Terrence with Davis and Coltrane baked into the setlist. It was so dissapointing that I left before the end of the concert. Especially the playing of Ravi lacked interesting sparks. I was sad that I left Hiromi’s concert to see this one. As that concert had me intensively tapping my feet.
Anyhow overall this North Sea Jazz festival like all others I visited was again great and I can’t wait for next years festival.
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It was the same in Ravenna. Not having the distraction of phone screens was a good thing. At the end everybody had gone wild and I think most people took a few shots.
Metheny is in good form this year. The best I have seen him for some time.
I went to see Richard Ashcroft with my wife. People filming with their phones held high was incredibly distracting and blocked the view. It really has become a curse at Rock concerts.
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Finally got to see Osees live at a very hot and sweaty EartH in Hackney, London. Fantastic psych garage rock propelled by two - yes, two!! - drummers. I adore bands with two drummers. A one hour set with the last song lasting 20 minutes. Utterly brilliant
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Ally Venable
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Osees a wonderful live experience. Glad you enjoyed it.
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A farewell to the soundtrack of the 80s. Yesterday evening at Tikkurila festival was one of the last chances to see Eppu Normaali (a Finnish rock institution) performing live. They will end their 50 years career in August. The band were still in surprisingly good form. Since it was a festival gig it was short meaning hits only but nevertheless very enjoyable and brought back memories from the golden decade.
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Last night at the Festival Theatre Malvern. Jools Holland Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. Not seen him in 30 years. Great entertainment. Two hours of Boogie-Woogie, Swing, Soul and R&R. Four singers including Roachford for this tour. Not the youngest of audiences. About 19 musicians on stage so a fair wage bill. ( Not my photo, forgot my phone.)
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Flaming Lips at Dreamland in Margate last night. The best Lips concert I’ve been today and possibly the best concert ever I’ve seen. Wayne Coyne’s brother died 3 days ago so it had this strange mix of the usual Lips elation plus a real sadness. Wayne mentioned his brother but you could really sense this strong connection between him and the crowd. He had everyone hugging each other and Do You Realize?? was just a massive blubathon. Very, very special.
Beta Band were actually headlining who were technically good but it was all a bit soulless
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Looking forward to next Saturday and if the inflated message will be F**k Somerset London Yeah! 
Maybe House will have been stipulated for inclusion, but ya never know, lol.
I don’t like standing-only gigs and can’t stand for too long, so I’m hoping they’ll allow my shooting stick (with a rubber tip over the spike).
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You should have a great time and I think it will be very special
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Just saw Diva Opera doing Boheme in a marquee with a full complement of singers but only a piano rather than an orchestra. The immediacy of the voices was wonderful with some great acting too. Last time I saw Boheme at ROH was at a “prom” performance with Domingo where they took all the seats out of the stalls and we had to queue all day for tickets. My boss at the time loved opera and gave me the day off to do so.
(Picture from a review)
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I will. Looks the same as the other Lips gigs I’ve seen…but sadly this time without Steven Drodz…
Don’t worry - the other musicians are great. Yes - you get the usual Lips songs and shenanigans but there was an emotional connection that made it v special
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