Jump to content

Levercusener Jazztage ?


Gheorghe

Recommended Posts

I remember there was always very fine music.

A few weeks ago there was 3 hours of Levercusen on TV and I saved it on the harddisk of the TV and eventually found time to look at it, since I was looking forward to see some good stuff, but was very disappointed, since nothing of the music did say anything to me. 
It was Spyro Gyro which I think was a quite famous band and as I did google it it´s associated with jazz rock, but though I was very much into jazz rock when it was happening (electric Miles, Herbie Hancock Headhunters, Chick Corea RTF, Alphonse Mouzon electric band, Larry Coryell) I never was more aware of Spyro Gyro than seeing that group on posters......

I did reel it forward to see what the other music might be, but it was not more interesting to me. European musicians, but about the same bag. 

There are so many super hot players in NY who play hot stuff, topnotch musicians, why didn´t they bring something like that ? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

they always had weird programming with an emphasis on fusion when I looked at the program over the years... I've lived close to Leverkusen for most of my life but was never tempted to go... when I look at the upcoming edition here it's the same... still more fusion than I would put on there, and a lot of what Downbeat used to call "beyond". If I had to attend something, it would be coin-toss between Uri Caine's Wagner program and aging songwriter Konstantin Wecker... the better festival in the (WDR) area was always Moers, and even though that festival has changed a lot, too, the program still looks much more attractive (link, still in progress)...

the festival that gets the Leverkusen concept right (w a much bigger budget) is North Sea Jazz, that's also just 250km or so away... in fact, North Sea Jazz gives you a surprisingly full picture of today's jazz, Tom Jones, Buddy Guy, Marcus Miller, Mette Rasmussen, Andrew Cyrille, Wynton Marsalis, Jan Garbarek, Fred Hersch, all on the same bill

Edited by Niko
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Niko. Yes North Sea Jazz is legendary. 
In my youth we had the luck that most stars who did North Sea also did "Wiesen Jazzfestival" here in Eastern Austria. It seems it was from the same booking maybe Wim Wigt that we got all those stars, Diz, Blakey, Herbie, Dexter, Jackie McLean, Woody Shaw, Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Archie Shepp, Max Roach, all those wonderful guys.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...