Hi,
Yesterday I went to see Common and a whole bunch of other people at the doubletalk festival in Amsterdam.
It was red hot in Holland yesterday (today as well) and the Paradiso (the stage) was even hotter.
Not more than 100 people were there (probably due to very bad promotion) which was a bliss for the people present who could breath normally. The night started of with some local hiphop (too much screaming). Rich Medina was hosting the whole thing and dropped some serious poetry upon us.
Then it was time for Jessica Care Moore to enlighten the crowd with heavy spoken word (a la zack de la rocha) later on accompanied by Sharif Simmons playing a sensitive guitar and good poetry. They were backed up by a good band. Then..N'Dambi hit the stage and it was time for some real sweet soul music. Coming from the backup vocalists of Erykah Badu she is now doing a solo thing. This is serious stuff. Thoise present got really into her vibe. A kind of D'Angelo's mood. The heat and her music were making me drift away. She did the first two songs with a DAT then asked the band of Jessica if they could play with her. Magic..Check her very strong album.
Next in line were Unspoken Heard who woke everybody up with some very fresh hiphop tunes. Definitely a crew to look out for. They made room for Ursula Rucker who was in Holland for the very first time. Man! what a voice..she has a great range and sings from jazzy to soul to rap. I was glad to catch her life, her album will be out soon.
Another great voice entered the stage. Jill Scott. When I caught her the last time with the Roots she was okay but not very special. This time however she was on the stage alone and gave a little demonstration of her power. Gooseflesh all over... Move over Erykah!
Time for Common to set things straight. with a full band he put down a very energetic show. All the people who did an earlier perfomance were brought back to the stage during his show and it was a real family thing. Something you have to see when they're in your area. I'll definitely pick his new album up now. Oh and there was this young DJ with cool skills (moving the crossfader with his nose) creating beats and noises. The crowd loved it all. overall I had a very good night and the people performing were at least having a great time as the audience did. The show ended aqround 4:30 after which King Britt took over with his decks to please the crowd some more. I heard him play the Everybody loves the sunshine track which sounds very nice when played very loud and on a good soundsystem and in a very hot space.
When i came back in Rotterdam the sun was rising and I had only 4 hours of sleep until I had to go to play with my own band somewhere. Needless to say that my concetration was at a far away place and I made a lot mistakes..but the sun was shining, people were happy and dancing and playing some early morning samba in the sun with good friends is always fun.
I Picked up some new things in Amserdam as well:
Mr. Gone - Fusão EP (Vinyl Cuts) Truby Trio mix & DJ Spock mix
nice jazzy latin house music.
Bossa tres Jazz - Limbo Experience (yellow) Tom&Joyce remix and rollercone Remix
Again some nice jazzy latin house music, the rollercone is the one to check imo.
Thanks to the people who responded to my job request in the Bronx. Please drop me your address and the cd will be headed your way.
cheers,
Jeroen
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