Thank you Lisboa, you are so beautiful and warm. We were so happy that a few of you talented Portuguese musicians came and joined us at the concert in classy Hot clube de Portugal.
Actually we loved you so much that we stayed longer and played in your streets.
It was so nice to have you Ingrid Laubrock at Domicil club in Germany so as you could hear again live your open composition of freedom.
We were on top form in the Paradox club Nederlands. It was snowing that night, and it made us all feel very excited!
In Helsinki we were honoured by the presence of some of the best saxophone players in Finland, member of the Finnish Saxophone Society, as well as our finish composer Kari Ikonen who came as fast as he could to the Koko Jazz club straight after his own concert in Turku!!
In Tallinn many musicians as well as people who heard Jandra's interview on Estonian radio came to the conservatory. The first row was filled up with very young children calmly sitting and being very attentive to all the music. It was astonishing how concentrated they where!
Lucky us, The irish weather welcomed us with one hour and a half of (rare) sun outside at in Dublin castle !
It was a great success.. Thanks to Sam Comerford, we then had a wonderful Jam in Dublin and encountered Irish musicians and beautiful folk singers.
The European Saxophone Ensemble started it's second residency in Gent at the Vooruit. They will rehearse from the 10th of September to the 15th. Try out concert at Korenmarkt in Gent for the Odegand festival on saturday the 15th at 4.15pm !
Gong Bong, Shabby and Cheb Chab are three deceptively simple tunes that can be used either as an exercise or as part of a concert, preferably with a Moroccan percussion section.
These pieces/exercises are the result of my long and inspiring journey with Moroccan percussionists which gave birth to such ensembles as Al Harmoniah, akadaka, Remork, Marockin’ Brass and many more. I can only hope that some of these rhythmic patterns may incite other musicians to mix their academic knowledge with that of traditional musicians.
