080708 and 080710 – Montreux Jazz Festival

FIJI / SANTOGOLD / MADNESS / DAS POP / THE KILLS / THE GOSSIP

I have had the good fortune to have been invited to day 5 and 7 of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Miles Davis Hall, to see 6 bands play. Of course being there one gets the itch to go see Al Jarreau, Alicia Keys, Babyshambles, Camille, Chaka Khan, Erykah Badu, Gilberto Gil, Gnarls Barkley, Herbie Hancock, Interpol, Joan Baez, Joao Bosco, Joe Jackson, K. D. Lang, Katie Melua, Leeny Kravitz, Leonard Cohen, Melody Gardot, Milton Nascimento and Trio Jobim, N.E.R.D., Patty Austin, Paul Simon, Quincy Jones, Roberta Flack, Sheryl Crow, Sylford Walker, The Racounteurs, Tower of Power, Travis, Yael Naim and many more… all who played there this year.

The Kills plays at the 2008 Montreux Jazz Festival, Miles Davis Hall.

But it is something of an elite festival. Just to get to it’s idyllic location isn’t a peace of cake. Finding a place to stay is probably not only difficult but expensive and tickets are always sold out within an hour of being released. What’s more, for some acts 100 tickets are sold at a time, on location, months before, so just to get tickets you need to be in Montreux, or have a buddy there who is willing to stand in line for hours. Which is o.k. actually in my book. It is an opportunity for the locals to bring who they want to hear play for them in their own private festival. That’s cool, and it’s cool that they are so into culture to the point of putting plenty of their money there 42 years in a row.

Here’s the difference between Montreux and say, Roskilde. Both are great festivals. In Roskilde you pay 300 USD to get in and see all the acts you want, all week. But you have to accept that there may be 60,000 people waiting to see some of the same artist you want to see. But that’s great, it’s those 60,000 paying visitors who make it possible to bring such acts. At Montreux you have to pretty much pay for each act you want to see. So if I go see The Kills, I’m one of 1000 people in the hall and can basically 5 minutes before the start of the show walk right up to the stage and place myself within 2 meters of the artist, so it’s a much more private and exclusive show. After the show you can go down to Henry’s and find Gnarls Barkley sitting at the pub. Prince who played there last year, after his show at the Stravinsky Auditorium showed up at the Jazz Cafe (an open stage) and played an hour and a half for an unpaying, overjoyed audience. Joan Baez this year picked up some street musicians from Kenya she saw playing on her way to the hotel the day of her show and invited them to close her concert, where the stage security was removed and anyone who wanted was invited to go up on stage and join her dancing to inspirational Kenyan percussion. But you have to pay for those luxuries, or in my case, you have to have friends who will pay for those luxuries for you.

Now, the music. I was basically unfamiliar with all of the acts I saw. But that is what I love about Festivals, discovering tons of things you’ve never heard of, getting inspired anew.
Fiji is a disco glam rock trio from Switzerland which uses drum/bass/keyboard tracks on stage which their wonderful singer Simone sings to. It sounded very house to me, more then 70’s disco or 80’s which they make a lot of reference to. I guess because of the sounds and quality of the production. The glam bit was very apparent in the clothing and make-up, which looked very funny on the bassist, but suited Simone wonderfully, who throughout the show took off more and more glittering layers, which the audience reacted to very enthusiastically. They had a mannequin on stage that reminded me very much of Doris, the mannequin I had for the last 3 years. But they unfortunately didn’t really make much use of her in the show. The music was good and Simone’s energy was wonderful.

Fiji plays at the 2008 Montreux Jazz Festival, Miles Davis Hall.

 

Santogold was a very interesting act. New Wave, Dub, Pshycobility, whatever that adds up to. Basically Dub beats to Rockabily type Brooklinized singing. The concert started with a DJ mixing beats and tunes which was fantastic. That is the kind of organic musicality I love in live performance. But then when Santogold came on it lost that dynamism as she sang to prerecorded tracks. The coolest bit of the show was her two background singers who stood in their dark glasses totally expressionless, except for moments of ecstatic dancing, where they gave 100%. Her attitude and the beats got the crowd dancing and enjoying the cool party atmosphere.

One of Santogold's cool background singers and her DJ.

Madness were the best band of the first night. It’s basically a bunch of (10, I counted) older men dressed in business attire playing great ska, rock, cabaret music. The singer has a very unique voice, though his range is not so amazing, he uses it well. Go to their MySpace and listen to Baggy Trousers and NW5 to get an idea of their music, athough if your from my generation you’ve probably come across them with the 80’s hit “Our house, in the middle of the street…” The song I actually most enjoyed during the show was a song where the singer doesn’t sing at all, but just shouts the line “One Step Beyond” (also on their myspace) from time to time. The crowd loved it and yelled along like mad. I guess it is just their total unexpected craziness and the fact that they are very tight band that makes it all work so well. A great band to see live. I’m not sure I would go out and by a CD, although it could be great music to have for one of Pedram’s wild parties.

Madness plays at the 2008 Montreux Jazz Festival, Miles Davis Hall.

Night 2…

Das Pop to begin with, has a great band name. I love it. They are from Belgium where I stopped over on my way here and had some wonderful chocolate. Mmm… In any case they are a great Pop/Indie band. Great tunes, simple music, great energy. Very tight, lots of innocent attitude, a youthful spirit and chaos that inspires. They had the drummer right on the edge of the stage with his set turned 45 degrees, so that he was as present as the other 4 band memebers. Great idea. The singer ran back and forth from a keyboard which added a nice dynamic to what otherwise can become a simple soundscape of drums/bass/guitar.
 

The Kills was the best band of the second night. This raw bluesy punk duo are really a sight to see. The concept reminds me of the White Stripes with a simple blues foundation and a greatly varied punk sound scape of songs built over that. But this band distinguishes themselves because their approach and charisma is much more raw and erotic. The tension Alison creates as she comes out in her leopard jacket and struts in circles is very animalistic and VERY attractive I must say. She’s in your face sexual as good rock n’ roll tends to be. Loved Jamie’s hat too, totally Clockwork Orange. The songs are strong but possibly a bit to distorted as by the end, everything blends into a soup of memory, sounding a bit too alike. Great energy, incredible presence, they had me captivated the entire show. Go to their MySpace and check out Last Day of Magic and Love is a Deserter.

I didn’t know if you could bring a camera to the show, so the first night we took pictures on Xavier’s pocket camera. At the entrance was a very clear sign forbidding 35 mm camera’s so the second night I ventured to try their security check and got by them for all three shows. Specially got good pictures of this show so I’ll post a few.
   
  

The Gossip was also very good. Great music to dance to. Beth, the singer reminds me of a blend of Mama Cass and Janis Joplin, an increadible honor, both women with huge voices and incredible presence. Her voice is not of that caliber yet, but getting there. The whole band are excellent musicians and have great attitude. On their festival description they write: “We started a band ’cause we were bored. Our mission is to make you dance, and if you’re not gonna dance, just stay at home and listen to the oldies station.” I very much like bands with a woman at the drums, I find it very sexy, very powerful, very rock n’ roll. Their best stuff is not on their Myspace though, so check out Eyes Open on Youtube or this live version which feels so 60’s, or Jealous Girl. This concert was very popular, so we decided to enjoy it from farther back and I was dancing away as most everyone else.

From a bit farther back Gossip plays at the 2008 Montreux Jazz Festival, Miles Davis Hall.

Thanks X for this wonderful experience!

Diva Gash – great Electronic/House/Pop from Bogotá

I was very happy to hear that this great group Diva Gash is from my home town. I sometimes feel frustrated that most of what I recommend is from the english speaking world. Diva Gash sings mostly in english, but they are proudly Colombian, as they say comically put on their website “From Colombia, like Shakira…”

The House, Pop, Electronic group from Colombia, like Shakira, but with a twist of humor.

Their music is wonderfully produced and has a humor which is typically Colombian. Great sounds, great rhythm, light hearted music to get your body dancing. Their live shows are supposed to also be great. Would love to see them someday!

Check out their myspace and listen to Galacticock (my favorite) and Starmaster (their latest hit). But also see the video to Galacticock as well to get a feel for their visual imagery. Love their name, anyone know where it came from?

Andrés Solé plays “Better Together” (cover)

Yesterday after I wrote my blog entry about “Better Together” by Jack Johnson I sat down at Xavier’s piano to learn it and so today I decided to try and record a video with his little camera of me playing it. The tough bit for me has always been memorizing lyrics, but it went quite well, I got through it.

Andrés Solé plays Better Together by Jack Johnson in Lausanne.

The surrounding of course makes the inspiration. I am sitting in a lovely living room with great accoustics and looking out the window over Lausanne and Lake Geneva to the French and Italian Alps. The sun is shining, I’m at peace and doing what I most love, music, what could be better?

Once again, life is good, but always better when we’re together! I’d love to hear some comments…

Life is good – Better Together

Life is good to me. I am in Lausanne, Switzerland enjoying the company of one of the greatest friends one could have. Not only that but he’s also the single most influential person in my musical life who doesn’t make a living as a musician. Last night as we watched the Wimbledon final and enjoyed hearing the sound of the rain as we ate a fabulous pizza, Mr. X told me about a singer/songwriter I had not heard of, Jack Johnson.

Jack Johnson plays the song Better Together live and accoustic.

There’s something magical about the simplicity of just a man singing accompanied of his guitar or sitting at his piano. For me the test of a great song is strip it down to its bare essicials and it still being great. Here’s a song that is just that, a great song, in all its magical simplicity.

Life is good, but always better when we’re together!

080705 – Monkey3/Bubble Beatz – Festival de la Cité

It was a beautiful Sunday evening at the heart of Lausanne and thousands of people were out on the streets enjoying the fabulous and free festival that the city puts on every year. At the main stage that night I saw two acts (both Swiss bands), Monkey3 and Bubble Beatz, though I must say there was a confussion of names.

Blue man monkey bubbles could be the name of this group.

First played the bandMonkey three, which Xavier and I had no idea what the monkey reference was in their name, but that the 3 was due to the fact that they were 3 members in the band. When I went to their website I found there are 4. Reading about their style “Stonerrock“, I quickly understood the monkey reference, mainly marijuana. Interestingly enough on myspace they categorize themselves as “Accoustic/Alternative/Psychodelic”, mostly I guess because MySpace doesn’t provide the option Stonerrock.

I guess what most caught me about the performance was that they had no mike and no verbal communication with the audience. The music is very riff based, slow and heavy, with plenty of rhythmic breaks and strong bass. A style very connected with the enjoyment of marijuana, which a couple times I could smell in the air. But I enjoyed it plenty without the drugs. Xavier and I have an easy time getting high on life.

Bubble Beatz reminded us immediately of the Blue Man Group (check out this cool video), except that they were two. When I went to the their website, I realized they want us to make that connection. They define their music as electro percussion, which sounds like a perfect description. Basically they play all kinds of percussion (pots and pans and the whole bit) to electronic music tracks. At the concert I thought they were called Beatz as they had a big barrel with that word on it. They have a cage in the center of the stage with all kinds of hanging stuff they jump around and bang on, so they maybe should consider the name Moneky 2. I didn’t really like Bubble Beatz, as it reminds me of the Swedish pop trio of 8 year olds, Bubbles. Oops, now that I look at their website I realize there are 5 of them, now 19 years old and called Bless. Interesting gap between what a band wants to portray and what the audience remembers.

Band aids or long term solutions – Saving the Amazon rain forest

One of the things that I regret is that while I was living in Colombia I never went to visit the Amazon rain forest. It is one of the world treasures that Colombia has. The problem is no my unfulfilled wish but the fact taht the Amazon is disappearing quickly.

I was reading in a recent article that each year a area the size of Belgium is cut down (12,500 square miles). The total area of the Amazon jungle today is 3 million square miles. So in a matter of 267 years there will be no more Amazon. Doesn’t sound so bad actually. That’s just the problem. That we live in a society that puts band aids on the world problems instead of looking for long term solutions. Even our way of solving problems is merely superficial.

I was eating dinner with my great friend Åse yesterday and she was telling me about when she arrived in Sweden in the 70’s how all political decisions where discussed on the television and radio constantly. And the question politicians always asked themselves was, “How is this going to affect our children?” How wonderful it would be to live in a society that thinks in this way, where the leading factor in making decisions is not money, but the well being of all children. What governmental actions would take place immediately if the leaders of the USA began to think this way? More money to schools, free medical health, economic assistance to families with children, more paid leave for parents after childbirth, homes for all families, more parks and green areas, social assistance for homeless children and those with physical and mental illnesses.

All of these things remind me of Sweden. Schooling is free (even University studies) and all children are fed free lunch everyday (up to High School graduation). Health care is free for everyone. Every family receives about 200 USD per child per month. Parents have the right to 450 days of paid leave (to be split between the mother and father). If a family does not have the means to pay rent, the government provides assistance. All cities are full of parks and green areas and excellent public transportation to minimize the need for cars in the city! It’s to bad that most of this is quickly going down the drain…

What inspires me to mention the Amazon today? Recently Greenpeace celebrated a protest in Brasilia in honor of Sister Dorothy Stang who was assassinated in the area of Anapu, Brasil where 31 illegal lumber industries which, despite working 24 hours around the clock, where unable to quench the thirst both the USA and Europe has for wood. What is the solution? We could put all of the workers and their illegal bosses in jail (just put a band aid on the issue) or we could reevaluate our own lives and the society of consumerism we live in.

For whoever is interested, find out what Greenpeace is currently doing and how we can all be involved in helping stop the deforestation of the Amazon jungle.