It’s not so long ago that I was writing about the Kulturzentrum in Dottendorf as an ‘insider tip’. After visiting the opening Dottendorfer Jazznacht concert of 2025 featuring top jazz vocalist Jeff Cascaro it’s clear that those days are now gone. All 190 tickets were sold out well in advance, and the same is also true of next month’s appearance by Jakob Manz & Johanna Summer. If the quality of Jeff Cascaro’s appearance is a sign of things to come, then I suspect the quantity of tickets is the only bad news for Dottendorf’s Jazz lovers.
A bit of background for non-Jazz experts: Between 2003 and 2007 Jeff Cascaro was the vocal coach for TV’s ‘Deutschland Sucht Den Superstar‘, a lucrative and high-profile job one would think, but it left Cascaro with a decision to make: Continue in an academic/support role in the music business, or step onto stages as a singer in his own right? Fortunately for us, it was the latter that was decided on, and it was soon clear in Dottendorf why ‘DSDS’ valued the man’s vocal skills.
There are a couple of trumpets on the table that will both get a run-out this evening. Cascaro first started playing trumpet at age 14, and the man is no mean horn blower as he displays with a cool and tasteful performance on the ballad ‘Since I fell for You’. It’s clear from the chunky rhythm of ‘My Babe’ which gets the evening up and running though that it’s his warm and mellow voice, with a touch of Al Jarreau in it, that is clearly going to be this evening’s star ‘instrument’.
Early on it starts to look in fact as if we are getting a blow-by-blow live rendition of Cascaro’s 2017 ‘Love & Blues in the City’ disc as that jaunty ‘My Babe’ segues into ‘Ode to Billy Joe’ and the famous goings-on alluded to by Bobby Gentry on the Tallahatchie Bridge. It’s a song that has rather been done to death though, and ‘A Taste of Honey’ goes the same way through my ears. Beautifully sung to be sure, as is ‘Ain’t no love in the heart of the City’ (and there was a time when I thought this number was actually written by David Coverdale – it first came to my attention as a teenager on rockband Whitesnake’s ‘Live in the heart of the City’ disc. Later I discovered they had ‘purloined’ it from Bobby Blue Bland). I prefer the song in Coverdale’s OTT style, despite some excellent work from Cascaro’s band. Hans Dekker – drums, Christian von Kaphengst-bass and the especially enjoyable on the evening, Pennsylvanian pianist Billy Test. The latter travelled down the road from his current home in Cologne to be in Dottendorf, so it was almost a home concert.
But I’m sounding negative about the evening and that is far from the truth, There was a great deal of high-quality Jazz to enjoy. Warm, chocolatey vocals delivered with precision timing, backed by an A-class band mixing improvisation and syncopation to perfection. so let’s get down to where the magic truly did happen…
‘Stormy Monday Blues’ could easily have been one of those classic but predictable numbers. It was instead a platform for the band to improvise a little, and a chance for some off-the-wall scat singing by Cascaro that gave it plenty of energy. Marvin Gaye’s ‘Inner City Blues’ also had plenty of spark – with its theme of social unease and inequality in the big City. It was written about Detroit in the ’70’s but fits just about any big City right into 2025. Cascaro also showed himself to be at ease with the audience when he had pretty well 190 pairs of hands deep hand-clapping along (“Soul Clapping” as he described it). Cascaro’s own ‘Roots’ was also a highpoint both vocally and lyrically. And that trumpet on ‘Since I fell for you’ was certainly worth the entrance fee alone.
A final encore saw Jeff Cascaro seated on a bar stool and telling us of his father who died in 2023. On a last visit to the nursing home his father’s dementia seemed to be a blessing rather than a curse. He was convinced that Cascaro had flown into America to visit him and asked if he had seen any shows. Sometimes fiction is kinder than truth. Sometimes perhaps it’s better to be living in another World. Seeing the bright side…
A moving rendition of George Benson’s ‘On Broadway’ followed, with lyrics that underpinned that sentiment:
“They say I won’t last too long on Broadway
I’ll catch a Greyhound bus for home, they all say
But they’re dead wrong, I know they are
‘Cause I can play this guitar
And I won’t quit til I’m a star on Broadway“
So, a gentle but positive vibe to send us on our ways back home then. A perfect antidote to a stressful week in fact, and we can stay relaxed until the panic sets in about getting a ticket for the next Dottendorfer Jazznacht. Fear not dear reader, help is at hand – here is your link to the upcoming concerts and the Ticket Office :ORTSZENTRUM DOTTENDORF EVENTS
But be quick!
