Fola Dada & Joo Kraus In Dottendorf

When I left for home I passed Fola Dada rushing back to the merch table with a new box of her CD. Obviously the show was such a knock-out success that CD sales were booming. The smile on Joo Kraus‘s face as he signed copies of his own CD ‘Joo Jazz’ was similar proof of a successful evening of top-drawer Jazz, and similar smiles from people heading for home told the same story – in 2025 Dottendorf is Bonn’s Jazz Centre.

Someone else with good reason to smile is ‘Dottendorfer Jazznacht’ organizer Herbert Kaupert. A good deal of time and effort have gone into updating the sound and lights in Dottendorf’s Ortszentrum and the fruits of that investment are now being collected, with shows selling out in advance and top Jazz acts lining up to play one Friday each month. Tonight’s concert By Stuttgart based Fola Dada is no exception. In 2022 she won the prestigious Deutschen Jazz Preis in the National Vocalist section and it’s easy to see why this evening. With a Nigerian Father and German Mother there is certainly an international flair to Dada’s music and particularly in her songwriting where the themes of international love, unity and respect occur regularly.

Fola Dada encompasses a wide musical perspective. Alongside her celebrated Jazz vocals she is known as the vocalist with Hattler, a band founded by legendary Krautrock band Kraan’s founder. She is celebrated as a ‘Queen of Soul’ and she has played Classical Jazz concerts with the SWR Big Band. And to further prove that for her variety is the spice of life there is also always room in her set for a Bob Marley number too. This evening’s choice was 1971’s ‘Waiting in Vain’ and had the packed hall eating out of her hand as they sang along to the chorus with clear gusto.

Lizz Wright’s ‘My Heart’ is proof of Dada’s nose for a song from outside that she takes on and quickly makes her own. However, it’s in Nina Simone that she has found a musician who seemingly ticks all the boxes regarding what Fola Dada’s music is about. So much so that one of her (seemingly many) projects currently is presenting Simone’s music in a live show. She says of the Simone shows:

“I, in my freedom and happiness, in other words in an absolutely luxurious starting position, understood how strong art can be when you burn, live and fight for something. I felt my womanhood and my blackness and I knew how different I really was from Fola Dada!”

Tonight there is just one Simone song, but it’s a powerful one. ‘I Wish I Knew How It Felt To Be Free’ was released in 1967 and became an anthem for the Civil Right Movement. Unsurprisingly tonight’s concert introduces much of the new ‘Sisters & Brothers’ release which features all songs self or co-written by Dada. It also presents something of a challenge in Dottendorf since the album features a piano and no guitar, whilst tonight’s line-up features a guitar and no piano because keyboardist Ulf Kleiner is in hospital. I have to take my hat off then to Jo Ambros who at short notice stepped in to fill the piano gap on guitar. He seemed to ‘feel’ his way into each track quickly and perfectly – providing in doing so an interesting ‘alternate take’ on the music I listened to later on CD.

A super CD it is too, and it was a pleasure to hear the back stories of some of the numbers, particularly that behind ‘4 Leaf Clover’ written at the time of Dada’s Mothers passing. But it certainly wasn’t a concert of doom and gloom though. The overall message that Fola Dada and Band deliver is an upbeat one about celebrating life. The hypnotic beat of ‘Heal’ which celebrates standing up to oppression. ‘Tinglin’ Feel’ with its jaunty beat and that recommends “Finding a new way” and Al Green’s ‘Willing and Able’ recommends seeing that “Life is a game” with finely crafted trumpet backing from Joo Kraus.

“I’m walking through the woods, The reason birds feel good. We enjoy life…” sings Dada in ‘Escape’ which has an extra embellishment this evening as Joos Kraus reveals himself to be something of a birdsong expert – delivering a very creditable dawn chorus on microphone. Ah yes, high time to introduce the evening’s not so secret musical weapon…

Joo Kraus has been a force of Nature on Germany’s Jazz scene for some years and, like Dada and drummer Tommy Baldu, is someone who hates to be buttonholed into styles. His playing today was within the confines of Fola Dada’s set-list but still managed to be a little ‘off the wall’ in the best possible way – stamping his own style on solo passages and adding new dimensions as per the earlier mentioned birdsong on ‘Escape’ and some impromptu rapping to close out ‘Tinglin’ Feel’ in style.

Joscha Glass kept the rhythm going in a tastefully understated way and I actually fell in love with the deep resonated tones that drummer Tommy Baldu was creating. Baldu is ‘go to’ drummer for many musicians in Germany including Xavier Naidoo and Gregor Meyle. His choice of drums including a large floor tom and cymbals created a deep woody resonance that rumbled pleasantly around in my ears in the best possible way.

So there you have it. An evening spent listening to musicians who love fusing styles and sounds is an evening well spent. Especially musicians of this calibre. Thank you Dottendorfer Jazznacht once again for bringing Jazz of this quality to the ‘klein aber fein’ Dottendorf Ortszentrum. I won’t tell yopu to go along to a future Jazz evening this time because you might not get in anymore on the night. Instead – book a ticket in advance (or three even!) and prepare yourself for the perfect way to enter the weekend.