Proof that you don’t need big halls and big bucks to hear top notch musicians was proven by Ismael Alcalde‘s appearance on a balmy Saturday evening in the unlikely location of a public library. As it proved though, books are not just good to read, they also provide a good acoustic environment. The solar roof of the Stadtbucherei St Nikolaus in Bonn-Kessenich also sent soft and shimmering Summer evening light onto the 100 or so people enjoying the music.
It’s coming to the end of a long and busy day in Bonn Marktplatz. There are several hundred people watching Makeda as she sings ‘The Day I Loved You Most’. But for a handful of votes, she would have instead been singing this very song tonight in front of several million people in Tel Aviv. Eurovision’s loss is Bonn’s gain though, as she joins top young Bonn Jazz drummer Richard Münchhoff and his Band, to bring the curtain down on this Democracy Festival Day on Marktplatz with a classy presentation of Pop/Jazz.
There are days when rather than go out to a show, you’d rather sit back and enjoy a glass of wine in the sunshine? Bad Godesberg was the ideal place for you then on Sunday evening.
The theme of Folk Club Bonn #102, was ‘Animals’ and with it’s ‘All creatures great and small’ reach it generated probably the most theme-oriented songs of any club meeting to date. Kangaroos, pug dogs, sparrows, bees, ducks, geese, dragonflies… There would have been one about emus if someone had written such a song (and now I will wait for you to check Google and tell me I’m wrong!!!)
Okay, yes, there’s ‘Emu Song’ by John Williamson. I was wrong. Now let’s get back to Dotty’s Sports Bar before the last seat is taken on this zoological musical ride of an evening with John Harrison and special guest from Birmingham David Fisher.
In 2015, if you were at Rockpalast for JJ Grey & Mofro in the Harmonie, you had a very pleasant surprise indeed in the form of Cornwall Power-Blues trio Wille & The Bandits. You won’t have forgotten the show so easily – not least for the sight of Wille Edwards and the rasta hair ‘growing’ out from the lid of his battered black top-hat. My reaction at the time was: “Harmonie, Book these guys ASAP if not sooner”. Well, they did, and this was my third visit to see this excellent trio on a stage alive and rocking, where their music very much belongs.
Stéphane Avellaneda will be familiar to many readers. I remember first seeing him as the new drummer behind Ana Popovic some years ago now. My thoughts then were that he was a rock drummer and that he was LOUD too!. After a couple of shows though, it became apparent that Stéphane could also play subtle accompaniments too, and was a man always ready to experiment a little with the sound. Of course, within the confines of the Ana Popovic Band, it was the lady in charge who dictated the shots. Fair enough, it’s her band and her songs. Fast forward to 2019, and with Ana Popovic now ripping it up a storm Stateside for much of the year with her band, Stéphane has taken the opportunity to team up with French vocalist/flautist Rachel Ombredane to make an intriguing debut disc via Kickstarter donations. The result is a duo named RosaWay and an excellent Jazz/Synthpop EP named ‘Stranger’
Michael Jackson seems to be in the headlines for all the wrong reasons these days. Rüdiger Baldauf’s Jackson Trip was actually released in 2017, but with the current Jackson Art retrospective at Bundeskunsthalle, now is the perfect time for the top trumpeter from Bensberg to bring a part of Jackson that is in no dispute back in the public eye – his incredible contribution to Funk/Soul and Pop music.
Whoever first said you don’t get anything for nothing had never attended Bonn Folk Club. They certainly would have changed their minds if they were at Dotty’s Sportsbar/Restaurant for FCB #101. It was a night on which we actually enjoyed multiple ‘somethings for nothing’ in the form of two excellent headline acts from the Folk World – and that’s before factoring in the additional ‘something for nothings’ that came in the form of numerous local and visiting musicians who once again dropped by to perform a song or three. Here’s the low-down on an evening with Daria Kulesh, Lindsay May and many other contributors to another magical evening of acoustic bliss.
