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.
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Around the World in 60 Days. Once again Over The Border Festival organizer Manuel Banha has done a fantastic job of bringing top World Music stars to Bonn. Sunday’s opening concert featuring The Local Ambassadors is a project within a project so to speak, and a very popular part of the Festival. The idea is simple enough: to bring together top local musicians to play alongside World Music stars. The reality must be anything but simple – a logistical nightmare. And how do you get all these complex styles and emotions into a cohesive musical sound with barely a couple of days to rehearse? Enter Bonn’s keyboardist extraordinaire Marcus Schinkel…
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After it’s pre-opening evening last week at the Harmonie, Bonn’s yearly Over The Border Festival kicks off in ernest this Sunday with The Local Ambassadors at Pantheon. For those new to the Festival, it’s aim is to bring a wide selection of World Music to the City, and it has been successfully doing so for some years now. In 2016 a project called ‘Local Ambassadors’ pooled the international visitors together with local musicians, and it has been a successful and inspiring evening for both audience and musicians alike ever since.
Local piano virtuoso Marcus Schinkel will be in charge of keeping the music together whilst also keeping it fresh for listeners. Anyone who is familiar with the local Jazz/Classical/Rock scene will know that Marcus is a wizard at pushing the genre borders, and a number of other familiar faces will also be back – vocalist Estrela Gomes and percussionist Pape Seck amongst them. Don’t worry if you can’t make it to the show on Sunday though as, for the first time, it will be repeated in Leverkusen (17 March) and Koblenz (18 March). Although, with Marcus Schinkel at the helm I’m sure that ‘repeated’ is not the right word – every show will be a little bit different.
The Festival focus is on an exchange between local and international artists and with its motto of ‘Songs of Peace’ sends a much needed signal in challenging times. There will be a total of 135 artists from 28 countries on 18 evenings across 8 locations.
For full festival details of these shows, visit their website: OVER THE BORDER
“When it comes to the Blues, I don’t like to mess around with the formula too much” says Will Wilde about his new release ‘Blues is Still Alive’. Will is true to his word on that score. There are echoes of the best of the best blues harp legends on here. ‘Don’t Trust Me’ evokes Sonny Boy 2’s rasping harp style, ‘Gypsy Woman’ calls up Muddy Waters with it’s title and ‘St James Infirmary’ in its style, whilst ‘Wild Man’ finds obvious DNA patterns musically with the very first electric blues harp legend Little Water. Wilde goes on to say “I wanted to prove that the blues is as relevant today as it’s ever been”. and again the Man has hit all the home bases on that one too. His lyrics, particularly on the title track are on the button with regard to topicality too: A woman working hard to ‘just’ be able to pay the rent and feed her children, as a man is Kicked down “for the colour of his skin” in a World divided where “everybody’s taking sides…”. Yes indeed, the Blues is, these days, still very much alive.
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A happy 65th Birthday to Ernst Ludwig Hartz. I can reveal his age since there was an interview today in the General Anzeiger with Ernest as he is known throughout the promoting business in Bonn and beyond. I can safely say that, without Ernest, this page would not be what it is today. Going back to shows at the original Museumsplatz, 3songsbonn has been able to punch above it’s weight thanks to having the chance to capture photos of World Stars like Joe Cocker, Brian Ferry, The Who, BB King, Sting, Katie Melua, Zucchero, Gianna Nannini and many, many more. I can also safely say that without Museumsplatz and Kunstrasen Bonn’s musical footprint would have been much smaller over the last decades. My picture shows ‘Ernest’ next to fellow Kunst!Rasen legend Martin Nötzel from a 2013 Brings Concert – a rare occasion when the pair emerged from ‘behind the scenes’. May they continue to work behind the scenes to bring Bonn (and Cologne) the best in music for many years to come!
The 14th KUNST!RASEN season in Bonn-Gronau now has a new starting date. This week it was announced that Billy Idol has been confirmed for a concert on 29th June. A total of 22 events have so far been confirmed and promoter Ernst-Ludwig Hartz promises that there are still more to come in the Season which currently now runs until 24th August.
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John Harrison’s opener on the day that Folk Club Bonn celebrated it’s 15th anniversary could not have been better chosen to interpret the first half of the evening: Edgar Guest’s poem stating:
“There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done… Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it!”.
As the 154th edition of Folk Club Bonn will also be the Club’s 15th Anniversary (it first premiered in
February 2010) the evening will be run in a different way than usual, rather like how it was
run at the 10th anniversary in February 2020.
John Harrison informs me that “The theme for the evening is “Migration, Celebrations and Delicacies” however, that’s not mandatory. What will be mandatory on Friday though is that all appearances outside of the guests for the evening, will have a maximum two minute slot!
Performers can send an “Email of intent” to the normal Folk Club address: playrequestfolkclubbonn AT gmail DOT com, but the list set out on the evening for all performers to sign upon arrival, will be the only basis for the running order of the evening. Variety will certainly be the spice of life!
As mentioned, in the first half of the evening songs will be timed out at a maximum of two
minutes for each song. There will be two lists for each of the two stages, so this
will allow a smooth transition from one act to the next on both stages – creating what should be seamless performances throughout the evening. IN SHORT – IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PERFORM: Don’t forget to sign yourselves in when you arrive in one of the two lists for performers available at each stage!
The evening’s special guests will be top local Klezmer band Tangoyim, who, instead of doing two spots in each half, will be doing the second half alone in a one hour spot after the break.
7 pm to c.10 pm – Admission Free – but buying CD’s is permitted 😉
Address:
Dotty’s Sports Bar
(Bonner Tennis- und Hockey-Verein – BTHV),
Christian-Miesen-Str. 1,
53129 Bonn-Dottendorf
