2023 was the year of women in music. Nowadays we see female conductors, composers, bandleaders and even a spectacular increase in the number of female violinists. The professional music scene, for many centuries the domain of men, is finally changing. If women played an instrument it used to be a harp, but the conductor’s box […]
Rotterdam
‘Moments Contained’ at Rotterdam Central Station
Visual art works in public spaces can usually count on unvarnished comments in Rotterdam. These periods of habituation never last long, though. And after ten years or so, if you tried to remove the sculpture/mural/structure, you would get into trouble with the locals. Speaking examples of these grown loves are ‘Erasmus’ (the Laurenskerk initially opposed […]
Intense introverted ecstasy
Without announcement, the revamped Tord Gustavsen trio enters the stage of Rotterdam’s packed LantarenVenster theatre. Gustavsen bends deep over the keys of the grand piano and begins a hushed arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Jesus Meine Freude. Drummer Jarle Vespestad and bassist Steinar Ragnes drop in simultaneously. The new bassist who has experience in rock […]
North Sea Jazz 2022
Friday 8 July Philip Lassiter and his tight-playing band open North Sea Jazz 2022 with an overwhelming tribute to trumpeter Roy Hargrove (1969 – 2018), who passed away four years ago. The keyboardist and trumpeter used to lead the horn section of Prince’s New Power Generation. There he got to know the Dutch saxophonist Candy […]
Ebba Åsman zooms out
Rotterdam has become a flourishing centre of improvisation music. Musicians from all over the world meet in this Dutch city, where they stimulate each other in their quest for new musical forms and perspectives. The Swedish trombonist Ebba Åsman moved on the advice of her teacher Ilja Reijngoud to Rotterdam, where she plays a key […]