Jorrit Dijkstra Chicago Project

[Upright Bill]

May 21, 7:30 pm at Schuler's on 28th Street in Grand Rapids. This is one of only five U.S. stops for this tour.

Anybody else going?

Chuck, would you like to ride along with me?

Check him out at Jorrit Dijkstra

Song samples at Song Samples

[Chuck Nessa]

Sounds interesting. I'll be in touch.

[Upright Bill]

I heard the greatest wah-wah pedal solo of my life Friday night! It was attached to a cello playing arco!

[Chuck Nessa]

Yup, that was Fred Lonberg-Holm on the cello.

Thanks for the ride Bill.

[Larry Kart]

Barring a deluge, I plan to catch the band in Chicago tonight.

[Upright Bill]

Yup, that was Fred Lonberg-Holm on the cello.

Thanks for the ride Bill.

You are welcome any time, Chuck.

Kent Kessler is a very cool person as well. He invited me to visit him in Chicago to check out jazz clubs and swap bass stories.

I was fascinated by the way people chose to leave. Old couples crouched and crept out between songs, little kids with their hands over their ears hot-footing to the door.

I was also proud of my wife, she sat and listened to every song and after even commented on liking all of one and parts of a couple others.

[Upright Bill]

Barring a deluge, I plan to catch the band in Chicago tonight.

If they are as good tonight was they were Friday you are in for a good time.

[Larry Kart]

FWIW, I wasn't knocked out. Here's an email I sent today to someone I'd urged to go but who couldn't make it:

"Actually, you were in luck. The brief opening set (with Jeb Bishop, Thomas Maier [contrabass sax), Peter Schmid [bass clarinet and e flat clarinet), Fred Lomborg-Holm, Kent Kessler, and Tim Mulveena) was quite good, with Bishop in a very relaxed and creative frame of mind, but the featured group -- led by Jorrit Djikstra and with most of the same players (James Falzone in, Maier and Schmid out) -- was not very successful I thought. I like Djikstra's playing on alto all right, but he used a lyricon (yuck!) on two pieces out of four before I left (would have stayed till the end, but I had to get up at 6:30 a.m.), and his writing was full of what someone once called "twiddly bits" -- the kind of thing Miles Davis probably was referring to when he said of an Andre Hodier piece that it was 'like a bad modern painting.'"

Schmid and Maier (sp?) are Swiss. The opening set BTW was "free," in the good sense.

[couw]

Larry, it's DIJkstra, not DJIkstra, common mistake. Pronounced: Dike-strah.

And Jorrit with a soft J like Yoghurt and a short O, Yohrit