earport Amsterdam, 2009

I'd planned a short week-end in Amsterdam, and on the Thursday evening googled for some live music while I was in town. I stumbled upon earport, billed as a post fusion symphony , created by Paul Oomen. Fusion it was, but not like I'm used to in Essaouira. This was altogether more refined, more planned, but just as joyous and just as fulfilling. I recorded the whole evening - some four hours or so of music - from the balcony of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. My thanks to Maartje from earport, for making it all happen.

I don't have time to list all of the musicians now, but I will be posting lots of the music, and will have a mp3 player available here pretty soon.

Here's a piece written and played by Jan Wouter Oostenrijk with his Maghreb Jazz formation. It's called Feel cha' aby (Track 2),named after the Moroccan chaaby rhythm, according to JWO.



I'm in the process of building an mp3 player, but it will take a little while to get everything posted.



Artist details
Track 1a - Diego Nicolas group

www.marcosbaggiani.blogspot.com
www.celanobaggianigroup.com
www.themeetingpoint-impro.com
Fra Fra Sound on MySpace

In England, one tends to think of the recorder as a child's instrument, so, be prepared to be disabused of any such preconceptions, when you listen to Raphaela Danksagmuller playing with Jalliya Ensemble and them with Nello Mirando and co. Not on the palylist yet, but will be there soon. In the meantime, take a listen to her on her MySpace profile

Eboman - the human mixer / splicer - maybe not how he would describe himself. I'll be adding one of his pieces to the mp3 player, but you really need to watch him in action to get the whole picture. So, take a look at some of his videos on his MySpace profile: Eboman at MySpace

Who would have thought it. DaftNotStupid is an old romantic. Something about the group that closed earport on Saturday afternoon really got to me. If you've listened to any music that I've recorded and talked about, you wouldn't have thought that this was my style at all. Anyway, take a listen to the final track on the mp3 player and see what you think. Amsterdamse Zeedijkkoor - the Amsterdam Zeedijk Choir - put on a great show - visually and aurally.

I've been going to Amsterdam, off and on, for nearly 40 years now, since my early days as a Dam-slaper, so maybe I'm starting to think like a native. Zeedijk is just around the corner (or across the gracht) from the Dam, so maybe that's got something to do with it. Whatever, take a listen and enjoy. Learn more about this well-hatted choral group on their web-site.

More info at earportamsterdam.nl, myspace.com/earportamsterdam, myspace.com/janwouteroostenrijk

All music copyright of earport and / or its owners.

Musicians and composers will be credited. Write to john@daftnotstupid.com