CastemelijnFri 13 Feb – Worldwide Live feat. Gilles Peterson & more
Leuven, last Friday Night. Gilles Peterson organised a party in Depot, inviting three of my favorite artists: Lefto, Nicola Conte and Jazzanova. This would become the best party for this year for sure!
As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, Gilles Peterson is a radio producer, the owner of the music label Brownswood Records, and a well known DJ. Nicola Conte is a young jazz artist from Italy. Lefto is a Belgian hip-hop DJ who has his own radio show called The Hop. And Jazzanova… Well, who doesn’t know Jazzanova? They are a band from Berlin, well known for their wide variety of mixes in very different genres.
Last year, I saw Gilles Peterson and Lefto at a party in Ghent. That party was the best one in that year, so I had high expectations for this party.
The party started at 8 PM, which was quite early. Lefto was heating up the place when we entered. We were with a crew of 6 people, including me. Most of them didn’t know any artist playing that night, others (like me) thought that this line-up was a gift from God, or something like that… Anywho, the crew was awesome, really nice people (some of them I met that night, others I knew for years).
After an hour, Gilles took over the turntables, and he immediately reminded me of his last party in Ghent. He started to talk with the audience, asked if he had to speak in English or French, and just made everybody feel at home. He threw in some beautiful South-American salsa and samba in, which made everybody move in no time. In the back, we saw that Nicola Conte arrived, and after a small hour, his band was ready to start.
I did some research about Nicola in the months before this party. I got his last CD called Rituals, and listened from beginning to end and back a dozen of times. It was exactly that CD that he promoted that evening. He brought a wonderful band with him, consisting of piano, contrabass, drums, tenor sax, alt sax a beautiful singer called Harcsa Veronika and of course himself. The concert was fantastic. It had been a while since I listened to a good jazz concert, but this one made me remember why I love jazz that much. The singer was also a true discovery. Not only was she really pretty, she also had a divine voice. The only bad thing about the concert, was the audience. It was clear that most of the audience didn’t come for Nicola Conte. There was a lot of noise during the concert, so much Nicola even asked to be a bit more silent. The thing that really annoyed me, were the few Italians that attended the concert. While Conte was telling about his music during the pauses in between the songs, they were shouting Nicola was the only one and such. But as soon as he and his band started playing, they started talking, at a fairly high volume. I mean, for God sake, show some respect! But apart from that, it was an awesome concert.
After Conte, Gilles took over the tables again, and provided us with more southern beats. The party became better and better. Gilles clearly had a good time, looking at his dances and big smile on his face. That is what I love so much about him. He doesn’t look to music as it being his job, but as his passion, his big love. He enjoys working with music so much, it has become it’s habitat, his place to be.
A few hours later, my musical God came on stage: Alexander Barck from Jazzanova. He took over the turntables and from than on, the party really started. Alexander mixed the best house, techno and minimal music with Jazzanova’s remixes and samples. I danced the whole time, and I really don’t know which power kept me on the dancefloor (no, I didn’t drink nor take drugs) but it was there, and it was awesome. For me, it was a brilliant introduction to the DJ-sets of Jazzanova.
Lefto took back over, and after an small hour we left, full of happy thoughts.
The whole weekend, I was is some kind of higher place. Ok, I was tired, but still I kept thinking about that night, how good it was, how awesome the music was, how cool it was to see three of my favorite artists together, how much respect they showed to each other. A truly awesome night I’ll never forget.
Leuven, last Friday Night. Gilles Peterson organised a party in Depot, inviting three of my favorite artists: Lefto, Nicola Conte and Jazzanova. This would become the best party for this year for sure!
As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, Gilles Peterson is a radio producer, the owner of the music label Brownswood Records, and a well known DJ. Nicola Conte is a young jazz artist from Italy. Lefto is a Belgian hip-hop DJ who has his own radio show called The Hop. And Jazzanova… Well, who doesn’t know Jazzanova? They are a band from Berlin, well known for their wide variety of mixes in very different genres.
Last year, I saw Gilles Peterson and Lefto at a party in Ghent. That party was the best one in that year, so I had high expectations for this party.
The party started at 8 PM, which was quite early. Lefto was heating up the place when we entered. We were with a crew of 6 people, including me. Most of them didn’t know any artist playing that night, others (like me) thought that this line-up was a gift from God, or something like that… Anywho, the crew was awesome, really nice people (some of them I met that night, others I knew for years).
After an hour, Gilles took over the turntables, and he immediately reminded me of his last party in Ghent. He started to talk with the audience, asked if he had to speak in English or French, and just made everybody feel at home. He threw in some beautiful South-American salsa and samba in, which made everybody move in no time. In the back, we saw that Nicola Conte arrived, and after a small hour, his band was ready to start.
I did some research about Nicola in the months before this party. I got his last CD called Rituals, and listened from beginning to end and back a dozen of times. It was exactly that CD that he promoted that evening. He brought a wonderful band with him, consisting of piano, contrabass, drums, tenor sax, alt sax a beautiful singer called Harcsa Veronika and of course himself. The concert was fantastic. It had been a while since I listened to a good jazz concert, but this one made me remember why I love jazz that much. The singer was also a true discovery. Not only was she really pretty, she also had a divine voice. The only bad thing about the concert, was the audience. It was clear that most of the audience didn’t come for Nicola Conte. There was a lot of noise during the concert, so much Nicola even asked to be a bit more silent. The thing that really annoyed me, were the few Italians that attended the concert. While Conte was telling about his music during the pauses in between the songs, they were shouting Nicola was the only one and such. But as soon as he and his band started playing, they started talking, at a fairly high volume. I mean, for God sake, show some respect! But apart from that, it was an awesome concert.
After Conte, Gilles took over the tables again, and provided us with more southern beats. The party became better and better. Gilles clearly had a good time, looking at his dances and big smile on his face. That is what I love so much about him. He doesn’t look to music as it being his job, but as his passion, his big love. He enjoys working with music so much, it has become it’s habitat, his place to be.
A few hours later, my musical God came on stage: Alexander Barck from Jazzanova. He took over the turntables and from than on, the party really started. Alexander mixed the best house, techno and minimal music with Jazzanova’s remixes and samples. I danced the whole time, and I really don’t know which power kept me on the dancefloor (no, I didn’t drink nor take drugs) but it was there, and it was awesome. For me, it was a brilliant introduction to the DJ-sets of Jazzanova.
Lefto took back over, and after an small hour we left, full of happy thoughts.
The whole weekend, I was is some kind of higher place. Ok, I was tired, but still I kept thinking about that night, how good it was, how awesome the music was, how cool it was to see three of my favorite artists together, how much respect they showed to each other. A truly awesome night I’ll never forget.
