Jasper Steverlinck - Try-Out Tour

I am a huge fan of Jasper Steverlinck, and most specifically, his voice.  He is an extremely talented songwriter and
musician, but it is his incredible singing that I admire the most.  It's hard to put into words, but hearing him sing always lifts me up somehow.  My husband feels the same way and we've been to see his group, Arid, twice live, and have most of their albums.

So when I saw Jasper was going to be doing a "Try-Out" tour at small venues we were both excited and got tickets right away.  The closest location for us was a small club we had never been to out in the middle of nowhere.

We got there and we surprised to see how small and intimate the venue was - a dark basement-level club no bigger than my own living room, with a small stage set up at the front and a bar at the back.  We grabbed some bar stools and got a spot about 5 feet from the stage.

The only downside to the entire evening was that it took a long time before the concert actually began.  Not being savvy about how small clubs operate, we got there not long after the doors opened (8 pm) and were finally put out of our misery when Jasper finally came out a bit after 10.  The lady next to us had been stressing and looking at her watch for the past two hours, because she was worried about being home too late for her babysitter, but when Jasper began to sing, all was forgiven.

He sang new songs from his upcoming solo album, but also a lot more of the old Arid favorites than I had dared to expect, and most of them with an "unplugged" pared-down arrangement; after all, the only accompaniment was himself on guitar and his excellent pianist Valentijn Elsen.  Several of the new songs sounded great, but it was of course wonderful to hear some songs I really love; I was especially happy to hear "You Are".

What an amazing experience to hear all of this so up-close and in such an intimate setting.  I don't think there were more than 60 people in the room, and Jasper kept us mesmerized for two hours.  Not an easy task with people drinking and chatting at the bar at the back of the room, but he did it.  His stage presence and warm personality as well as lots of eye contact with the audience made everything seem effortless.  I was so captivated I didn't even notice the lady next to me slipping out at some point to relieve her babysitter; it was only at the end I realized there was someone else in her seat.  Wow.

I can't wait til the new album comes out and then hopefully a full tour to support it; we'll definitely go.  But somehow I can't help but thinking that nothing will ever quite compare to the unique evening in Glabbeek last Saturday night.  Thanks, Jasper.

La Bohème

This was a special evening - my friend Catherine loves opera but had never been to a live performance, so it was a big first for her. This production, by the Dutch organization Stichting Internationale Opera Producties, with Italian singers and the choir, ballet and state opera of Plovdiv (Bulgaria) turned out to be very enjoyable.  In spite of the main story line being tragic (poor aspiring writer Rodolfo and seamstress Mimi meet and fall in love, but Mimi contracts tuberculosis, and dies in his arms in the final scene), the producers put the accent on the more light-hearted and comedic aspects, including some slightly creepy clowns, shown in the clip below:

 

Jef Neve Invites (Leuven Jazz Festival)

Jef Neve

 For the second year now, we're lucky enough to have a proper jazz festival right here in town, and as soon as I heard what the opening concert was going to be this year, I got online and bought three tickets (second row and right in the middle).  I'm glad I was quick about it, as the entire theater was filled to the rafters for the incredible and amazingly talented Jef Neve and the four artists he had invited for the evening.


My two oldest boys came with me.  I had seen Jef perform here in Leuven three other times and my middle son had been with me for one of them, and he was excited to see him again.  My oldest had never been, and I was excited for him.  Jef is not only an incredibly talented pianist and composer but quite simply a wonderful entertainer.  I love the
rapport he creates with the audience, his tapping feet, joyous smile and twinkling eyes that show how much he enjoys what he is doing.  Seeing him perform always makes me happy.


As it turns out, it was a new experience for all of us, because of the other musicians Jef chose to play with him: bassist Ruben Samama from the Netherlands (who also plays bass in his trio), saxophonist Mr Saxman Koh from Thailand, accordeonist Richard Galliano from France, and percussionist Dre Pallemaerts from Belgium.

Mr. "Saxman" Koh

The concert started with each artist performing a solo, and then ended with the five performing pieces composed by Jef, Galliano and Koh as an ensemble.  It was fun to see them get in the groove together - they were all obviously having a great time, and it was a very special night for Koh: his first ever performance in Belgium, with the Ambassador of Thailand in attendance.

Ruben Samama

Of all the solo pieces I was blown away by the performance by Ruben Samama.  With his bass, some small percussion instruments, his voice and a sampler recorder, he created an otherworldly and completely mesmerizing atmosphere.  I can't really describe it but I loved it.



I found this video where he explains a piece he wrote for the Jef Neve Trio and it kind of gives a feel for what I mean about his solo; the whole idea of being blown away by what is happening with the music in the moment.  That is exactly how it felt.  Wow.

Rosas - Partita 2

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I don't have very much exposure to modern dance.  But I know enough about the dance scene in Belgium to be aware of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and her impact on modern

dance, not only here in Belgium, but internationally.  De Keersmaeker is a world renowned dancer and choreographer and the woman around whom the Rosas dance company is centered.  And when I saw that she would be performing herself in this Rosas production in Leuven, I convinced Linda that we should include tickets to this in our annual culture subscription.

I am very glad I had already seen a Rosas production (see my post on Vortex Temporum below) because I already had a little bit of an idea of what to expect.  The performance began in pitch black with violinist George Alexander Van Dam playing Bach's Partita 2.  Then, the lights came back on to a bare stage and two dancers, De Keersmaeker and Boris Charmatz, who danced the entire choreography in silence, except for the occasional squeak of their gym shoes on the floor and a few unintelligible vocalizations.  Finally, Van Dam rejoined them, and the two pieces were joined together: the music and the dance.

I really enjoyed it.  I especially loved the choreography pictured (right) where one of the dancers was lying on the ground but following the footsteps of the other dancer as if he/she were the other person's shadow.  There was a beautiful movement they made to exchange places by grasping hands and letting the weight of the one person pull the other up.  You can get a bit of a feel for it, as well as hear an excerpt of the music, in this video:

As in the performance of Vortex Temporum, I enjoyed the running and jumping movements, the simple, athletic costumes and the bright gym shoes they wore.  But most of all, I loved the interface with the music, the interaction with the musician, and the way watching the movements on stage took me to a completely different planet for an hour.

I Muvrini

I went with Linda and her husband Luc to see I Muvrini last night in Hasselt. Linda and Luc are big fans and seemingly everyone else in Hasselt because the group got three standing ovations and everyone was singing along to the songs!  I Muvrini is a Corsican folk group who sing most of their songs in the traditional Corsican language, Corsu.  Wiki has this about Corsu:

 Corsican (corsu or lingua corsa) is an Italo-Dalmatian Romance language spoken and written on the islands of Corsica (France) and northern Sardinia (Italy). Corsican was long the vernacular language alongside Italian, official language in Corsica until 1859: afterwards Italian was replaced by French, owing to the acquisition of the island by France from Genoa in 1768. Over the next two centuries, the use of French grew to the extent that, by the Liberation in 1945, all islanders had a working knowledge of French. The twentieth century saw a wholesale language shift, with islanders changing their language practices to the extent that there were no monolingual Corsican speakers left by the 1960s. By 1990, an estimated 50% of islanders had some degree of proficiency in Corsican, and a small minority, perhaps 10%, used Corsican as a first language.

 

Very interesting - and I can see why people in Flanders are so enthusiastic about this group because they share a common bond through being/having been a minority language.

I Muvrini is also very socially and environmentally active, supporting through their songs and activism projects in nonviolence, ecology, and minority culture and language preservation, not just in Corsica but all over the world.  This adds an extra dimension to the concert as many of their lyrics are translated and projected on the screen behind the musicians so you can really understand the causes they support.

Many of the songs were lovely and the singing was impressive, but on the whole it was a bit too "Enya" for me to become a huge fan like so many of the people around me.  However, I'm very glad I went and I really enjoyed seeing all the enthusiasm!

Wim Helsen - Spijtig, spijtig, spijtig

Went with my youngest son to see this show by one of our favorite Flemish comedians, Wim Helsen, master in absurd comedy with a twist of melancholy.  And just about the only person I know who can fill an entire 90 minute show with a story about standing in line waiting to pee in the bathroom of a bar.  I love the way he takes us into his own universe, how he gets sidetracked but always, always comes back to the very human situation of feeling awkward and misunderstood, and the hilarious ways he (or rather the character he plays) tries to compensate for it, some of his ways more recognizable to the rest of us than others.  Respect!  And I have always loved his voice and cheeky smile, from back in the day when he was on Man Bijt Hond with "Vrienden van de poezie" (see video below).  It was a real treat to see him live for the first time, and going by how much my son was cracking up in the seat next to me, I wasn't the only one who felt this way.  Awesome evening out!

Michiel Coxcie - De vergeten Vlaamse Rafael (M Museum Leuven)

Self portrait as St. George

I had a free ticket for this temporary expo in our local art museum.  Even though I don't have much art history baggage, I have always loved learning more about it and a special expo is a good opportunity.

In this case the artist was one of the most influential Flemish painters of the 16th century but is virtually unknown today.  He was one of the first artists from northern Europe to go to Italy and absorb the art of the ancients and the Italian high renaissance, including Michelangelo, with whom he worked, and later bring these influences back to the Low Countries.

One of the works that impressed me the most was this self portrait.  Coxcie was strong defender of Catholicism in times of religious upheaval, and I think this comes through strongly in the way he portrayed himself.

Coxcie died at the age of 93, from a fall while restoring one of his own paintings in Antwerp.

Here is some more info from Wikipedia.