6th Rockit Festival

The sixth edition of this year’s Rockit Festival, located at Groningen’s SPOT, ended on Saturday night with a rousing, highly entertaining, and crazy set by MonoNeon. The bassist, whose real name is Dywane Thomas Jr. and who is known for his hilariously extravagant costumes, also released a pretty spacy Moog EP earlier this year called “MonoNeon On Synthesizer”, in addition to his “Quilted Stereo” album. His performance, the last one of this year’s Rockit edition, was the perfect ending of an altogether really fascinating festival. At SPOT’s foyer, people who were on the move to leave the building couldn’t help but stop at his intoxicating, funk meets soul meets the Mothership melange.

Starting earlier in the late afternoon, Samora Pinderhughes celebrated the release of his second album “Venus Smiles Not In The House Of Tears”. Helping out getting his very introspective, personal, and intimate music get across to the audience was the North Sea String Quartet, who also played with him at last year’s North Sea Jazz Festival. Once you dive into his music, which at first can seem to be very tense and melancholic, dark and somber, you quickly get immersed in his visions and thoughts, especially with pieces like “Better” (“maybe it’s the master in my brain again that shakes me”), “Inertia”, or “Storm”. His music continues to be deeply vulnerable and honest. No wonder that the New York Times described him as “one of the most effecting singer songwriters today, in any genre”. And genre-defying he certainly is, thank you! The string quartet added this extra little topping to the drama, that extra little sweetness to the beauty where needed.

I changed location and went to the Grote Zaal to see, once again, the magic of Meshell Ndegeocello and their tribute to James Baldwin. And like at this year’s North Sea Jazz Festival, where she was artist in residence, their performance (yes they now call themselves a band, and rightly so) was deeply rooted in dedication to the civil rights activist and author, who was quoted several times during the show. And thanks to the band and Meshell, thoughts like those on hatred seem to be all the more relevant today: “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain”. Singer Justin Hicks deserves much more attention. He’s the real deal. I strongly recommend to listen back to the phenomenal album “No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin”. Drummer and percussionist Abe Rounds was truly very amazing throughout.

As he was with his musical partner Jake Sherman. Together as Jake & Abe, they just released their debut album “Finally!” Currently on tour opening for Meshell Ndegeocello, this was their only headline performance during their European stint. And the mixture of Rhodes and percussion, drums and extremely soulful vocals, and a perfect sound to match, all added up to become the most varied and simply the best show I saw at this year’s Rockit. They both played on the small basement stage which made it incredibly intimate and cozy. They obviously enjoyed the rapport and included some jokes in between songs and with tunes like “Give My Money Back” or “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, there was a lot of variety guaranteed. Meshell and drummer Justin Brown (who played in Ambrose Akinmusire’s band earlier that day), joined the duo for “Curbs”, the still irresistible and highly effective song from “Finally!”. This live version was even more exciting than the recorded one, with really driving bass and super cool and strong percussion. And the moment Jake chimed in on the Rhodes omg! I also pretty much enjoyed “Success” and “Stumbled”, both highlights from their superb album. Abe has played with Joni Mitchell for her Hollywood Bowl “comeback” show in 2023 and so it was only fitting that they’ve included one Joni piece: on “Free Man In Paris” (from her 1974 “Court & Spark” LP), they both again excelled in hard-hitting musicianship. And thank you for signing the vinyl!

I also checked out flutist Shabaka who released his second album “Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace” earlier this year. Playing about half a dozen different flutes, Shabaka was accompanied by the two harpists Alina Bzhezhinska and Miriam Adefris, pianist Elliot Galvin, and Hinako Omori on keys and synths. The motif from that album’s “Insecurities” popped up several times during this hypnotizing set. Harps and flute meshed perfectly, the music was sublime and serene. There was a lot of grace and humility in the room. A truly standout performance. Really dig the sound of the shakuhachi bamboo flute.

LA trio Catpack were on the menu, too. Consisting of singer and flutist Amber Navran (from Moonchild), keyboardist Jacob Mann, and singer, trumpeter and guitarist Phil Beaudreau, the trio played songs from their debut LP which came out last June. The very organic, neo-soul meets jazz and beyond sound of the group actually is something which does not fall into any category either. Phil wrote and produced most of the songs on Lalah Hathaway’s latest album and just received two Grammy nominations for it. And the vibes were alive and groovy with pieces like “Walk Away” or “Yep”, the latter of which just received remix treatment from DJ Harrison. And I also want to mention that trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire was performing with a new band which inlcuded singer Kokayi and the Mivos Quartet on strings. Alas, I could only stay for one extended tune at the beginning of the set so I hope to deliver some more on them at a later date. Anyway, check your calendar for the second Saturday in November, 2025. It has only been my second visit to this festival but it is absolutely worth the trip!