Friday @ NN North Sea Jazz 2025

So here we are again at this monster festival. This is the 49th edition of North Sea Jazz, with more than 150 acts on 13 stages and around 70.000 annual visitors. I started out with Jamila Woods, a singer, songwriter and poet from Chicago whose album “Water Made Us” (2023) made some noise when it was released. Really liked her set but missed the backing vocals but she still managed to get her message across to the audience. Will get back listening to her album soon

Jordan Rakei was next on the agenda. We’re big, big fans of him ever since he came out with his debut album “Cloak” in 2016 (wait what? almost ten years now!). The New Zealand-born singer who now lives in London, played a highly entertaining and satisfying set with music from his five-paw reviewed album “The Loop“, which came out last year. Tracks like “Freedom”, “Friend Or Foe”, “Trust”, “Royal”, or “State Of Mind”, which still resonate on record, were concert highlights with Jordan rotating between a piano, Rhodes, and guitar, sometimes focusing on vocals only. His tight band was focused throughout the set which included a lot of jazz elements, especially from guitarist Imraan Paleker. He also included some older stuff, like a few songs from his brilliant “Origin” LP (2019). It’s fascinating to hear (and see) how pieces like “Mind’s Eye”, “Mad World” or “Wildfire” still matter today. The songs didn’t age a bit. Also, there was “Sorceress” from his 2017 “Wallflower” album which also received five paws from Gina. His voice has this wonderful range with a lot of subtleties and nuances which is a rare feat and which makes you want to listen to it forever.

From a 33-year old musician to an 85-year old master: Herbie Hancock played at the totally packed Amazon hall which was completely full up to the rafters. I was there early enough to catch a seat in the front rows. You have to see it to believe it but he seems to show no sign of aging. He started out with one of my favorite Herbie tunes: on “Butterfly”, he switched between his Fazioli piano and a Korg keyboard – the tune at a very slightly slower tempo than the original, came with a rather cool arrangement. As did all the classics this supergroup played last night. With guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist James Genus, drummer Jaylen Petinaud (never saw him before; he’s a monster), and trumpeter extraordinaire Terence Blanchard, I knew that we were in for a real treat. Experimenting with loops and layers, all of them were given enough space to shine on their respective solos. The group continued with the badass fusion stunner “Actual Proof”, which Herbie originally recorded with the Headhunters. His clavinet sounds were outstanding. It was a thrill to see him working all these little fills into his songs. Sometimes just a few bars, sometimes elongated phrases. There was also magic in the air with a supercool, soulful Terence arrangement of “Footprints”, the Wayne Shorter classic.

Another crazy arrangement came from Lionel. He segued from “Hang Up Your Hangups” to “Rockit” to “Spider” and back, as we witnessed a pretty playful and, at the same time, really focused and spiritual band with so many little twists and turns that your head began to spin around in circles and squares. Another great moment was Herbie’s preaching through the vocoder and of course, his amazingly vital and captivating playing on his keytar where he jumped around on stage like a 20-something trading fours and more with Lionel. What an honor to witness this legend.

I checked out the brothers Dana & Alden McWayne. I really like their albums “Quiet Music For Young People” (2023) and “Coyote, You’re My Star” (2024) as well as their latest “Speedo” which just came out a couple of weeks ago. They have somehow found their niche with their sometimes, quirky, always fancy songs with Dana on tenor sax and Alden on drums being accompanied by alto sax and flute, keys and vocals, guitar and bass. It was their first time in the Netherlands and with Ebba Dankel on keys and vocals, there was this one tiny little ditty which sometimes didn’t work out well. Her Rhodes playing was great, but sometimes her voice cracked or didn’t really support the overall vibe and mood of the songs. But anyway, this was another set worth the trip and don’t forget to check them out on their European tour (they play Berlin on July 25th). I also caught a few moments of the Ezra Collective with the great Joe Armon-Jones on keyboards. He’s playing solo with his own group later this year. Make sure to check him out as well.

I missed guitarist Julian Lage earlier that day (I missed dozens more of course, but that’s the nature of the festival). He was playing with his new trio with the brilliant Jorge Roeder on bass and the almost legendary Joey Baron on drums. So I went to see the interview he was giving with Ashley Kahn. There is this stage in the main hall where all the food and merch booths are where you can witness some of the artists up close in conversation with the opportunity to also ask questions of course. And it was interesting to hear how he got started and how he was so involved and included in Gary Burtons band while he was still a teenager before he started out on his own. He also recorded a new album for Blue Note recently. More to come!