Saturday @ NN North Sea Jazz 2025
One of the highlights of this year’s festival so far was the performance of South African pianist Nduduzu Makhathini and his trio who played at the Madeira hall on Saturday afternoon. Together with bassist Dalisu Ndlazi and Cuban drummer Lukmil Pérez Herrera, this 75-minute set was deeply spiritual, soulful, and full of sweet surprises. Mostly playing music from his Blue Note album “Unomkhubulwane” which came out last year, Nduduzu captured the audience from the start. He can be both ultra soft and tender, but also manages to come up with sudden outbursts where necessary, never losing momentum, always in there to keep things flowing, returning to the original melody and idea and spirit of the song. You can’t help but be enamored by his imaginative playing which displays such wholesomeness which has become pretty rare these days. And it is only fitting that he took the stage to explain this wholesomeness, this spiritual and ritual kind of music and its origins and meanings by way of a short recital which only added up to the fact that here is an artist who preaches peace of mind through his transcendental music. It abounds so much beauty that goes directly into your soul.
Adding some more flourish and flavors was tenor saxophonist Mark Turner who accompanied the trio on a few songs. And even though he has come up with a couple of wonderful albums on ECM and started out on Warner Bros in the late 90s, I think he is still pretty underrated. His playing was genuine, easily and poignantly adding the right textures in this context. What a great start to a long Saturday night.
After a brief visit to the show of Seu Jorge where he was just offering his version of “The Girl From Ipanema” (probably not the best moment to catch his show ;-), I went to see another highly spiritual set: drummer Terri Lyne Carrington has just released her 2025 version of the 60s classic “We Insist! The Freedom Now Suite” by Max Roach which was his take on the civil rights movement, a pivotal album with vocals by Abbey Lincoln and lyrics by Oscar Brown, Jr. And the fact that the idea behind that original album is still relevant today, as proclaimed by Terri and her excellent band, is both a revelation and a bit of a shock because yes, there still is discrimination surrounding our everyday lives, pointed out by a recitation of a poem by Terri which was displayed by singer Christie Dashiell and dancer Christiana Hunte and thus, reminding us of how important and groundbreaking the original work was when it came out back in 1961. I was really impressed by singer Christie Dashiell (who plays her own set later today) because of her exceptional voice which at times reminded me of Dianne Reeves in phrasing and colorization. Both crisp and clear, her performance was outstanding. Milena Casado on trumpet once again amazed me with her signature sound and tone, even in the shorter parts where she only added a shriek here or a dazzling phrase there. And Morgan Guerin (all of them label partners with Candid Records) on bass and flute, together with Matthew Stevens on guitar, rounded out this superb performance. And Terri behind the drums? I don’t say nothing new here but she is simply the consummate artist, not only on the drums, but as a whole with coming up with this new spin on this particular context.
Time to move on to Maxwell who was scheduled to play at the festival’s biggest hall called Nile. He played North Sea Jazz back in 1996 (when it was still in The Hague) when his debut album “Urban Hang Suite” came out. And after a rousing entrance, he moved right into that album and played several songs from it, like the crowd pleaser “Sumthin’ Sumthin'”, the sweet ballad “Whenever Wherever Whatever” and the funky “Dancewitme”. For the first half of the show, it seemed like he was playing some sort of medley of some of his songs from his five albums he released up to this day. I really liked his version of “Bad Habits”; the two background vocalists adding some cool layers to it. He also included “Lake By The Ocean” which he crooned breezily and with just about the right amount of effervescence and strength. At times, it seemed that he was overwhelmed by the incredibly supporting crowd, thanking the people over and over again for coming out to see his show. I didn’t really get all the videography which was shown on stage, but there you go. There was a part in the show where he slowed down for a few of his signature r&b ballads, like “For Lovers Only”. And the hits kept on coming: I was more than happy that he included “Cococure” from my favorite album “Embrya” from 1998. And he closed with going back to his debut: “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)” started out as a jam before the thick bass line came in. After almost 30 years, this song still does it for me.
It was almost midnight when much sought after guitarist Mary Halvorson took to the stage: she had to be rescheduled because of a delayed flight from Portugal. Her Amaryllis project entered a new phase when her LP “About Ghosts” came out about a month ago. Most of her band members from that album were on stage last night: vibraphonist Patricia Brennon, Nick Dunston on bass, Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Jacob Garchick on trombone and Adam O’Farrill on trumpet. The overall vibe from that album, the openness with modern creative spins, Mary’s playing around with loops and the collaborative way of diving into the unknown was a vigorous and much needed contrast to what was going on before. We’re ready for round 3 now.
