Sunday @ NN North Sea Jazz 2025
For the final day of this year’s festival, I was in for a few surprises. After a beer with my friend and colleague Serge, I went to see South London based singer Odeal who was born in Germany and raised in Spain, the UK, and Nigeria. And this nomadic life probably has more than an inch of an influence on his music. He can be a smooth r&b crooner, but also includes some alternative Nigerian style beats and pieces in his music. Songs like “Hold You Down” or “Patience” came across very well. He even went back to his 2018 EP “Pragma”. The only thing which was a bit distracting was the fact that all backing vocals were programmed which sometimes simply got in the way of his vocal performance.
After that I briefly checked out Montreal born singer Dominique Fils-Aimé for about three songs of her set at the Murray Hall. The singer, who has opened for Melody Gardot or Diana Krall in the past, has this loose and open-minded quality in her voice and her lyrics. It’s almost as if she’s walking on soft clouds, soaking you in to her world. Impressive and haunting. Equally impressive, but in a totally different way, was Dora Morelenbaum. The singer from Rio de Janeiro released her debut LP “Pique” last year and she included most of her songs in her set at the open-air Mississippi stage. But she also played songs from the repertoire of her group Bala Desejo. Her own album, produced by Ana Franga Elétrico, was prominently featured with popular, both vulnerable and electrifying songs such as “Não Vou Te Esquecer” or “Nem Te Procurar”. Her solid band from Rio included Guilherme Lirio who played guitar and keys, Guto Wirti on bass, and Daniel Conceição on drums. It was a very breezy and free-flowing performance which simply made a lot of fun.
Singer Christie Dashiell, who is also part of Terri Lyne Carrington’s group which played their haunting, yet hopeful “We Insist!2025” show yesterday, played with her own group at the packed Missouri hall. One of the things that is pretty impressive is how very unobtrusive her silky smooth voice is. There are no gimmicks, there are no vocal acrobatics, there is no “look what I can do with my voice” attitude. And yet, she can soar up to the skies seemingly effortless. She can phrase the words “in your arms” a million different times; it’s like she’s creating a new song with each phrase. She is able to heal and calm you down with just one word. It’s a little wonder. And her original songs are compelling as they can get. Beautifully poignant and with a ton full of heart and soul on “How It Ends” and “The Things You Do”. Fighting for peace and justice on the seething “Brother Sister”, all from her Grammy-nominated 2023 album “Journey In Black”. She was accompanied by a stellar rhythm featuring Carl-Henri Morisset on piano and keys, the great Reggie Washington on bass, and Amsterdam’s own Yoran Vroom on drums. Christie also included a couple of tracks from her 2016 album “Time All Mine”: I’m the biggest Stevie Wonder fan since age 12, but there is only one song in his vast repertoire which I never liked. Christie is able to tackle “I Just Called To Say I Love You” with such a fresh spin. Thank you for opening these ears a bit wider. And yes, I do think that she wrote a future standard with “Thinking Of You”. A festival highlight!
Singer and harpist Sophye Soliveau was next on the agenda. Her electrifying performance was astounding. Backed only by bass and drums (no backing vocals, no flute or bass clarinet as billed in the lineup), her performance was incredibly versatile, full of thick jazz jams and funky beats, adorably vigorous and with the combination of vocals and harp, intensely idiosyncratic. Playing music from her debut album “Initiation”, which came out last year, she was able to touch the harp in a smooth and tender way, but also bringing it almost to an explosion on one of the solo pieces. Putting the harp on another level. And yes, I also checked out Queen Diana Ross (her voice miraculously strongly unimpaired) who was playing some of her hits at Nile which was completely full so I watched some of her show on the TV screen in the press room. Speaking of press room: let me send a big shout-out to the people behind the scenes: the sweet and lovely Majsa and Jasminka who took care of everything press-related;
the wonderful Sven who made sure that there was always enough beer around;
the smart and dapper Ersan in charge of security.
Special thanks also to the crew at the Social Hub. The vibe there and the music they’re playing makes working there so very easy. See you next year, July 10-12th, 2026.
