It's the end of a very good musical year where I got to know new bands, new music and saw a lot of amazing shows. For what it's worth, here is my top 10 album list for this year. End this decade in style, all the best for 2020 and stay safe.
Of course we went to see Dutch rock band De Dijk this year again. Although it has been over two weeks ago and I don't have anything to add after seeing them play numerous times, I don't want to skip this event. So here are some of the pictures I took of this amazing band!
Jazz quartet BRUUT! play their jazz music with a rock attitude and indeed many songs are swinging and rocking. The foursome always wanted to record and play with one of the best guitarists in The Netherlands, Anton Goudsmit. Now they got their chance and recorded a jazz surf LP with him, appropriately titled Go Surfing and are playing around the clubs.
I've seen BRUUT! play several times and really like their exciting music a lot. I've also seen Anton Goudsmit play before and his guitar skills are amazing. On stage he's a delight to watch and I can't wait to see him in this formation tonight. A blue neon sign depicting three waves at the back leaves no doubt that tonight is all about surf music. Jazz and surf music sounds like a match made in heaven. Tonight these guys prove it definitely is.
No better man than Goudsmit to let his guitar go under water. Of course we know he can play some mean surf guitar and he's totally in his element. I love his facial expressions when he's playing and his happy head. He makes music look like so much fun, which it is of course. His style is very contagious while his fingers sometimes pick the strings at lightning speed. The other members are clearly enjoying his company as they are throwing smiles around all the time.
The quartet themselves are a great band which shows once more. Fronted by sax player Maarten Hogenhuis, these musicians know how to have fun too. They play the songs with a lot of energy and definitely got their groove on. There are some typical BRUUT! songs on the setlist, which have been rearranged to include guitar and a lot of surf ingredients. A song like 'Baha' lends itself perfectly for this treatment.
Not only their own songs but some jazz standards got reworked as well like Charles Mingus' 'Boogie Stop Shuffle'. Even some popular songs got the jazz surf (or surf jazz?) treatment and are almost unrecognisable. We can hear Dolly Parton's 'Jolene' with some Ennio Morricone added to it. There is James Brown's 'Choo Choo Locomotion' and then there are some surf classics that maybe never sounded better. Brian Wilson's 'Surfer Girl' and Dick Dale's 'King of the Surf Guitar' are absolute classics.
The band throws in some extras that are not on the album: the 'Hawaii Five-O' theme and Dick Dale's legendary 'Misirlou', made even more famous by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. BRUUT! and Goudsmit's music on this LP could easily be the soundtrack to one of his movies. It is definitely a swinging and fun album, that sounds even better live. The quintet throws in some beach balls at the end and the surf party is complete. Now if only we could have surf weather. Surf's up!
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