The jazz concerts at Rheinisches Landesmuseum organized by Hans-Jürgen von Osterhausen, director of Jazz am Rhein e.V./EURO Jazz 21′, will certainly not help to make the promoter a rich man. On Thursday, November 5, only a handful of people came to the concert-hall at Colmantstrasse to attend the double concerto by Thomas Champagne Trio (B) and Boi Akih (NL), an evening of jazz under the concert series program “EURO Jazz 21′ and the Neighbours”. Despite the poor attendance, both bands played well and received long applause at the end of their sessions.
The event began at 8 pm with a concert by Thomas Champagne Trio. The group, founded in November 2001 by frontman Thomas Champagne, has a full agenda, especially in Belgium, where they visit jazz clubs and cultural centres all over the country (e.g. Buster/Antwerp, Jazz Station/Brussels, l’An Vert/Liège), as well as renowned jazz festivals, such as Jazz à Liège and Gaume Jazz Festival. In 2008 – on occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Belgian jazz label Igloo – the band released its first album, called Charons Boat.
The three Belgian musicians: Thomas Champagne (alto sax), Nicolas Yates (b) and Didier Van Uytvanck (dr) entertained their listeners with a colourful spectrum of hard bop and modal jazz varieties with influences from Dexter Gordon to John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Joe Hendersen and Lee Konitz.
After the intermission the event continued with Boi Akih, a duo composed of Monica Akihary and Niels Brouwers. Monica Akihary, a charming Dutch singer of Moluccan origin, mostly sung in her father’s mother tongue, the language of the small Island of Haruku. With her expressive voice, accompanied by the excellent Dutch guitar player Niels Brouwers, she enchanted the listeners with beautiful mysterious Indian lyrics, influenced by blues, European classical music and music of Arabian Africa.
Next week’s jazz appearances at Rheinisches Landesmuseum:
- Saturday, November 14 at 9 pm: Kattorna (PL/DK) – Interlude: at 7 pm: Time of Komeda, a 1994 documentary film about the polish jazz musician Komeda, followed (8 pm) by a discussion forum regarding German – Polish jazz projects of the last decade.
- Sunday, November 15 at 8 pm: Trio Braam – De Joode – Vatcher (NL)
