What’s going on soon in key continental spots.
Shalosh BIMHUIS, AMSTERDAM 9 April
Touring What We Are Made Of.
Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, Bill Stewart BIX, STUTTGART 10 April
Tcha Limberger, TOOTS, BRUSSELS 11 April
Back in 2019 I watched a remarkable film directed by Dolma’s Daughters film maker Ádám Miklós and written by the then London based Hungarian Yvonne Bauer. It was called A Magyar Nóta: Belga Mestere literally “Belgian Master of Hungarian Song” and was a truly remarkable and quite moving insight about the music and life of the extraordinary violinist Tcha Limberger, a blind violin virtuoso from Belgium who discovers traditional Hungarian music and moves to Hungary to master it.
Limberger fell in love with the long forgotten Hungarian nóta style and made it his mission to introduce it to the world. The film makers ask the questions why does he want to learn a music genre that has almost been forgotten by Hungarians; and why does he leave the security of his Belgian home to live in a Transylvanian village?
Shot in Hungary, Transylvania and Belgium the sound quality is excellent and the Transylvanian scenes are especially very beautifully filmed, the quality of the light is stunning: a scene towards the end of the film has a gathering of fiddlers that is epic and life affirming.
Limberger is appearing at Toots with guitarists Renaud Dardenne & Benjamin Clement and double bassist Boris Schmidt.
Biréli Lagrène Quartet, ZIGZAG, BERLIN 13 April
I SWEAR: The gypsy jazz icon’s new album Elegant People, ploughing his own furrow stylistically venturing within the viaduct of his dreams into more straightahead territory, is simply superb. The French jazzer’s best album oh in many, many moons. One can’t but love a new, deftly swinging, elegantly modulating walking version of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s huggable 1970s ditty ‘Clair‘ however much one contrarily attempts not to. It’s cool to give in. After descending chords set the scene, the piece – plot spoiler – opens out into a peach of a George Benson-like solo from Biréli who is on bouncing form capably supported buoyantly by the other cats. The wordless singing towards the end is rather sweet and hardly a case of indulgent caterwauling at all. But howl on. Hold tight, other choice bits include a take on the Weather Report classic that acts as title track.
Macha Gharibian NEW MORNING, PARIS 14 April
Goldings/Bernstein/Stewart PARADOX, TILBURG 16 Apr
Bill Frisell & Eyvind Kang MOODS, ZURICH 19 April
Joe Webb trio NICA, HAMBURG 24 April
Michael Mayo JASSMINE, WARSAW 25 April
