Since last fall, the Centraltheater in Leipzig features a series of concert/club events with assorted acts. Last night I went there for the Jazzanova Label Night. Actually I was mainly attracted by the fact that Eva Be was DJing. The rest, the Sonar Kollektiv Orchestra, Clara Hill and Jazzanova DJs, I accepted as a sidekick :-)
It turned out that Eva Be was reduced to play as an opener in the foyer of the theatre and in between acts. What a total waste of fluffy music! A nice mixture of all kinds of styles, some I knew from my own record collection or sets played by DJ Vadim, others completely unknown to me. Hip-Hop, Reggea, Funk, whatever, but all with a certain style that put a smile on my face and had me bobbing up and down constantly. Next time she’s in town I’ll be there!
Clara Hill was first to play. I’ll keep it short: Not my kind of stuff. She shure can sing but I think she is too loud and lacks subtlety. The music didn’t convince me either. Jazz fans might enjoy some twists in harmonies and all that nerdy stuff, but thats not mine.
The Sonar Kollektiv Orchestra was impressive, to say the least. A brass and string section, drums and percussions, bass, guitar and 3 singers together with Volker Meintz as mastermind performed songs released on the Jazzanova label. Unforgettable their performance of Âme”s “Rej”! Most songs appeared to be older releases, rather souly and acid-jazzy stuff. The sound of the band reminded me of early Pressure Drop. A friend of mine who was with me pointed out that that was mostly due to the combination of bass and trombone, producing a sub-bass that enters stomach and gonards without hesitation :-) I personally would have preferred to hear more live implementations of instrumental tracks like “Rej”. I’m not all that into soul and acid jazz and, most of all, Clara Hill didn’t fit into the arrangement. She’s too much lead singer and didn’t have the sensitivity to be a complementary part of the vocal section. Instead, she took over, which obviously pissed of the other two singer, from whom I would’ve liked to hear more.
Even though the dancefloor behind the stage is a promising party location, the party afterwards didn’t quite rock. Jazzanova DJs couldn’t convince me and I think the location hasn’t established itsself for parties yet.