Waltzing the Blues

On Wednesday, December 19th, the “Gudde Wëllen” convened a blues evening with Pugsley Buzzard.

The year of blues concerts has been closing with a good-humoured concert at the “Gudde Wëllen”, featuring several leading lights of the Luxembourgish blues scene: Australian singer and pianist Pugsley Buzzard, the star of the evening, was surrounded by his accompanying double bass player Klaas Wendling, Luxembourgish percussionist Tom Lehnert and singer Sascha Ley.

But first, Fred Barreto opened the show with songs like the funny “The Spider and the Fly” written by the Rolling Stones or the classic “Got My Mojo Working”. Barreto, well-known in Luxembourgish blues clubs, has a nice and strong voice, but it’s his guitar playing that is the most proficient. mehr lesen / lire plus

„Sehnsucht ist die einzige Energie“

Am Dienstag, 13. November in der Philharmonie beglückten „Einstürzende Neubauten“ ihr Publikum im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes.

Das Bühnenbild ist einfach gehalten. Hinter den Instrumenten eine riesige weiße Leinwand, auf die im Moment noch grelles Scheinwerferlicht fällt. Fast sieht die Szene nach Generalprobe aus, als die Musiker die Bühne betreten: Blixa Bargeld, Alexander Hacke, N. U. Unruh, Jochen Arbeit, Rudolf Moser und Felix Gebhard. Der große, massige Mann ist Sänger Blixa Bargeld. Er und Gitarrist Unruh sind barfuß. Ansonsten ist zunächst nichts Auffälliges festzustellen.

Ich gestehe, dass ich an diesem Abend Neuland betrat, obwohl die Gruppe seit den 1980ern aktiv ist. mehr lesen / lire plus

Sound Islands

On Saturday, October 20th, Ólafur Arnalds lured the audience of the Luxembourg Philharmony into a world of meditative sounds.

His music is as special as he is: appearing on stage dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans, the Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds exuded the charm of Nordic understatement. Although only in his early thirties, he is already renowned for his virtuosity in blending electronical with classical sounds. On stage, he plays the grand piano, surrounded by two connected self-playing pianos, called “stratus”, a string ensemble and a drummer.

The outcome is a very calm, but melodious sound, transmitting a spacy or submarine atmosphere. mehr lesen / lire plus

« Cantar no Luxemburgo é cantar em casa »

Avec Tito Paris et Sara Tavares, deux stars de la musique luso-créole ont enthousiasmé l’audience de la Philharmonie.

Le samedi 13 octobre, la grande salle de la Philharmonie était pleine à craquer : parmi la foule venue pour assister au concert du chanteur et musicien capverdien Tito Paris, les abonné-e-s bon BCBG se mélangeaient avec les fans capverdiens. Mon pote Paulo et moi, il faut l’avouer, ne connaissions que le nom de cet ambassadeur d’une « lusophonie » musicale qui mêle des airs capverdiens, portugais, africains et brésiliens.

Dès les premiers sons, il était clair que Paris se meut dans un registre plutôt classique de la morna (le pendant capverdien du fado) et de la coladeira (plus gaie et plus cadencée), reprenant des airs traditionnels pour les réarranger dans un style orienté vers le jazz, voire le pop, mais toujours très rythmés et précis. mehr lesen / lire plus

Music Saved My Soul

On Saturday, September 1st, „Los dueños“ cast a spell over the audience of the „Last Summer Dance“ Festival.

Those of you who could’nt make it to Erpeldange last weekend really missed something. I don’t mean the nice food, the relaxed atmosphere or the introduced projects and initiatives, all of them interesting if somewhat unpolitical on the whole. No, I am speaking about the music, and about one specific band, outmatching all we’ve had heard so far on this bea utiful Saturday evening. The sun was just setting and the air had freshened up, suggesting that this was indeed summer’s end, when “Los Dueños” appeared on the main stage. mehr lesen / lire plus

Neither fish nor flesh

A hot, sweaty summer evening. On Tuesday, July 31st, the terrace of Brasserie “Wenzel” on the premises of Neimënster in Stadtgrund is still busy with people while inside, the preparations for the concert are coming to their end. But at the first sounds of music, the fans are heading for their tables. Tonight, Catfish, a major British blues band, will perform: Catfish has been awarded the 2018 UK Blues Award for Blues Act of the Year. The large restaurant quickly fills with people: those knowing about the reputation of the band – and those just letting themselves be captivated spontaneously by a very specific blues style. mehr lesen / lire plus

Blues vun der Gaass

Blues op Lëtzebuergesch, dat ass eng gewote Saach: D’Bluesgrupp “Gaasserockbluesband” traut sech zënter enger Rei vu Joren, bei eegene Kompositiounen op dëse Wee ze goen. Datt dat duerchaus ka funktionéieren, konnt een den Donneschdeg, 12. Juli am Liquid live materliewen.

Op deem schéine Summerowend wor et nach hell dobaussen, wéi d’Band an d’Startlächer gaangen ass. “Gaasserockbluesband” spillt e melodiéisen, proppere Blues am klassesche Stil, bei deem d’Gittare vill am Virdergrond stinn. Nieft dem Gittarist Régis Rolando huet och de Sänger Frank Henkes an d’Säite gegraff. De Max Courtois wor um E-Bass, den Nic Wise op der d’Batterie an de jonke Fenny Gillen op de Keys an, ze seelen, op der Blues-Harmonika. mehr lesen / lire plus

Swedish guitars

It had been years since I last visited the location of the Atelier. Strange enough, last Tuesday, the interior seemed smaller to me than I recalled. Other details had not changed at all: the Spartan interior or the shabby toilets. Right now, the guys and gal from the Luxembourgish indie band The Tame and the Wild were doing their opening act, which was quite nice and attracted a part of the public that had found its way to the Rue de Hollerich. But many still stood outside savouring the summer evening until unmistakable noises announced the start of the main show. mehr lesen / lire plus

Moon glasses

It was a beautiful summer Friday evening. I had dined nearby sitting under a large, protecting tree and headed now for the “Gudde Wëllen”. A small grape of people formed on the ancient pavement of the narrow alley outside the location, taking the last drags on their cigarettes before the gig. At the first floor, the gallery filled up quite slowly. On scene: A keyboard, a battery and a guitar, waiting for their owners. But as soon as the guys from the Raftside project entered the stage and seized their instruments, more and more fans gathered. The evening started with “Broken Drive”,  a song from the new Raftside album “Empty Star”. mehr lesen / lire plus

Big Quintette

Priorité au foot – les écrans de télévision tardaient à s’éteindre mardi soir, la musique devait attendre. Sur le pas de la porte, quelques fans de jazz profitaient encore de l’ambiance d’été. Enfin, cinq jeunes hommes avançaient vers la scène du Liquid Bar au Stadtgrund. Dès que la voix sombre du saxophone s’annonça, le bruit de fond s’estompa, et c’était parti pour une petite immersion dans le jazz contemporain. Sur scène : Persuasive, un quintette franco-belgo-italo-luxembourgeois.

Premier constat : le groupe servait un jazz très dynamique et précis. La batterie clairement présente du Luxembourgeois Jérôme Klein fournissait, avec la contrebasse (Tommaso Montagnani), la guitare (Lorenzo Di Maio), et le piano de scène (Igor Gehenot) une base rythmique sans faille. mehr lesen / lire plus

After midnight

At the last minute, my buddy had let me down – but I still decided to take that trip northwards. So I took out the vehicle and went up the country, to that small spot called Ernzen. It was peeing down with rain, and even the hard boiled smokers were missing at the entrance of the “Little Woodstock” when I arrived. Inside too, in that small, somewhat trashy bar with a rudimentary music stage not all the tables were occupied. Slowly, more guests rolled along. The young waitress, blond with a golden heart, was busying around. In the toilets, the rain kept falling through the leaking roof. mehr lesen / lire plus

Kid Colling: Devilish delight

Warming-up act by Priscilla da Costa and her band „Velvet“

Write twice about the same artist within just some weeks? Yes, but it ain’t the same story. After his great concert at the Liquid Bar in Stadtgrund, singer-composer Kid Colling has presented the new CD “In the devil’s court” of his band “Kid Colling Cartel” within the walls of the Escher Kulturfabrik. It was not without some nostalgia that yours truly entered the premises on this beautiful Friday evening, having spent many hours here in another century. Memories of music, art and long lost loves came back to mind as the sky darkened. mehr lesen / lire plus

Adam Beattie : Butterscotch

Adam Beattie

Tout semblait présager une soirée ratée : le musicien-compositeur arrivait trop tard et sans son accompagnement musical habituel, la petite salle du Konrad n’était qu’à demi remplie, faute aux vacances scolaires, et les premiers rythmes dévoilaient un folk assez traditionnel. Mais Adam Beattie a bien su se tirer d’affaire, et le public, essentiellement féminin, semblait accorder beaucoup d’indulgence au singer-songwriter sympa qui maîtrise aussi bien le synthétiseur que le piano ou la guitare. Si lors des toutes premières chansons, la voix du bel Écossais semblait un peu timide et les mélodies assez classiques, l’ambiance changea dès « Sickle Red Moon ». mehr lesen / lire plus

Canadian voices

After some really inspiring concerts at Konrad‘s, the expectations of yours truly were great. Take for example, just some weeks ago, the sublime mix of angelic voices and grave lyrics of “Deep Dark Woods” coming to us from Canada, but also their perfect harmony of front and back vocals. Or Ben Rogers’ country-rock, spanning from hearty to melancholic tunes, with a frontman surrounded by great musicians and delivering clever and touching texts. But the performance of Whitney Rose this Tuesday was some kind of a disappointment. She also comes from Canada, but that’s where the resemblances end. Hers is a rather classic blend of Texan country, often transgressing the line to flat popular tunes and lyrics, and her slightly stringent voice still ads to this tendency. mehr lesen / lire plus

Gueule de blues : Kid Colling – du baume au cœur

Jeudi soir, cet ancien enfant de chœur converti au blues a fait plus qu’une apparition au bar Liquid, Stadtgrund : pendant plus de deux heures entre blues et rock, le groupe composé de Colling himself, chanteur-guitariste à la gueule singulière, et de trois collègues a livré une performance non seulement musicalement époustouflante, mais pleine de chaleur et de joie.

Votre serviteur, qui n’y connaît rien à la musique, a entendu certains experts autour de lui s’enthousiasmer pour le jeu du bassiste Tom Heck, d’autres pour le joueur d’harmonium Alex Logel ou le drummer Yves Ditsch, voire le jeu de guitare de Kid Colling. mehr lesen / lire plus