Friday, June 24, 2011

Nordic Jazz 2011 – House of Sweden

Nordic Jazz 2011 Banner_

Another wonderful concert at the House of Sweden on the shores of the Potomac this past Sunday – June 19, 2011. On tap were three Nordic Jazz bands – In the Country (Norway), Tonbruket (Sweden), and the Andres Thor Trio (Iceland).

I enjoyed all three bands and was able to capture pictures and sounds with my LX3 and H1.

In the Country had a cool mellow vibe that quietly ebbed and flowed with adroit use of piano, bass, and drums accented by burbling ambient electronics. Quite effective!

Tonbbruket used an interesting sampling of instruments including piano, bass, drums, guitar, and pedal steel to achieve both calm and driving sounds that were very engaging.

Andres Thor was the most traditional of the three bands and explored the classic bass, drums, and guitar trio sound to full effect. As I confirmed in my conversation with Adres Thor afterward, he cites John Scofield as one of his influences.

This is the fifth year for Nordic Jazz. I am pleased that I have been able to attend the last three of these years. I have high hopes for this series going forward.

Nordic Jazz 2011 - Andres Thor

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Kuára at Finland Embassy 06-14-2011

Per Jørgensen with Kuára at Finland Emabassy 06-14-2011

Last night, I attended a wonderful jazz concert at the foliage filled Finland Embassy in Washington, DC. The music was part of the annual Nordic Jazz week that marshals the resources of the Scandinavian embassies. The series concludes on Sunday 06/19/2011 with an outdoor concert on the rooftop of the Swedish Embassy along the Georgetown waterfront.

The concert at the Finland Embassy featured ECM recording artists Kuára with Per Jørgensen on trumpet. This was their first concert in the United States. True to the ECM sound, the music mixed jazz, folk songs, and ambient sounds in an exciting and dramatic fashion. What a delight.

The concert gave me an opportunity to try out my newly purchased Zoom H1 recorder. My brief listen of the result sounds very good. I will now have to hunker down to perform the post editing to bring out the best results. Based on this test, I believe the H1 is close to equal to my H2 that has served me so well.

I also took many pictures with my trusty Panasonic LX3. Even with the challenging light situation, I captured a few good shots.