Last early Sunday morning, January 26th, after a late Saturday night, I crawled into my car and headed for the southern end of Holland, somewhere near Nijmegen. And what a beautiful day it was for driving! There was no one on road, the winter sun was shining brightly, and part of my route was along the Dutch countryside; very green, with ‘cows for days’!
I was programmed to do a concert with a group I work with now and then – the Stark/Linnemann trio. This time, they were a quartet and here is the line-up:
Jonas Linnemann – drums
Paul Stark – piano
Vasilis Stefanopoulos – double bass
Guido Wilbers – guitar
Paul Stark and Jonas Linnemann are two talented jazz musicians and composers who often organize concerts with guests musicians from Holland and beyond. I love how versatile they are in creating their own sound bringing world rhythms and classical music elements into the jazz mix as well.
They will be releasing a CD of their own compositions very soon, on February 22nd.
http://www.starklinnemann.com
The venue where we performed is called ‘Roepaen’, located in the small village of Ottersum. It’s quite a large (former) church complex which now houses a concert hall, a ‘night club’, and a few apartments for its residents. They also stage outdoor concerts in the warmer months.
We played in the night club to a nice crowd, some of whom were regular visitors to the Roepaen activities, and others fans of Stark and Linnemann. (I had a few admirers there as well.)
See a review, by the ‘Rocktimes’, of that concert on this link: http://www.rocktimes.de/gesamt/s/starklinnemann/ottersum14.html
I enjoyed singing songs from my fusion & latin repertoire with them, including numbers from my albums.
In addition, do something ‘extra’ that I don’t really get with other bands that I sing with as a guest; they rehearse my songs without me!
I live two hours away by car, and although I’m used to exchanging as much info as possible via emails and then looking at songs during a soundcheck with the combos I often guest with, the Stark/Linnemann combo gets together on their own to look at my material, add new ideas, polish-and-shine, etc.
I love that; thank you guys!
Now THAT’S professional!
It was well worth the trip.