As I wrote in a previous post, Zandscape is the creative-modern instrumental group of Mark Zandveld. they released a CD 1 1/2 years ago (Dot Time Records). It was an ‘extra’ for him to work out with me how I could do a guest spot with his group. The ‘catch’ of course was that I would have find a ‘voice’ for these colorful compositions of his with good lyric-storytelling.
I was thrilled; 1)because that style is something I love, but don’t do a lot and 2)the combination of vibes, guitar, bass and drums is quite interesting to sing with.
We decided that the first concert together would be at the North Sea Jazz Club on January 25th, 2014. (Though we did perform – as a teaser for this concert – in the Mijke&Co Live radio concert two days prior.)
Mind you, when we booked it in October of 2013, NO songs were ready. All we knew was that we were ‘very good with deadlines’ and if that was the established date of the concert, everything would have to be ready by then. (Note: Deadlines can be motivating, but the stress that they cause doesn’t necessarily contribute to good health, to say the least!)
Anyway…the first songs to choose would naturally be two or three from the Zandscape album, in addition to a couple more that Mark had written after the recording of his CD. There were also one or two arranged standards that I also wanted to add from my book.
I have the skills for lyric-writing because I always have one or two original songs on each album I’ve made, as well as writing a new intro or vocalise for select songs. To add to that, I do have the occasional class with a singer that needs some coaching on their lyrics.
In this case, with Zandscape, it was going to be more concentrated writing. From about 27th December to the second week of January, I had almost no activities on my calendar but sitting down and coming up with lyrics for 6 songs. Very intense!
Thereafter, I had to dedicate all my time to learning the whimsical melodies, the new lyrics, and, of course, arrangements of these challenging Zandscape songs.
At first we had out doubts that we were going to make the date, but…we nailed it!
Zandscape’s line-up:
Gunnar Graafmans – vibes
Jurjen Bakker – drums
Jeen Rabs – guitar
Mark Zandveld – bass
So now, there is a instrumental AND vocal version of the 6/4 salsa ‘Mesa Para Seis’, the bop tune ‘Boptopus’, the samba ‘Padoodedap’, etc.
Fun songs to sing…once I finally learned them well!
It was a marvellous double-concert, with Zandscape doing the first half on their own, and then inviting me up on the second half. The club was full, many good friends were there, including Mark’s 86-year-old mother and other family members.
There was a blackout two times in my set (due to heavy rainfall), but that gave me a chance to relax myself by joking around with the audience till the lights came back on. It was like it was all part of the plan. 🙂
Writing to Mark’s compositions one of the best and hardest challenges I’d had in many years and I’m looking forward to doing more concerts (and songs) with them.
And yes, there may be possible live recording with them coming up in the future. We’ll see…
Exciting!