Jazz Festival in Breda, NL
Happily stumbled across the Breda Jazz Festival today! It was set up in the old downtown area, all outdoors and free. There were 16 stages, each packed with listeners holding beer cups and various finger foods. We hardly made it to those groups though as we were pleasantly sidetracked by a couple of local bands playing in the streets. It was very New Orleans – my favorite.
The first was called Rue d’Anvers, and we encountered them marching up to an opening in the square where they set up camp and played a few tunes. They had all my favorite parts of New Orleans street music: tuba bass line, multiple horn harmony sections, and spunky solos.
Once they wrapped up, we continued on our way and a few more steps later came across Honkers Brass Band. A smaller ensemble, they played well-rehearsed favorites with high energy and pizzazz.
After a quick gyro and fries, we listened to several tunes by New Orleans pianist Tom Hook and his group. I enjoyed listening to these peeps a lot (for one, there was a piano!) because it’s the kind of setting I’ve been playing in recently: trio + horns/singers. The band was from all over the place: a couple Americans, a couple Frenchmen, and Australian trombonist Shannon Barnett.