Articles by Henning Bolte
Vadim Neselovskyi: Odesa: A Musical Walk Through a Legendary City
by Henning Bolte
Vadim Neselovskyi, as insisting as he is playful and dramatic, is a fierce vivacious musician with a great gift for making an amalgamation of percussive fireworks with melodic motives flashing up time and again. His music is full of vital, explosive turnarounds and suddenly appearing melancholic moments. Odesa: A Musical Walk Through A Legendary City is his musical shaping of the shimmering and colorful realities of this port city at the Black Sea shore, a gateway to the south and ...
read moreSanem Kalfa RefleX at Bimhuis
by Henning Bolte
A collection of photos from the Sanem Kalfa RefleX concert at Bimhuis in Amsterdam on March 4, 2022 featuring Sanem Kalfa, Fuensanta Mendez, Marta Warelis, Kamucan Yalcin, Sun-Mi Hong and Ilgen Arzik. It was an elegant performance by five distinctive female musicians/visual artists of great cultural diversity (Turkish, Polish, Mexican, and Korean background) from Amsterdam and Istanbul. Sanem Kalfa (vocals), Ilgen Arzik (art work), Kamucan Yalcin (vocals), Fuensanta Mendez (vocals, bassist), Marta Warelis (piano), and Sun-Mi ...
read morePunkt Festival 2021
by Henning Bolte
Eivind Aarset Hotel Norge, Blå Kors Punkt Festival Kristiansand September, 2-4, 2021 Live remix is the key element and trademark of Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, southern Norway, now in its 17th year. Life itself had been remixed severely by the COVID pandemic that struck at the beginning of 2020. It left its traces at Punkt. However, Punkt succeeded in securing continuity with scaled-down editions in 2020 and 2021. Strikingly Punkt took no recourse to ...
read moreLive Drawings from North Sea Round Town 2021
by Henning Bolte
The following is a collection of live drawings created at the North Sea Round Town Festival in Rotterdam that ran from July 2-9, 2021. As Artist-in-Residence at Goethe Institute Rotterdam/North Sea Around Town Festival held in June/July, I created a series of more than 50 live drawings mainly during drummer and Artist-in-Focus Sun Mi Hong's concerts. Sun Mi Hong Ensemble + dancers Dans Ateliers Rotterdam: “Dance in Four Colors" (Dans Ateliers, De Doelen) Sun Mi Hong/Henning Bolte, ...
read moreNorth Sea Round Town 2021
by Henning Bolte
Sun-Mi Hong Diverse venues/sites: Laurenskerk, Goethe Institute, De Doelen, Worm, Boerderij Driebergen (Three Mountains Farm), private homes North Sea Round Town Rotterdam July 2-9, 2021 North Sea Round Town is a strongly community-based city festival in Rotterdam, deep in the Dutch delta. Founded 15 years ago, it takes place in June/July in the run-up to the gigantic commercial indoor North Sea Jazz Festival. During a three-week period, the festival with its more than ...
read moreNaïssam Jalal: Un autre monde
by Henning Bolte
Some may see the flute as an odd one out in jazz. For France that certainly does not apply. France has Michel Edelin from the older generation and, for example, Magic Malik, Eve Risser, Sylvaine Hélary and Naïssam Jalal from the younger. A flautist needs good sonic allies to embed flute sounds in and/or a strong groove to fly on. Naïssam Jalal, the Franco-Syrian flautist, has both to a high degree as part of her greater talents as ...
read moreSylvaine Hélary: Glowing Life
by Henning Bolte
Is flute an odd one out in the present jazz field? Not really and not at all in France. France not only has Michel Edelin in the older generation, it has still more flautists in the younger generation that are also bandleaders in their own right, for example Magic Malik, Eve Risser, Naïssam Jalal and, of course, Sylvaine Hélary. The music of French flautist-vocalist Sylvaine Hélary (1986) has its beyond- quality of a special kind. On her 2021 ...
read moreSimin Tander: Unfading
by Henning Bolte
The newly formed quartet of German-Afghani vocalist Simin Tander with Swiss-Swedish electric bass guitarist Björn Meyer, Tunisian violinist Jasser Haj Youssef and Swiss drummer Samuel Rohrer from Berlin is a remarkable force field of igniting, merging and amplifying energies, temperaments and temperatures. Tander herself has provided 12 compositions here and three times her own lyrics as a mature mark of class. Tander's voice fluctuates between confidence and yearning, joy and grief, and oriental and occidental spheres. Her singing ...
read moreEnjoy Jazz and More 2020
by Henning Bolte
Various venues Enjoy Jazz and More Heidelberg, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Schwetzingen October 14-30, 2020 Enjoy Jazz is a festival that stretches across 7 weeks from the beginning of October to halfway through November in the urban area of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg in southwestern Germany. The long stretch had a couple of 'advantages' under the conditions of the COVID pandemic. The organization did not have to deal with a huge number of visitors ...
read moreFesta do Jazz 2020
by Henning Bolte
Centro Cultural Belem Festa do Jazz 2020 Lisbon September 12-13, 2020 Festa do Jazz, celebration of jazz, is the annual meeting of the Portuguese jazz community. It is normally held end of March/begin of April. For many years it took place in old glory theatre São Luis Municipal in the Baixa-Chiado neighborhood of central Lisbon. Now in the pandemic situation the hosting has been taken over by Centro Cultural Belem (CCB) situated at the banks ...
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