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Author
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Topic: Review: Supernatural festival in Utrecht - Lonnie Liston Smith, Zap Mama, Spinna, etc
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DJ76
Platinum Member
Member # 41
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posted
Saturday 30th of July 2005, a music festival took place in Utrecht, Netherlands, featuring a selection of artists that made it worth the road trip. Every year, the Supernatural Funk Festival brings a good lot of musicians and djs - this was my first time and I don't regret it.
Holland being Holland, it poured the night before the festival and the site was a little muddy, mostly damp, but we made our way and it wasn't a major problem.... it would've been had it rained during the festival itself, but in fact, it was warm and sunny for some parts of the day. As my good friend Gregor mentioned it, it's funny how we ALWAYS talk about the weather, not because we don't have anything else to talk about, but because the weather pretty much sucks up here and affects our every day life. It's July and we're never too sure if we should bring a rain coat and a sweater along.
So we get to the site - called the Paperdome, named after the main and permanent music hall on the site, the rest of the "pavillons" being temporary sites. As always, procrastination made it that we arrived 15 minutes late to the Zap Mama show, but we caught the last half hour / 45 minutes. WOW! Eclectic and powerful. Mari-Jo, the lead singer, really knows how to put a show on. The singers were using their voice to create a panoply of sounds, rhythms, etc. They got the crowd to participate in creating a nice melody, coordinating and synchronizing men on one side and women on the other... creative.
Mari-Jo ended the show with a dance and a flip ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
We walked around the site for a bit, Patrick Forge was playing in the "Latin World" tent. I had heard of him and heard a mix-CD compilation of his a long time ago. He was pretty good but things were only starting to warm up (it was probably about 16h00) and he didn't get the attention he deserved. I think at that point, I was not interested in hearing a dj either so we left after 10 minutes.
Ended up in the "Jazz It Up" pavillion (which was in the permanent hall) and discovered a band I hadn't heard of before, The Rebirth. Very nice music, the female lead singer had so much energy (and what a voice). They did a cover of De La Soul's "Saturdays". Really nice. I have to get their CD, there's definitely some good sounds to be picked up on it.
We then went to get a bite to eat, and ended our snack with a pistachio gelato ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
We then moved on to THE reason I wanted to go to the festival, Lonnie Liston Smith!
The man's a magician, magic fingers. I was really impressed, the man had his eyes closed and playing on two keyboards non stop. But the man who stole the show was his singer, now I don't know if the singer was Donald Smith (the one featured on the albums) but his voice was not exactly the same (mind you 30 years have passed since their early albums were released). They played a couple of tracks with no vocals, and then got into "Journey Into Love". Now the reason why the singer stole the show was that he was the one also playing all the instruments creating sounds effects, bells, tambourines, etc. He had a little table on which the instruments were all lined up and he would switch instruments every 30 seconds, sweating like crazy. He gave his show, doing little steps, it was really nice. His voice was nice, a little tired by the years I suppose, but he gave his 100%.
At the end, they played a 15 minutes version of EXPANSIONS, which made moi extremely happy, although it was a different version. The bass guitar, the drummer, alll of them made a little solo during the song. They made the trip to Utrecht really worth it.
I wonder if LLS knows how much some of his music has influenced artists of different genres today (and that djs around the world are banging Expansions at 6 in the morning!). I wish I had the chance to chat with him.
What REALLY pissed me off was that KOKOLO was scheduled to play before Lonnie Liston Smith in another tent, but they changed the schedule and both played at the same time! I picked LLS...
It was around 19h30 when LLS finished and Dj Spinna had started his set. I was a bit annoyed by the abundance of djs and lack of artists. Wasn't in the mood to listen to a dj, so we stayed for 15 minuts, he had started with hip hop classics (Chief Rocka!) and so on, he was playing Crystal Waters "Gypsy Woman" when we left... there was a great vibe, but I just didn't have the patience to listen to a dj so we left ![[rofl]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
all and all, a nice event. To return next year!
[ July 31, 2005, 06:19 AM: Message edited by: DJ76 ]
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You don't even like this song
You just dig the hook
You freaky Muth* f*cka
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DD Licious
Member
Member # 1447
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posted
Damn, I saw the flyer a while ago...forgot about it
Nice report, I saw Zap Mama in Brussel on the Couleur Café festival...Great show, she also ended with a flip ![[Hail]](hail.gif)
I saw Lonnie Liston Smith a few months ago, here in Belgium...that singer is a crazy guy ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) It was really wicked to see him playing with his table of instruments, nice
Alex, please make a topic about it next year...
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http://www.myspace.com/dd_licious
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DJ76
Platinum Member
Member # 41
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posted
quote:
Originally posted by DD Licious:
Damn, I saw the flyer a while ago...forgot about it
Nice report, I saw Zap Mama in Brussel on the Couleur Café festival...Great show, she also ended with a flip
I saw Lonnie Liston Smith a few months ago, here in Belgium...that singer is a crazy guy It was really wicked to see him playing with his table of instruments, nice
Alex, please make a topic about it next year...
Will do
I found it interesting that most of the bands I saw stuck around after their show to hear the others.
Looking forward to next year.
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You don't even like this song
You just dig the hook
You freaky Muth* f*cka
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