Wolfgang Lonien

“Hagelslag” is a Dutch word for “sprinkles“, as the German Wikipedia explained it to me. And it’s also the name of a band, which is new and fresh, and I simply love what they’re doing – do we have something like a European Snarky Puppy here? (Edit, from one day later: no; after listening a bit more to them, they’re no Snarky – far from it. But they’re Hagelslag, and I still like what they do)Their arrangements are surely clever, and they’re cool and groovy – listen:

Saw one of theirs yesterday already, and in that video they’re in Hervé Jeanne’s studio (the bass player of the late Roger Cicero and others), accompanied by Donata Jan and four other great singers:

Like I wrote above: young, fresh, innovative, and groovy like no others – love it. I’m sure we’ll hear some more of these young ladies & gentlemen.

Hope you liked this as much as I did… and as always, thanks for reading / viewing / listening.

I’m currently listening to a lot of music again. Saturday I got John Goldsby’s “The Jazz Bass Book”, and wow I’m so amazed at what I hear even in songs which I thought I knew already (and in some cases played when I was younger).

Here is for instance Reginald Workman, about whom John writes (on page 114, in the chapter “Coltrane and Beyond”:

In 1961, Coltrane let Davis go and hired one of the technically most gifted bassists on the scene at that time, Reggie Workman…

As an example, here’s Wayne Shorter with “Footprints”:

I’m speechless – this is a gold mine…

I recently stumbled over a video in notreble, where one of the commenters said that she’s a rock star. Always eager to hear fellow bass players, I had to have a listen of course. And later I played it to Zuleikha & Mitchie on the TV set as well:

Impressive, hm? Here’s the original, played on the violin by the composer himself:

So nice…

Someone has uploaded Joan Chamorro’s and Roman Tort’s award-winning documentary on Youtube, including English subtitles (which you’ll have to allow in the Youtube player to see them):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mZ3JQEZVC8

I have reported about it before because it’s awesome, and I’ve bought it. And I’d recommend to do the same in case you like it, and can afford it – a project like this is just worth being “sponsored” a bit even if only with the price of a DVD. Find their stuff at the projects’s page or at the big shops like Amazon if you like.

Enjoy. I still love that movie.