Just returned last week from 10 days on the road in Europe with the Rempis Percussion Quartet. We started out in Belgrade, Serbia, with a performance at the Ring Ring Festival, which is curated by Bojan Djordjevic, manager of the now world-famous Boban Markovic Orchestra – one of the best gypsy brass bands working today. I first met Bojan in 2008, when Boban Markovic played at the Pitchfork Music Festival, and I had no idea that he also worked with jazz and experimental music. But Ring Ring’s been going for 15 years now, and this is the second year in a row I had the chance to play on it, last year as a duo with Michael Zerang.
Although we hadn’t played in a few months, and didn’t have time to get together before the gig since Ingebrigt was flying in that day from a festival in St. Petersburg, the music unfolded nicely, and the Saturday night crowd was really enthusiastic – got both an encore and a bow after the set, and the reviews, I’m told, were great. (Although I don’t read Serbian!) Frank Rosaly and I also got alot of questions about our new duo record “Cyrillic,”a title that many Serbians seemed interested by!
Bathroom at the Hotel Royal, Belgrade
After a nice Sunday afternoon off in Belgrade the next day, we took an 11-hour train ride up to Slovenia on Monday (man are the trains slow – it’s only about 300 miles!!!), and met David Braun, an old friend who produces concerts in Maribor, just across the border from Austria. Since it was already 9:30 pm when we got in, and the food that day had consisted of greasy burek (cheese pastries), chips, and other junk we got at the train station that morning, I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to find something decent in a relatively small city. But, thankfully, it’s not the U.S., and we had perhaps the best meal of the tour at a great seafood restaurant in the center of town. Thank god for Serbia and Slovenia, where we ate incredibly well, because the food for the rest of trip almost made we want to stop eating altogether……
The slow train to Maribor
The concert in Maribor on Tuesday was good – an intimate crowd of about 30 folks. A bit lighter than usual, but the annual Cerkno Jazz Festival had just happened the previous weekend a couple of hours away, and many of the fans who might otherwise travel to see us were probably still hungover from that!
After the concert we had a ridiculously late night – all of the bars were closed, so we opted to take a gamble on the largest outdoor party they have in Maribor, which just so happened to be going on that night. Apparently the former Yugoslavian dictator Tito started a party for all of the students in the country each May several decades ago, and the tradition continues – on the outskirts of town, on an island in the river. So we joined about 7,000 staggeringly drunk students, and had a pleasant night sitting in a small shack by the river where a woman poured homemade schnapps from a plastic water jug.
The next morning the real working stretch of the tour began – no more vacations! Three countries in four days. First off to Mainz, Germany, where I played with the Vandermark Five the second time I ever performed in Europe back in 1999. Many of the organizers were familiar faces from that concert – a group of volunteers and fans who present 6-8 concerts each year because they like the music! At first I was a bit nervous about the room – a café in a small modern art museum – which seemed incredibly sterile. But, it turned out to be one of the best shows of the trip – probably our largest crowd, and definitely enthusiastic, which is not always the case with German audiences. Also ran into a friend from Paris – Antoine De la Ronciere, who was nice enough to make the trip all the way just for this show!
View outside Cafe 7 in Mainz
On Thursday, we were off to Oslo, which was probably the dog of the tour. The venue was very nice, they treated us well, etc. etc. but the audience was in the range of 20 people, and 12 of them were my friend Martin Revheim and a bunch of his friends! So it felt a bit empty, and musically was my least favorite gig of the trip. As usual in a country the size of Norway, we had a funny coincidence the next morning running into Paal Nilssen-Love’s brother Carl on the street as we were returning a borrowed bass to its owner…..
Friday found us in Stavanger, on the western coast of Norway. A really pretty town, and the hometown of some great musicians including Frode Gjerstad (who came to the concert and recorded it!), Paal Nilssen-Love, and Anders Hana. We played at Sting, a small basement club at the peak of the town, overlooking the harbour. This was an incredibly enthused audience, and one of my favorite gigs of the tour.
Finally, after a couple of hours of sleep and a 4 am pickup, we flew for our last gig to Warsaw (via Latvia?!?) arriving at 12:30 pm. Just in time for a nap! The last gig was at Powieksczenie, which I still can’t say properly although I’ve played there 3 times. Another great club owned by one of the many entrepreneurial geniuses I’ve met in Poland. Borek, as he’s known, owns two clubs now, and just turned 30.
The gig wasn’t as crowded as usual for Warsaw, but it was the hottest day of the year which kept some folks away. But the crowd was enthusiastic as usual, and we had a great time hanging out at the club after the concert.
Ingebrigt's bass amp in Warsaw
Now, the challenge is finding more work for the group – negotiating schedules with these musicians is not easy!! But hopefully next spring we’ll have another tour of Europe, and the cd we recorded in January should be out in the winter on 482 Music. I’ll be mixing it with Griffin Rodriguez this month.
Next up – a short duo tour with Frank Rosaly in the Midwest, and some Canadian gigs with The Vandermark Five.
