After a two-year Corona break, the Bonn Jazz Festival is back: the pianist Jasper van't Hof and the vocal ensemble “Estonian Voices” did the honors.
The old master of jazz, Jasper van't Hof
What do a Dutch jazz legend and a young a cappella ensemble from Estonia have in common? Definitely the quality and diversity of their music, as artistic director Peter Materna promised right at the start. The ingenious improvisations of one and the goosebump effect of the other – he had this inspiring mix in mind when selecting the artists. And that is exactly what the Bonn Jazz Festival, which was shaped by Materna and recently had to pause twice due to Corona, stands for.
As a soloist, Jasper van't Hof is the flying Dutchman: his hands dash across the keys of the piano and synthesizer at an insane tempo. Fast, melodic runs soon turn into chiseled improvisation. Unexpected breaks open sound spaces. In the second track at the latest, when he unleashes a disturbing synthesizer inferno, Jasper van't Hof reveals his trademark: eccentricity coupled with humor.
Legendary reputation of Jasper van't Hof
< p>“Improvising, playing together, listening to one another and responding,” he confessed in a DW interview, “that's jazz! That's what I became a jazz musician for.” His father was a jazz trumpeter and his mother a classical singer. Jasper van't Hof received piano lessons at the age of five. With the jazz rock band “Association P.C.” he achieved his international breakthrough in the early 1970s. Soon after, he founded the band “Pork Pie”, and then in the mid-1980s the project “Pili Pili”, which combined European jazz with African music. His fame from that era still resonates today when Jasper van't Hof performs alone, as in Bonn.
A Capella at Jazzfest Bonn 2022: The Estonian Voices
Admittedly, van't Hof's hands play. But the facial features of the 74-year-old reflect the rhythm, melody and expression of his music even more. Sometimes loud, sometimes soft, sometimes hesitantly groping, then again heavily dragging or in hard staccato he forms the tones while he sings along with a red face. Sometimes he just sits there like a little boy, looking helplessly at the audience as if he were looking for the next musical idea, the next ingenious improvisation.
In the end, Jasper van't Hof rewards his audience a soulful piano ballad: “Quite American” is reminiscent of the spy novel of the same name by the British Graham Greene (1904-1991). It doesn't take long for the paraphrasing to set in. The Flying Dutchman smiles mischievously.
Happy singing by the Estonian Voices
Three men and three women – that's the a cappella sextet of the “Estonian Voices”. The young Estonians perform their own compositions, some of which are based on old, mystical folk songs, arranged by the young singer Kadri Voorand, who has received many awards in their homeland.
There is the “Song to the soap bubble”, ( “Hey, Mr. Bubble”), a reflection on outer beauty and inner emptiness. A piece revolves around the missed conversation with the father, which never took place until his death. The arrangements of the Estonian Voices around Kadri Voorand, a jazz musician of great expressiveness, are touchingly poetic, polyphonic and refreshingly cheerful despite all the melancholy.
What connected the jazz legend Jasper van't Hof with the Estonian vocal ensemble, that was then almost inevitably revealed to the listeners at the Bonn Jazz Festival: Yesterday and today of the musical style sound different. Even if the vocalists from Estonia lead him into more modern realms. In the end everything stays – jazz.