Nguyen Lé Trio and Kit Downes bring a rainbow of sounds to New Colours Jazz Festival

The New Colours Jazz Festival was started last year after organisers Susanne Pohlen & Bernd Zimmerman, who run monthly jazz concerts, identified demand in the region for a late summer festival.

Gelsenkirchen is in the heart of the Ruhr industrial area and although heavy industry has long been declining, the area is rich in former mining buildings that have been repurposed as small to medium sized art centres and venues - perfect for jazz concerts.

The festival featured 16 concerts at 11 venues with 50 musicians and 1,300 attendees and started in style with the Nguyen Lé Trio at the KAUE club – a part of the former Wilhelmine Victoria Colliery. Lé was joined by Canadian bassist Chris Jennings and Moroccan percussionist Rhani Krija for a brilliant mixture of world/jazz with South Asian and North African overtones. The music is cinematic and evocative, ‘Red City’, ‘Moonstone’ and the brilliant encore ‘Tiger Dance’ matching the promise of the titles with filmic passion. The venue was perfectly suited to the music – the audience wrapped around the small stage and were drawn into the story book world of the compositions.

Another former colliery ‘Nordsternturm’, with the venue located 60 metres up its tower in the main winding room is a truly spectacular location for music - see the photo below. The winding gear, still in place, means the audience and performers find themselves right in the heart of this magnificent piece of mining history.

The concert, one of the highlights of the festival, featured Hurdy Gurdy exponent Matthias Loibner alongside Lucas Niggli on drums and percussion. The Hurdy Gurdy is a work bench of an instrument with main strings that are activated by a turned rosined hand wheel that acts like a violin bow – there are also drone strings that create a constant pitch.

Loibner feeds this through pedals, effects and his computer to create a soundscape totally unique, mesmerising in its intensity and beauty. Niggli complemented this perfectly –seamlessly colouring and punctuating the waves of sound that swirled around the massive engines, winding wheels and cables where once dozens of men toiled. The ovation at the end was justified for both the performance and location.

Schloss Horst is a beautiful 16^th century castle that hosted five concerts during the festival. The original outside wall of the castle is enclosed by a massive glass superstructure and the ancient wall acts as a splendid backdrop for events at the castle.

Saxophonist Maxime Bender opened the series of concerts at this venue with special guest Daniel Humair on drums. Bender is an intense player and a gifted composer happily moving between composed and free sections with Benjamin Moussay on piano and Stéphane Kerecki on bass, and the interplay between the four was excellent.

The Luxembourg pianist Jerome Klein played an enjoyable set as did the Belgium trio Dishwasher – the sax and synths playing of leader Werend Van Den Bosche very different and interesting.

The best set was kept for last from the Spanish pianist Daniel Garcia and his trio. Drawing on his own heritage of Flamenco and also influenced by his mentor Danilo Perez this was a truly fiery set. Garcia is an excellent pianist who can play hard and fast as well as adding vocals on the more gentle and sensitive numbers. Reinier Elizarde on bass and Michael Olivera on drums are equally accomplished and together they make a formidable trio.

On Sunday morning in the Matthäuskirche, Kit Downes (above) gave an astonishing performance on the church organ. I was very fortunate to be sitting a few feet away from Downes as he played his hour-long concert. I could see at first hand the skill involved in not just playing this instrument but using it in ways that its maker (Karl Schuke) could not have imagined. The organ wheezes and breathes - almost coming to life alongside the melodies and harmonies Downes creates.

Sometimes minute adjustments of the organ stops measured in millimetres, sometimes having to use his foot to do it or simply turning the air on and off make vastly different sounds giving the impression of some form of advanced electronics. The concert was mostly improvised but sounded like a composed piece of music such was the effortless transition Downes made between the sections. A beautiful and thought-provoking concert.

Another new venue for this year was Scharoun School – when built by Hans Scharoun post war it was revolutionary in design and features a stunning auditorium architecturally reminiscent of the Philharmonie in Berlin. The concert featured Cuban pianist Ramón Valle with Omar Rodrigues Calvo on bass and Jamie Peet on drums. Like Daniel Garcia’s set earlier in the festival this was a very much an up-tempo set but with vastly different influences. Valle is a much more romantic player and his themes of love and friendship with the Latin American toe tapping rhythms full of life and very enjoyable.

The final concert of the festival featured German soul-funk band De-Phazz who are touring to celebrate their 25^th anniversary. The band are very popular in Germany and the concert held in Heikig Kreuz Church (no longer a church now a large performing arts centre) was almost sold out. The band are very slick featuring two vocalists, sax, fender Rhodes, bass and drums. The audience knew the material and so the show had a great party atmosphere with lots of audience participation and was great way to end the festival.

This was the second New Colours Festival and it continued the high standard set last year. Gelsenkirchen has many interesting and quirky venues which the organisers recognise gives their festival something a little different. Let us hope that the current enthusiasm (and financial support) from the Mayor and regional government continue so the festival can grow and sustain its extremely bright start.