Jan Akkerman: North Sea Jazz Legendary Concerts

Rating: ★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Eric Vloeimans (t)
Brown Hill (v)
Coen Molenaar (kys)
Wilbrand Meischke (b)
Marijn van den Berg (d)
Jan Akkerman (g)
Shockwave (rap)

Label:

North Sea Jazz

April/2014

Catalogue Number:

BCCD13.008

RecordDate:

1993, 2005, 2011

A double-header of live CD and concert DVD, Akkerman fans will enjoy this run through of the illustrious guitar man's hits. Obviously relaxed on home turf, Akkerman's workouts have a jazzier edge than may otherwise be caught on album, notably on a swinging ‘Pietons’ replete with joyous trumpet. But Akkerman, for all his influences (no sign of the lute here), rarely strays far from his rock fundaments. He's most at home on a crunching blues like ‘Burger's Blues’, recorded with Thijs van Leer's band, thus evoking memories of Focus. The nostalgia continues with a compulsory run through of ‘Hocus Pocus’ (Wot! No yodeling!) and a detour to ‘Sylvia’. Not so satisfying is that the DVD material virtually mimics the CD's content. The cover notes are iffy, and, magically ‘Streetwalker’ morphs into ‘Sleepwalker’ on the DVD, itself a dodgy meander into rap and euro-soul. But dodgy don't come into it when it comes to Vloeimans luminous pants. Sometimes, you know, you just don't need a visual.

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