Arve Henrickson @ Cheltenham Jazz Festival 09
It was my first time visiting the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, now in its 14th year and it was……interesting. We went to see Arve Henrikson at the Town Hall in a room called The Pillar Room. They weren’t kidding about it being the Pillar Room – it was the most ridiculous room to have such an interesting artist perform in as you were constantly competing with the huge marble pillars all over the place so getting a position where you could view the full performance was near impossible.
With tickets priced they way they were i get really annoyed when you cant see the artist. Many people took to standing up for the entire performance just to get to see anything whilst others gave up and just simply sat with their eyes closed taking the sounds in.
All that moaning aside…back to the music. Now, its very different from listening to the cds at home or in the car to then hearing this craziness live. For me the shock factor came when Arve started singing into his trumpet and i thought, ‘hang on a minute, wheres this womans singing coming from’?! To then realising, it was him! Singing like a Bee Gee!!!! Seriously, the way Arve used the trumpet to create some amazing sounds was unbelievable. He was like a one man orchestra. He was supported by a electronic DJ type chap whos name i cant remember but was entertaining with his harsh headbanging knob twirling!!
The music reminded me of a combinationa of Twin Peaks / Massive Attack / Close Encounters – strange combo i know, but thats what was going through my mind.
The last track Arve performed was beautifully melodic and was by far the evening highlight. Shame the Arve wasnt given more time to do his thing because before you knew it, it was time to exit.
So quite simply – interesting gig, crap venue, go get the cd if you havent already.
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