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First of all a special thanks to Michael van Droff, without whom Smooth Jazz would be still an unknown music genre in Germany. It is owing to his great efforts that we have the opportunity to visit great Smooth Jazz festivals here and listen to this kind of music on German radiostations. His activities as a musician, producer, labelowner, promoter, radio-dj and Smooth Jazz entrepreneur are far beyond your imagination. Through my contact to him I have a small idea of what he has been doing,and I must admit, there is no other who earns the recognition of the German Smooth Jazz community more. Under his label Michael presents a fascinating blend of Smooth Jazz, NAC, World Music and other fine music.
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So the music events, organized by him and his staff, stand out for an exquisite combination of top groups of the music scene. As a connoisseur of Smooth Jazz , I can appreciate the muscians he has invited. I have their albums, made reviews about their music and keep in touch with them by email. But nothing compares to a live show of my favorite musicians. It's rather like a musical paradise. Those who often attend Smooth Jazz concerts in the states can identify with my emotions. The Wave Music
festival took place in the ruins
of an old castle in Kaiserswerth nearby Düsseldorf - or as the Americans say
Dusseldorf - on Friday 25 August. It was a wonderful atmosphere
perfected by
serving delicious meals like tomato
slices on Italian Mozarella or shrimp salads with
lettuce.The sunshiny and warm weather brightened the mood of every visitor.
One could sample sun-matured Californian wine, German
beer or other drinks, relax and listen to the music. Scott Wilkie confirmed that he had never played in
such beautiful sourroundings. He delivered greetings Scott Wilkie
and his group (Matthew von
Doran - guitar, Nathan (Nate) Brown, bass, Ken Ross,
trumpet and David Derge, drums) were the starter and first
highlight of this festival. I have often listened to his albums Boundles
and More Than You Know.
Scott Wilkie took a mobile sythesizer guitar on
which he had collected scatting jazz voice samples and played like a demon. His
lifeappearance was so spectacular that the televison cameramen were running to
the front of the stage to get the right pictures of this Further tunes on Scott's playlist were Caught In The Current, Back From the Beach, Serious Pants, Whale Song and Water Ballons. So he played some pieces which cannot be found on either album. Scott Wilkie is also a master of modest tones as he manifests in his romantic tune Whale Song. The audience mixed by Smooth Jazz experts and newcomers was hollering and whooping. Anthony Weedon, a
CSR-star, was
the next highlight of this outstanding event. He presented his wellknown songs Well, Michael van Droff himself exhibited
his talent as a brilliant singer too. Sorry Michael, I was not
nearby the stage at this time, because I was having a lively conversation with Nathan
Brown, the bassist of Scott Wilkie's group at this time. Nathan
told me that he had already played with a lot greats of the Smooth Jazz scene
among others like Bob James (Bob, when will we finally see
you in Germany?), Kirk Whalum, Alexander Zonjic
and more. Nathan promised me to send his biography for my book of
artists, a growing collection of biographies of all artists of the Smooth Jazz
community. I told him about my dream to attend the Maui-festival
and the Smooth Jazz cruising tour. You have to know that the Maui-festival is
promoted by the Rozenbergs and to my surprise he remarked that Mr. Rozenberg is his manager. You can Gabriela
Anders & Latin Band enthralled the
After their appearance Annie told me that a new album will be coming out soon called Future Tribe. Guest-stars on this new album will be Brian Hughes and Angelique Kidjo. Brian Hughes 's music sounds like a smooth blended Pat Metheny. Angelique Kidjo is well-known through albums such as Ayé or Oremi. She sings African songs from Benin with groovy Hip-Hop and jazzy elements. So we can await an interesting multifaceted album.
A
short interlude was presented by Michael van Droff, who sang his Nature
Boy. Michael To
the special pleasure of the audience we had a new appearance of Gabriela Anders,
who liked the sourroundings and therefore decided to have a second show this
evening. Gabriela presented some of her pieces of the last evening accompagnied
by the CSR Band and partially by her maestro Hector
Martignon on keyboard, who delivered heavy jazzy solos.
Then
the event passed on
© HBH
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from Joan Lynch,
he had met on the Maui-Festival this year and we spoke about this and that. Scott
was
a little bit under
pressure, because he
couldn’t begin the sound check until very late. But Scott is a professional muscian and so
he soon
relaxed again and put on a great show.
As
Todd Ague from
Atlanta comments
"unlike many top performers, Scott is also very
accomplished in the technical arena. A MIDI/digital production virtuoso with
extensive background as a Roland Keyboards product specialist, he produces and
assists in the mixdown of all his material - recorded over a two year period at
his own state-of-the-art facility and other L.A. area studios". But I could
realize for the first time how incredibly masterfull his keyboard play is, when
he showcased his life performance. His first tune was Sign Of The Times
from his album More Than You Know. He
tortured his Roland keyboards with his racy and fierce attacks on the keys,
playing like a young Ludwig van
Beethoven. Follow ups were Sticks and Stones, Sailcat (Boundless), In Comes
The Ausgang.
moment and the
televisonproducer went on the deep end at the drop of the hat.
Why
Gone, Gunfighter, Real Love, Visions and I do from his album Visons.
This was a very important event for Anthony, so he was a little nervous before
his appearance reading his cribs to memorize his text. Covering his stage-fright
by cracking jokes. But then onstage he delivered a firework of energy and that
sent sparks through the audience. With
his rough voice reminiscent of Chris Rea, he captivated everyone present..
also hear Nathan
as a guest-star of the group 
audience
with fascinating Latin Jazz. Gabriela Anders 's first album is
called Wanting. Her music is a mixture of Vocal Jazz in the
tradition of Sade or Basia with a lot
of Latin
influences. Under the art supervision of Hector Martignon, a
blessed Columbian keyboardist, who played in a virtuous manner, Gabriela
and her Latin Band presented Navfragio and pieces
from her album like Wanting, Girl from Ipanema, Fire Of Love and Basileira. Final cut was
De Madrugada. Those who are
familiar with her music and her biography will know, that Gabriela is
not a beginner. Before signing with Warner Brothers Records she had
played in Japan, where she released her first album Fantasia (under
the name Beleza) on Alpha Music. Gabriela 's
perfomance was incredible vivid, she caresses every note of her songs with great
gestures. Outstanding were her brass section consisting of Ken Russ (trumpet), Cliff Lyons
(sax) and Louis Bonilla (trombone).
Crowning conclusion of the evening was to late hour
the CSR-star Slim Man professionally accompagnied by the
California Sunset Band (Ismael Diallo, sax, Lutz Deterra, keyboards, Kai Koschig,
guitar, Lars Koßler, bass, Andy Pilger, drums
and Renis Mendoza, percussion). One must know that the entry of
the event was at 6:00 pm and so
by this time we had already been there for 6 hours. Nevertheless Slim
Man tickled out the last energy from the exhausted audience. He filled the listeners with
enthusiasm with his mesmerizing pieces like There For You, Secret
Rendezvous, Weeping Willow, Overdose Of You, Faith In Us and Low
Rider. Before
his appearance Slim invited me to join his late-night new album party in the
Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten (Four seasons). But after his grandiose show at 1:00 am,
my wife and I had aching backs and feet and were totally powered out.
Nevertheless
we were attracted by the event at the following day on 26 August. The
first group was 
sounds
like a mix of world music from Australian aboriginies to Buddhistic monk songs
blended with Smooth Jazz elements on a background of African and Hip-Hop
rhythm. This rhythm makes the music danceable and accessible. 
Anthony
Weedon was the
next performer. His presentation was professional and
the audience was fascinated by his rough voice again. Anthony is
working on a new album, which will probably have the title "Julie
says". Remarkable were besides the above mentioned accompanying
CSR-Band also the background-singers Josef Götz and Kathrin
Mander. A surprise was his encore Knock On Wood, which he
had studied in with the California
Sunset Band behind the stage some minutes before.
has a perfect intonation and a long breath as Josef Götz
also remarked.
to the final highlight of this festival: 
id's
Stuff. He understands how
to play upbeat tunes at a sizzling speed like Street
Dance and to search the sensible tones as in the #1 Smooth Jazz
hit Here In My Heart. Rob Mullins, Vail
Johnson and Joe Taylor also jammed in racy solos. On
What's Goin' On, Let's Stay Together and Come together Art Madison joined the band with his soulful voice. The audience
was really impressed by their music. After
the event, the band was celebrated by a huge group of fans buying autographed
albums. The
best way to win new fans: just play like a God. Isn't it easy? What more
can I wish for? A new festival next year!