WARFHUIZEN - Every stage has its golden rules. At Roodehaan in Warfhuizen by 11 p.m. at the latest it must be quiet. With some imagination it is possible to picture how manager Teus stands in front of the band and lectures these restrictions to them strongly, because he also requires this of his camping guests. Otherwise the plug will be pulled! However, an uprising threatened to happen at 11 p.m. at the performance of Saskia Laroo's Funky 5 if an encore would not ensue, and leader of the uprising was.... Teus. On eminent exception they sinned indulging in Saskia Laroo with her band ending the concert after eleven with a fine, swinging jam as an encore: a beautiful ending to a performance that threatened to get lost in the rain during the first few minutes, but Laroo blew hard a few times on her trumpet and the next instant the audience was dancing in the moonlight. Saskia Laroo, the Dutch jazz trumpet player living in the United States with her husband Warren Byrd, performs with great success all over the world and regularly returns to the Netherlands. All, however, had to be worked to fit logistically, and after eight years of negotiating and comparing calendars, the band finally had this stage at the Reitdiep. It was worth the wait. Laroo likes to mix styles and although the show was called "Jazz meets Hiphop", blues, pop, reggae, funk and afrobeat also came along, too. The evening opened with 'Ya Know How We Do' where Laroo’s trumpet was the resting point and MC Complex fiercely rapped around it and in which also the other band members Warren Byrd on keys and vocals, Sven Rozier on drums and bassist Daniel IJburg could introduce themselves with a solo—a wonderful and good working combination. The tone thereby set, the band happily continued with 'Jazz & Jam' and 'China Swing'. Time for a rest after this swinging opening with a tribute to the great jazz names in 'Courtesy to Coltrane' and 'Night Garden' a relaxed hip-hop song. One cannot quietly connect with the more than danceable 'Africa Dancin', which was written for a tour of Laroo to Zimbabwe, yielding a very fine album with this beyond swinging Afrobeat song. The crowd in front of the stage got down even deeper before the break on festive songs like 'Jazz Party' and 'Big Blues' before it was time to give the dance-worn feet a respite and soothe hoarsened throats. Whoever thought that the party was already halfway through was wrong. An excellent formation with the uplifting master of ceremony once fiercely and then more smoothly rapping MC Complex, the soulful, jazzy sounds of the keys of Warren Byrd, the rhythmic playing of Daniel IJburg and the engine in the back Sven Rozier served to emphasize and strengthen the phenomenal playing of Laroo. Saskia Laroo is rightly world famous and that was underlined in the wonderfully relaxed but very swinging second set with the beautiful 'Moving & Grooving', the very nice 'Same Song', a trip to the reggae with 'Supagroove' and another trip to Miles Davis with 'Shout'. Delightful music and in the second half of the gig the audience became even more involved, following their noses to the dance floor and with full-chests singing along. The end came with a nifty jam in which songs like 'Rapper's Delight' from the Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's big hit 'The Message', 'Celebrations' by Kool and the Gang and lots of other hits were processed until they finally arrived at of 2 Unlimited’s 'No Limit' and then eleven o’clock struck: Party over. However that was figured minus the disclaimer of Teus. A delightful, musically excellent and very festive performance, in which all these styles became a very luscious assembly, finally came to an end.
Written in Dutch by Richard Wagenaar for The next Gig
Translated by Warren Byrd