 HEY JAZZCATS & KITTENS.... By now, Gent Jazz 2010 has already started... Belgium's finest jazz festival has a fingerlickin' good programme this year... Tonite(09/07) Chick Corea's Freedom band is headlinin', tomorow Stanley Clarke and Thoots Thielemans are on the menu, ànd sunday (11/07) the Born To Jazz Movement (with Saxman!) plays everybody's favorite tracks in between and after RadioKukaOrkest, Jungle Boldie, Odean Pope & his All Star feat. Eddie Henderson (!) and Jeff Tain Watts, and the Pat Metheny Group with Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby and Antonio Sanchez !!! (i hope i get my Offramp-record signed this time)... Next week the deli-store stays open with Gilberto Gil, K&D, Gil Scott-Heron (!), Soil & 'Pimp' Sessions, Cinematic Orch and a lot, lot more... So get on the jazz & groove train, check it all out on www.gentjazz.com, and let's meet at de Bijloke....  JUST GREAT FUSION Canoneo 'desperately seeking fusion' - 1986, passport records Mike Mandel 'utopia parkway' - 1980, vanguard Hank Crawford 'tico rico' - 1977, kudu  Marc van den Hoof & Skallie at Gent Jazz.  Sweet M&M at the Jazz Union.  The Martian at the infamous KP-dj-boot.  animusdesign.be |
 Parkjazz 2010 was a blast Last weekend we, musiclovers, got 2 days of jazz under a bright shiny sun... On the bill for saturday were Alano Gruarin, Philip Catherine & Harmen Fraanje and the Ramon Valle trio, on sunday PJ served us the Free Desmyter trio, the Belmondo 4tet, Mose Allison (!) trio and Ray Anderson's Pocket Brass Band... The Born To Jazz Movement was playin before and in between the concerts on both days, woehaaa!! More on www.parkjazz.be.  WEEKLY SATURDAY JAZZ EVENING WITH THE BTJ-DJ'S.... JULY... 10- BURD 17- SWEET M&M 24- GIOVANNI 31- ELEK'TRICIA AUGUST... 07- SWEET M&M 14- BURD 21- PLATENDRAAIER SKALLIE 28- ELEK'TRICIA Starts around 9pm, free. Romen, Nonnenstraat, Roeselare! FULL CALENDAR ON CALLING ALL CATS.  SHARON REDD – REDD HOT – 1982 This was one of the better disco/Funk records of that time. It contains the unforgettable “Beat the street”, a real disco-tech monster. “Never give you up” is also a classic. There are no LP fillers here, all songs are good. The LP was released on Prelude records in 1982. Sharon’s voice is great here, as is Eric Matthew’s synth music. Too bad Sharon died in 1992, she’s remembered best by this album. It is still available on CD, with a few extra remixed tracks.  Latest issue of the holy book out now... the hip hop issue.. With all kinds of stuff bout the good ol' days.. EPMD, Krs-One, Ice Cube and Ice T.. Get it now... waxpoetics.com!  Sauna Eden A great place to relax and chill. Owner's got a great cd-collection too. Radio Modern Comin' on strong with the swing jazz, check these cats! SpicyPimps All about the nujazz, soul, brokenbeat, dancefloor jazz 'n hiphop.. Lady Linn Check out the cool swing sound.. Metronomic family A labour of love by Philarmonix.. Damberd café Legendary Jazz Café in Gent.. |
 www.gentjazz.com  A longtime friend of mine, and BTJ-dj, Burd has them: the Sunfire pre- and power amp combination. The signature versions were then, in 2002, the best components Sunfire had to offer, and they are hand signed on the front plate by the designer, Bob Carver. This guy was the design engineer with Phase Linear, Carver and, now, Sunfire. He patented many audio inventions, like the “tracking downconverter” power supply in this power amp. An explanation how this works can be found in a white paper right here!. Once upon a time, Burd lended me the two components, “for testing, trying”. Two large boxes filled the floor, quite a job unpacking. The power amplifier is a big box, with just one meter on the front page. This dial shows the energy available in the power supply! Typically Carver… I didn’t succeed later in playing so loud that you could see the power reserve getting less… The output is a staggering 600 wpc, thanks to the “tracking downconverter” supply. Instead of a fixed supply voltage on the power transistors, this supply varies with the music signal! It always stays only 6 volts above the music signal. You could say the supply is an amplifier in itself, which feeds the actual power amp. So the transistors stay cool, an can deliver lots of current without overheating. Brilliant! Bob Carver worked years on this… There is also a second output, which acts more like a “current source”. This is meant for electrostatic tweeters. Now for the pre-amp, also a special looking beast. The box is as big as that of the power amp, and it has a kind of rugged, metallic design. If Harley-Davidson made amplifiers, this is probably how they would look. A bit like Manley, too… Also one window here, which shows four vacuum tubes. Now, how does this all sound? I tried them on my Carver speakers, which have low efficiency. The result was awesome! How would I describe this? It’s like listening to the sea, sounds quiet, calm, but yet impressively powerful! All musical detail is restored precisely, really, I didn’t know my Carver speakers were that good. A wide, open sound field, very dynamic and yet restful. And then, that bass! I heard never anything like that! Very deep bass is suddenly there, not heard with other (good) amplifiers. This must be Levinson or Krell territory! This amp really makes your speaker shine with a perfect, dynamic, musical sound; what more could one ask? In this regard, maybe the units don’t seem so expensive as on the first sight… (Both components cost about 3000 euros). Now, Sunfire is rather involved in cinema surround systems. Further info can be obtained at sunfire.com or me, martin.staelens@skynet.be The Martian.  Sunfire Amp.  Sunfire Pre-Amp  This saturday, the 5th of june, BTJ kicks of with a series of jazz concerts... First up is Artet, these guys, winners of the Jong Jazz Talent award 2006, have been playin' together since 2005. Since then they got to open the µBlue Note Jazz Fest in 2007, and got their own JazzLab tour. Members are François Delporte, guitarist and composer of most of the songs, Ben Ramos on double bass, Lionel Beuvens hittin' skins and Tom Callens -yep, that's Saxman- on well, sax. Their debut cd 'Watts Up' is out now on the Belgian Werf-label. Entrance is 5€ to cover some expenses... So all, please be welcome to enjoy some qreat jazz with Artet! Saturday june 5, Mozaiek, Overleie, Kortrijk. Doors at 7.30pm, concert at nine. Also dj's Burd and Sweet M&M !!!, and also presentation of the new BTJ-logo, designed by world famous illustrator Ever Meulen... |
||
|
• top • |
||||