After the success of last year’s educational week for 10 young jazz musicians from 5 EU countries, the event was repeated this year and I had again the pleasure to be part of one of the sessions about the music industry and the major labels.
The participants this year were:
Airelle Besson (tp) and Guillaume Perret (sax) from France
Marcos Baggiani (dr) and David Kweksilber (cl) from Holland
Per Zanussi (bass) and Daniel Herskedal (tuba) from Norway
Piotr Damasiewicz (tp) and Marcin Masecki (p) from Poland
Arun Ghosh (cl) and Chris Sharkey (git) from the UK
The mix of performance related teaching and talks about every aspect of the music business should make it easier for these musicians to control their careers. From preparing to go onstage in the best frame of mind to music workshops under the experienced guidance of John Surman, the week was an intense education for the 10 artists. And from the way questions were asked and conversations conducted, one could see that they all tried to make the best of this week.
The result of the John Surman supervised music sessions, all 10 musicians had a to bring one compositions to be performed by the group under the lead of the composer, will be some concert dates in all participating countries throughout 2013 – I will for sure go and see them in Rotterdam at the North Sea Jazz Festival.
From the 2 music sessions I attended, it was clear that all musicians were able to play on a very high level, as well as having no problem in working within and for the ensemble. After just three days they already sounded like one …Can’t wait to hear them after a few more rehearsals.
Take Five Europe for me is an exemplary event giving two handful of young musicians a great platform to move forward from in their careers.