North Sea Jazz Festival

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of going to the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands. If you are a lover of music you have to go to one of these things. This is how it is....You pay a healthy price for tickets, but it includes ALMOST everything in the venue (select guest require an additional 20 Euro). They put a bunch of soulful music (of all genres) under one roof and just let them do their thing. But there are some exceptions, Snoop Dogg was there. I am just going to reflect on the weekend's events. Friday: Terence Blanchard, Bilal, Jamie Cullum ...excellent. The Roots were one of the best performances there, hands down!! Buena Vista Social Club- I looked at like a fool when I didn't know they were, but they were impressive. Apparently originators of the Cuban Jazz scene. Al Green was Al Green. Marcus Miller...good Bass player. Saturday: Raul Midon..had his CD for 3 years and performance was even better. India Arie surprised him on stage. He mistaken her for a man initially (He's blind). But after hitting higher notes, he got it. India Arie packed the largest room there and I don't think anyone left with a bad thing to say. She was awesome. Keb Mo (who used to always perform in Charleston but had never seen) was good! I enjoyed his blues. Oh, my mama would just eat that blues talk up! Lura, Portuguese Singer was cool...heavy African influence. Sunday: the worst night Amy Winehouse CANCELLED. This was the main show that I wanted to see and she pulled the okie-doke on us. Not sure I was surprised. Chanto Dominguez was entertaining with this flamboyant dude dancing up front. Good Spanish music + over the top dude dancing = great entertainment. Sly and the Family Stone were okay. Sly performed for about 20 minutes and looked like he was in pain. Not a good look. He still had some voice though. Snoop Dogg was good for what he is. I left during his show because all of THAT gets old. I realized that I am definitely not a fan of most of his songs. They could have, should have booked an old school rap or good hip hop artist. If you ever have the opportunity, go to major Jazz Festival near you. You can't beat getting good music like this under one roof.