Rite of Spring
April 28th, 2006 . by Sandra
Last night i went to the first concert night of The Reykjavík Rite of Spring festival at Nasa. The festival is held by Mr. Destiny who is also reasonable for bringing us The Iceland Airwaves festival every year. The Reykjavík Rite of Spring festival focuses on cutting edge folk, jazz and world music. Being the music addict i am i just had to buy myself a ticket for the festival. On thursday i went to see the brazilian jazz guitar maestro Ife Tolentino. And i have to tell you that i was not disappointed! That super sweet bossanova guitar jazz just win’s me over every time. And to me Portuguese should be the official jazz language. There’s just something about Portuguese… its soft like the finest silk and floats around the notes. Ife Tolentino’s singing was just as beautiful as his guitar playing. He preformed with one of my favorite Icelandic saxophonist Óskar Guðjónsson and jazz guitarist Ómar Guðjónsson.
Next up was Mezzoforte but i only lasted one song with them. I just didn’t have it in me to spoil those beautiful brazilian bozzanova tunes still playing in my head. Plus i’ve never really understood the popularity of Mezzoforte. I remember traveling in German when i was a kid and going to record stores and always seeing copies of Mezzoforte albums along side with Sugercubes albums. Ok i can totally understand why they would have albums with the Sugercubes but not Mezzoforte. What can i say its not that they aren’t excellent musicians its just their music isn’t appealing to me.
But i was really happy about Ife’s performance and i do hope that Ife comes back to Iceland to play for us as promised. Check out his lastest album called Brazil in Black & White- a Tribute to Chico Buarque.