Badenscher Hof

Hello one and all,

Sorry for last night, but now the details. I don't want to be cliche, but I'm going to be. I dug it. That's really the only way to describe last night. It was a lot of fun. Good food, good drinks, good company, and good music. The venue turned out to be great. I was absolutely clueless about the place that I had picked. It could've been a dump. It could have had crummy music. It could have been completely wrong, but it wasn't. The whole place was reasonably small, but it created a nice atmosphere. The room where the band played had space for about 5 tables, and pictures of artists lined the walls. All in all, it was a nice, small environment that cried out for some smooth, smooth jazz.

The band was good. They weren't great by any means, but they were good. To be honest, the "front man," if you will, was probably the weakest part. I was less than impressed with his tenor sax playing. I would have been completely satisfied had he not been there. I could listen to a piano solo over a drum and bass vamp all night long. The pianist wasn't out of this world but got better as the night went on. The drummer and the bassist were great. There were times in the night when I wished I didn't know anything about music because then I wouldn't have thought things like "Eh, he could have done more with those dynamics," or "Maybe that didn't fit so well," but if I didn't know anything about music then I wouldn't be in a jazz club in the first place. Ultimately, it was a really relaxing evening.

For the second to last number, the sax player invited to gentlemen up to play. I noticed them sitting in the crowd earlier because they were both really into the music. A few "woo's" and "yea's" and some major head nodding. Turns out, they were musicians from America--one from Detroit, MI and the other from Savannah, GA. The Savannah man played drums and was decent (I preferred the German drummer). The Detroit man played sax and was much, much better than his German counterpart. I have posted some PICTURES of the night, and it is interesting to look at the difference in the two players. You can really get a sense of it because I had to use a longer shutter to take these pictures. A brief photography aside--I hate using a flash. Because it was dark, I used a longer shutter on my camera. The long shutter, as you might guess, keeps the shutter open longer than usual and allows more light to enter. But because it is open longer than usual, it doesn't capture a single instance, but rather a second or two. This can make things blurry, or create a neat affect. The UBahn photograph in the post below is a photo I took using the long shutter, as are all of the jazz photos. So, check out the photos and compare the motion of the two artists.

All in all, it was a successful night. My classmates had a fun time as did I. I was a little worried because I wanted to go to a club, and I felt like it was my job to provide good entertainment for not only me, but also my classmates who wanted to come along. I believe it was a great success. I also love the universality of music. This is now my second jazz club that I've visited outside the United States (the other--Vietnam). People from all different cultures and all different countries can appreciate what message music has to offer. Whether it be jazz, classical, rock, rap, etc, etc, etc, it brings people together. Our group consisted of 2 Americans, 1 Canadian, a Slovenian, and a Swiss. No telling where the rest of the audience resided (or maybe they were all Germans, who knows). I felt comfortable listening to the jazz, and I could sit back, drink my beer, and enjoy the music with others from all over the world. I think that's one thing that makes music so attractive. It can speak to everyone.

I'll sign off before I start rambling. In short--German jazz club, thumbs up. America might export things like McDonald's and professional wrestling, but it also exports jazz. And that is quite alright by me.

Deutsches Wort des Tages:

der Jazz -- jazz