The Amsterdam Roots Festival (formerly World Roots Festival) is an annual festival held in June in Amsterdam, which features world music.

On Sunday, the open-air part of the festival was held in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam East. This year there were three South African groups: Jomba Junior a group of high school students from Durban, Zip Zap Circus a "circus school" group from Cape Town, and last not but least the Mahotella Queens from Johannesburg.

The Mahotella Queens play township music from the 80's and earlier. What is amazing is that they started in 1964. All three Queens are around 60 years old, and they are still going strong. They joke that women are much stronger than men, that all the men they've played with have died, but they're still singing.

    

I have posted a gallery of photos here.

This is absolutely bizarre:

The Erstes Wiener Gemüseorchester plays music on fresh vegetables.

If you're curious what zucchinis and carrots sound like, listen here to:

the Radetzky march
letschko 74
ambiente
(all in Real Media format)

The sound of 40 kg of finely tuned cucumbers, leeks, potatoes, radishes, peppers, aubergines and marrows entertained a German audience at a weekend concert by the Viennese Vegetable Orchestra.

The nine-piece orchestra plays a range of original compositions on instruments constructed from vegetables - including a flute made from a carrot, a saxophone carved out of a cucumber and a pumpkin converted into a double bass.

"I would never have thought you could get sound out of a cucumber," a young woman at the concert said.

Others commented on the raw vegetable aroma accompanying the melodies.
ABC News Online, 25 May 2004

Jorg Piringer, the lead musician, plays a "gurkophone" horn made from a hollowed cucumber, a green pepper and a carrot reed. Fresh vegetables are bought for each concert. Afterwards, a cook adds them to a big pot of soup or stew for the musicians and audience to eat.
Telegraph, 26 May 2004

See also: Transaccoustic Research

For do-it-yourself lovers: How to turn a rubber glove into your own bagpipes (parental supervision advisable)

Today was Koninginnedag (the queen's birthday) in the Netherlands. Although the 30th is celebrated as the queen's birthday, it is not her real birthday, it is actually the queen's mother's birthday. (The Queens Beatrix's mother, Juliana, passed away a few weeks ago.)

In any case, in Amsterdam the day is big street festival, a bit like carnival in other countries. The celebrations have little to do with the royalty, except that people dress up in orange, which is the colour of the House of Orange. It is more a day of national celebration.

People sell things (mostly old junk) on the street, children play music or sell home-made cookies. There are music bands and street theater (especially for children). It is just one big party. And a day when Amsterdammers feel closer to each other than on other days.

This year we went again to the Bredewegfestival in Watergraafsmeer in East Amsterdam. There is always a lot for children to do there, and the crowds are mostly locals, without any of the aggressive groups of young men which have become a problem in the city center.

Toos street orchestra played well and put on an entertaining show. The band Jazz Alert also kept things swinging.

I have posted a gallery here.

    

Listening to Nevada Drive is like watching a David Lynch movie. At first you’re seduced by a smooth sleekness. Soft alluring vocals, easy grooves, images of elegant young things reclining on designer couches. Next moment you’re swept off to a vast desert where siren-like creatures tempt and entice you. Then a soothing voice is whispering in your ear, bringing you back home. Where you are stranded with unanswered questions that linger in your mind for days.
[from Nevada Drive web site]

A few weeks ago I was listening to the radio while driving. ID-T Radio was playing this really dreamy music. Something made me relate to it. I memorized some of the lyrics so I could look it up later.

I did find what the music was later looking on google with some of the lyrics. It turned out to be a small Amsterdam group called Nevada Drive which consists of Rene Ahoud and Christien Oele.

You can listen to their music in low-bitrate Realplayer format on their website. My favorites are Not Here and Fragile Woman.

You can order their (home-burned) CD Fernweh on the site for 10 euros+postage. It is well worth it if you like their music.

I hope that this will be the model for music distribution by small groups in the future. I am glad to buy CDs directly from the actual artists. Or even to pay to download high-quality MP3s. I don't buy many CDs any more. I feel that most of the money goes to the record companies, the store and distribution. Through the repressive contracts record companies impose on their artists, the artists are almost completely dependent on the company's good will. The Internet has the potential to democratize and liberalize the music market. At least as long as the RIAA doesn't succeed in getting a throttlehold on the Internet as well as traditional music distribution.

In what I think represents a milestone in the music industry adapting to the Internet, singer George Michael has announced that in future he will offer he is going to offer his music on the Internet for anyone to download for free.

BBC News - George Michael shuns music industry