Trumpet & Travel #2 - Monk'estra in Europe Part 2
Welcome back to Brian Swartz's Trumpet & Travel Blog! For my 2nd installment, I'll be covering July 7th & 8th, 2017 and the performances by John Beasley's Monk'estra at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam.
I know it seems awfully "touristy" of me, but since I'm not the one driving, I enjoy taking pictures of the cities that I'm visiting while being transported to gigs. On this day, July 7th, the Monk'estra was being taken over to the Rotterdam Ahoy Convention Center, the location of the North Sea Jazz Festival. Here are some pictures I snapped of the streets of Rotterdam while on the shuttle.
Once we arrived at the venue and got checked in, we made our way to the Hudson stage where we would be performing at 5:30pm.
Here's a link to a fan video that was posted on YouTube of our performance at North Sea.
After our performance, several of the guys in the band went to hear Wayne Shorter's Quartet with the Casco Philharmonic.
The next day, July 8th, I had the chance to walk around the neighborhood around the hotel. The streets of Rotterdam are full of sculptures and interesting architecture. My walk was timed pretty well, because as I was leaving, Herbie Hancock was checking in and I snapped a picture of him talking with saxophonist Bob Sheppard.
That pretty much brings our trip to the North Sea Jazz Festival to an end. In my next Trumpet & Travel blog entry, I'll show you July 9th & 10th when John Beasley's Monk'estra traveled through the "chunnel" to London to perform at Ronnie Scott's.