Keep Swinging Blog Poll 2010 - a review

Keep Swinging Blog Poll 2010 - a review (English) - Keep Swinging blog 2010: een terugblik (Nederlands)

2006-2011 - Keep Swinging blog 5 years
KEEP SWINGING BLOG Poll 2010 - a review
Hans Koert

In the last week of 2010 te visitors of the Keep Swinging blog voted for their Best Keep Swinging blog for 2010. There were 12 nominates. Today the results.

Nobumasa Mario Takada en Takashi Nakayama at 't Ey in Belsele (Belgium) ( January 2010) ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

This time of the year lends itselfs to look back and to make plans for the future. In the previous period you could vote for your most popular blog for 2010 and the results are listed below. I received a few additions from visitors who missed their blog in the selection I nominated. Well, they are right. Some wondered why Oscar Alemán was missing and Harry missed the contribution about the new Ramblers reissue, entitled: The Ramblers: Recordings from Post-war Brussels.
Tomotaka Matsui at 't Ey in Belsele (Belgium)(January 2010) ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

1. Sweet Hollywaiians: Tropical Sounds in a Chilly Belsele

The Japanese String Band The Sweet Hollywaiians visited Europe early 2010. One of the concerts was scheduled in 't Ey in Belsele, a small village near Sint Niklaas (Belgium) 23rd of January, 2010. Love to share with you some fragments of that concert.

Annette Hanshaw ( 1901 - 1983)

2. Annette Hanshaw: a Great Vocalist Annette Hanshaw: I hated those records

A legendary and attractive vocalist from the 1920s and 30s was the major subject in two blogs around this popular star: Annette Hanshaw.

Catherine Russell at De Drvkkery in Middelburg, October 2010. (photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

3. Catherine Russell warms up a wet and chilly Middelburg Inside This Heart of Mine

On the 23rd of October 2010 Catherine Russell gave an in-store concert at The Drvkkery bookshop in Middelburg, in the southwest part of The Netherlands, as a start of her Dutch tour.
Enjoy a fragment of a performance at the VPRO program Vrije Geluiden:

Fapy Lafertin (right) and Koen de Cauter ( left) in an homage to the music of Django (Theater Dongepark / De Volkaert in Dongen (November 2010) (photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

I made myself a list of the best and most impressive concerts for 2010. It is good to see that the Sweet Hollywaiians is in your list of Best Blogs 2010 too. Other favorite concerts where the Farewell concert by Hein Van de Geyn and an Homage to Django by Le Manouche anno 2010, as Joep Peeters, the leader of the Fapy Lafertin-Koen De Cauter-Joep Peeters and the Jazz Manouche. The two others were Al di Meola in Middelburg and the Rick Margitza - Ivan Paduart Trio in Porgy en Bess - Terneuzen.
Everybody knows that it's hard to remember the impact or importance of the passed concerts after some months - most details have been forgotten and for me it is important that I safe the information of the concerts I've joined in my list of concerts for 2010 and the Keep Swinging blog reviews and photos I published in the blog.
Hein Van de Geyn: Farewell concert at Porgy en Bess Jazz club- Tenreuzen ( September 2010) ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

The Dutch Jazz Magazine Jazzism looks back with an article entitled Toppers & Dompers 2010. Domper can best translated as Damper. A rather debatable list of things that seem to go well and things we have to take leave of, like the sudden death of Solomon Burke or the farewell of Hein Van de Geyn. The fact that one of the leading record stores in Rotterdam, IT-records, closed its doors a year ago, worries me too, but what about the story of remains of glue that make the "Miles Davis - The Complete Columbia Album Collection" ( 70 records (!~) almost unplayable. This great box is out of reach for most of us. What really worries me is the fact that the new government of The Netherlands wants to reduce the culture budget with 25 percent. I'm afraid that this will be the end for dozens of small jazz clubs all around the country. A dramatic decrease for the cultural diversity.

Hope Jazz can make for you life easier this year: enjoy my suggestion for 2011.

Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl

This year, 2011, the Keep Swinging blog celebrates its 5th anniversary - it started in February 2006 as a daily blog in English about jazz and jazz-related music; now it has developed to a bi-langual blog with more then 140,000 visitors a year. It offers records and concert reviews and articles about long forgotten musicians and their neglected music. The visitors of the Keep Swinging blog voted their best blogs for 2010:

Concert Sweet Hollywaiians (22%)
Annette Hanshaw ( 19%)
Catherine Russell in-shop concert (16%)
Homage to 100 years Django (13%)
Hein Van de Geyn - Farewell concert ( 9%)
Ger Van Leeuwen: a forgotten piano player (6%)
Louis Armstrong's Teens in New Orleans (3%) Philip Catherine - Bert van den Brink (3%) Hot Five and Hot Seven rediscovered (3%) Ed Kirkeby's first meeting with Fats (3%)
The rest of the selected blogs had no points.

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