Roditi - Ignatzek - Rassinfossa: Nobody's Perfect

Roditi - Ignatzek - Rassinfosse: Nobody's Perfect( English) Roditi - Ignatzek - Rassinfosse: Niemand is volmaakt ( Nederlands)

Great performance in Porgy en Bess - Terneuzen
RODITI - IGNATZEK - RASSINFOSSE: NOBODY'S PERFECT
Hans Koert

Some concerts will be remembered - one of these was a performance by the Roditi, Ignatzek, Rassinfosse Trio - a three man group that impressed me in 2004 at the Dutch Porgy en Bess Jazz Club in Terneuzen ( no, not to be mixed up with that Austrian one, which doesn't swing like the Dutch Porgy en Bess, to quote mr. Roditi himself). On the 17th of October 2004 these three men: Claudio Roditi, Klaus Ignatzek and Jean-Louis Rassinfosse performed at the club’s stage at the Noordstraat in Terneuzen. So it was great news to learn that these men would return exactly 5 years and one day later.
Jean-Louis Rassinfosse ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)
The concert at the Porgy en Bess Jazz Club, the 18th of October, 2009, by the Roditi-Ignatzek-Rassinfosse Trio was part of their European tour 2009 - a one month tour, with 22 concerts (!) in eight different countries.

The Roditi - Ignatzek - Rassinfosse Trio in Porgy en Bess (October 2009) ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

Claudio Roditi, was born in Rio de Janeiro ( nobody is perfect was his comment) in May 1946. He started to play the piano at the age of six and he demonstrated in the encore, the last tune of the concert, in the Jobim standard Girl from Ipanema that he still can play it, and when he was ten he picked up the trumpet. He worked for some times as a studio musician in Brazil before he came to the States to study at the Berklee School of Music early 1970s. He quickly integrated with the local jazz scene: When I arrived in the States I wore my best suit and a tie and within a few weeks I had my hair grown, wearing a leather jacket with fringes all over and that stuff, like a real hippie.

Jean-Louis Rassinfossa ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

He performed with numerous musicians and was present at hundreds of recording sessions with names like: Charlie Rouse and Ron Carter ( some of his earliest records in 1976 were with a group featuring these two giants); Herbie Mann, the Dizzy Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra and Slide Hampton's Jazz Masters; Paquito D' Rivera, Gary Bartz, Jim Hall, McCoy Tyner and Horace Silver. In the 1980s he became a sought after trumpet player thanks to his lively frontline sound, that Brazilian Ting and so he met Klaus Ignatzek.

Claudio Roditi ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

Their first recording together was the Don't Stop It Timeless album by the Klaus Ignatzek Group featuring Claudio Roditi, recorded in Bremen (Germany) May 1987. Around that same date Jean-Louis Rassinfosse recorded with the Klaus Ignatzek Trio accompanying Anca Parghel, a Romanian jazz vocalist who passed away in Timisoara 10 months ago. The Roditi-Ignatzik-Rassinfosse Trio, started in the late 1980s as a quintet; the album Eight Languages by this Klaus Ignatzik Quintet referred to the eight languages the members spoke, Jean-Louis explained: We spraken Engels en Portugees, Vlaams en Frans, Duits, Italiaans ( Gustavo Bergalli), Zweeds en Deens (Leroy Lowe) (= We could speak English and Portuguese, Flemish and French, German, Italian, Danish and Swedish.). As a trio they recorded their first album Light in the Dark in Brussels, May 2004. Three skilled musician, playing together for almost twenty five years- that must be a solid team ............

Claudio Roditi ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

During the first set the trio brought some tracks from their latest album, Beyond Question, like Early Hours, Pleasant Journey, both Ignatzek composition and a co-production between Ignatzek and Johann Sebastian Bach himself, a new arrangement of Bach's Air, surprised the audience ( Change of Air).

Claudio Roditi ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

Claudio Roditi turned out to be a great entertainer on stage, telling stories about the period that drugs (LSD) and jazz were a solid team, jokes about the pope and the pizza delivery boy and about tunes to perform, like Blues for Rony, about a New Jersey producer of the same name he likes very much.

Why are you playing all those originals, mr. Roditi? Well, someone has to play my compositions! ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

In this last tune of the first set the audience learned that Jean-Louis is a great bass player on his 5-string double bass ( Waarom is vijf snaren gebruik? Wel, omdat ik vijf vingers heb)( = Why I use a five-string double bass? Well, because I have five fingers), which gives him the possibility to play and extensive range of notes, between a low B up to a high C. Als ik met het vliegtuig ga, neem ik altijd mijn Van Zalinge bas mee, een collector's item ondertussen. ( = When I have to fly I always take my Van Zalinge bass - a collector's item now). In his solo he mixed, seemingly with ease, dozens of fragments from other tunes. A great bass player – a pleasant to listen to.

Roditi - Ignatzek - Rassinfosse Trio in Porgy en Bess (October 2009) ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)
Het lijkt wel op een reis in de tijd, Jean-Louis said during the break, observing the club, of er niets is veranderd ( = It looks like a trip back in time - nothing seems to have been changed). Jean-Louis performed in this same club, almost 25 years ago, with Chet Baker in a legendary concert featuring Philip Catherine and Jean-Louis Rassinfosse. In the second set, Claudio Roditi, who promised to come back to Terneuzen, having a hotel here and eating sea food, opened with the tune Light in the Dark, the Ignatzek composition of their first album as a trio and tunes like Love Dance. They finished the performance ( I hate the word concert, Claudio said) with a vocal version of Girl from Ipanema, which learns that he has a great voice singing the Brazilian standards and he surprised the audience with a whistle and a three-hands duet solo at the piano with Klaus Ignatzek.
A whistle and three-hands-duo solo by Roditi and Ignatzek ( Porgy en Bess - Terneuzen)(October 2009) ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

It was a pity that but few people had found the Porgy en Bess Jazz club. These three friends, gathering each year for a short tour, enjoyed playing together and loved to share their passion for jazz with the audience. Nobody's Perfect, seems to be Roditi's motto - but this trio proved in Porgy en Bess that they could serve an almost perfect performance. Thanks for that! Another memorable concert in the more then 50 years history of Porgy en Bess.

Hans Koert

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