Swinging Worship

Some days ago I posted a note about the Bremen Jazz Festival.
Today it was the last day of the festival and it was a sunny day, so we intended to join the crowd again. First we took part in the worship held in the St. Petri Dom and a band of the Bremen Jazz Festival, the "Swing Company" was the musical support inside the church. They played songs like "When the Saints", "Amen", "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen" and lots of german traditionals too. Well, I like participating in the worship and especially in such famous and impressive churches as the Bremen "St. Petri Dom", but I did not like the music, I did not like the way how the sermon was preached. So, I let my thoughts flow free into this wide church and when my soul landed back in reality, I felt as if only 10 minutes and not 90 minutes had passed.

But I really was proud of Jale who was with us and she was such a good girl for all this long 90 minutes. What a great personality already!!!

After the worship, we spent more then 4 hours in Bremen city again, listening to the music, strolling around, having some snacks and cookies. But it was not as nice as it was some days before. Why??? Well, all shops were opened this sunday afternoon (usually in germany all shops are closed on sundays), the sun was shining and a lot of music was flooding the streets of the city centre. It was a huge crowd...everyone was friendly and relaxed but it was full of people and you had to queue everywhere for everything. Not really "my cup of tea"...Besides that, the music today was more like Jazz for old aged, not like an adventureous trip.

Anyway it was a good day for us and for some hours I forgot that tomorrow will be my first working day again after 6 weeks of absense....omg...how can that possibly work out good at all?????????????????

Bremen Jazz Festival

Today we visited the Bremen Jazz Festival.
On 3 stages in the city centre of Bremen there will be about 200 musicians performing Jazz and Swing music of different kinds. From traditional New Orleans Jazz to Blues, Free Jazz, Son/Salsa, Improvisations and old fashioned smooth and soft Swing.

It was the first time that Jale was with us late in the evening and we all enjoyed it so much. The first band we met near a shopping mall. A marching band from Netherlands performing the traditional New Orleans Jazz on the streets. Jale had a 30 minutes warm-up for dancing here ;-)

Around 8.00 p.m. we were at the biggest stage on market square to join the concert of the "Flying Soul Toasters". That was impressive!!! A band of 10 musicians including a fantastic horn section and 3 singers. All dressed in black suits and wearing sunglasses they were performing a party-music. They played power Blues and Soul songs of a wide range from Blues Brothers Band, James Brown, Aretha Franklin etc. etc. That was the perfect music for an open-air party and none was able to stand still there. A perfect concert!

After we danced an hour in the first row, Jale began to get tired and so we made our way back to the car. On our way, there was another stage where a band called "Casino" was performing improvisations on traditional Cuban Son and Salsa music. They played "unplugged" and it was fascinating. A mix between fun, hot temper, rhythm but also melancholy and sentimentality. I danced there for some 15 minutes more, with Jale on my arms, before we returned back home.
I am sure that we will remind this night for a long time.

The Bremen Jazz Festival will last from August 09th - 12th and I hope that we will find the time to take part again.