'Ode to the Saxophone'
'and to Flanders'
Page Under Construction.
Will deal with the summer music festivals in Flanders, with emphasis on Jazz music, and in particular Saxophone Jazz music, and performances in Brussels. Jazz is very popular in Flanders, with the yearly high point being the Middleheim Jazz Festival in Antwerp.
'Calypso' is a type of music from the Carribean islands. The lyrics contain hints of the Dutch "ABC" islands of the Carribean, including "bang", in place of "afraid", "de", in place of 'the', etc. If the word 'Jazz' didn't exist, 'Calypso' would be a nice alternate name.
The saxophone was invented in Belgium by Adolphe Sax. Mr. Sax wanted to create an instrument that could bridge the gap between the "agile woodwinds and powerful horns".
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| "Zoot Notes"- Tress Jazz Band |
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| Super Calidocious Fingers - Belgian Django Reinhardt |
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| Calidocious Inc. describes the sound of the saxphone as being "Calidocious and Zoot"- a mix between delicate, subtle, grace and straightforward boldness. This is a good analogy for how Flemish bridges the gap between the Romance and Germanic languages.
Calidocious Inc. nicknames the saxophone a 'Zoofonium' or 'Zeuphonium', after a descendant of the saxophone called the 'Euphonium'. The saxophone can capture the essence of a foggy California morning, or a "Zoop" brunch, better than any other instrument.
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Interestingly, many of the names of major Flemish cities "fit" well with the word 'jazz', for example:
Antwerp Jazz
Ghent Jazz
Mechelen Jazz
Leuven Jazz
Ostende Jazz
Brugges Jazz
One could say that "'Flanders just jives (fits) with jazz." 'Hasselt Jazz' doesn't sound so 'jazzy', but Hasselt has other special qualities as the 'capital' of Flemish Limburg and is featured in other web pages. Brussels is a jazz hot-spot, but it has a web page of its own.
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| Flemish Legend- 'Zoots' (Toots) Thielmans |
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| Antwerp- Province of Antwerp |
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| Interestingly, there is a good correlation between the major Flemish cities and the cities of the California Bay Area, although the Bay Area Cities don't make such good venues for Jazz: Major City-Antwerp- San Francisco
"Second City"-Ghent- Oakland, including Berkeley
University City-Leuven- Palo Alto/Stanford
Beach/Ocean City-Oostende-Santa Cruz
Provincial City-Hasselt- Current Sister City of Mountain View
Central City-Mechelen-Burlingame and the Mid-Penninsula district
Historical City-Brugges- Old Capital Monterey
Spa City- Spa-just outside of Flanders in Wallonia- Calistoga in Napa
Border City-Maastricht-San Jose (Capitol of Silicon Valley)
(Note: Because Brussels is French speaking, it doesn't really count as a "Flemish" City. A good analogy for Brussels is the idiosyncratic capital of Texas- Austin.)
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| Ghent- Province of East Flanders |
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| Brugges- Province of West Flanders |
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| Mechelen- Province of Antwerp |
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| Leuven- Province of Brabant- Beer Capitol of the World (InBev Co.) |
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| Ostende-Province of West Flanders |
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| Calidociously Zoot!- Ed Wiley Jr. |
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| Another intersting side-note about Jazz vs. Flanders is that black & white photography "fits" both jazz and Flanders particularly well.
Color photography works better than black and white for most subjetcs, but with jazz pictures, color often ends up being a noisy distraction.
Due to persistant cloud cover, outdoor color photograpy in Flanders is difficult, but black and white photography can be quite effective.
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| Calidocious & Zoot |
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A final side note is that the name "Jazz" came from the California Bay Area- ie. 'Sarifornia'. 'Jazz' came into prominence around 1915 thanks to Bay Area newspaper reporters who used the word to mean "spiffy in appearance" or "full of pep and vigor". From California the word was transferred to the Chicago music scene.
Note: There likely was a similar sounding personal name, 'Jas', that was common among southern musicians in Chicago at that time. However, by 1918, "Jazz" had supplanted 'Jas' and had become the name of the new music.
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| 1916 Sheet Music |
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| "Zoot, Zoot, Zoot, Zooteo"- Passport Band |
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