Calling our artists, crew and visitors “family” isn’t something we do without intention: it’s our goal to unite, connect and keep together - from the words we speak, to the music we play and curate. Especially in these (yet again) confusing, challenging and restricting times. To get in the mood for tonight’s jam session and the upcoming three festival days, we wanted to show you what our artists stand for, and how nearly everyone on our line-up is connected. Read all about the members of the family affair below. Today we’re kicking off with the dutch artists that are playing this year’s S-SJ Fest.
Bnnyhunna
We’re sad that the official afterparty on sunday is cancelled, but happy to see the talented Bnnyhunna lead the band at the TNO x SSJ Jam Session tonight. The artist has done some impressive productional work for Winne, Yung NNelg, Rimon and Gaidaa, and blends the old with the new in a distinctive, jazz, future-minded sound.
He understands the classics - Ghanese High Life and gospel/spirituals is what Bnnyhunna grew up with - and makes smart use of popular samples to reshape them into something new. Listen to what it sounds like on Bnnyhunna’s latest EP SINTHA where he not only masters the keys and amazingly fresh sounding synthesizers, but produces the whole package as well.
Catch Bnnyhunna tonight at the TNO x SSJ Jam Session at Paradiso to see him at his most dynamic, in full jam mode.
Peter Somuah
Speaking of Ghanian high life dynamics: jazz, to Peter Somuah, is freedom. The humble trumpet / flugelhorn player understands that music can work cathartically and can bring people together to have a good time and unwind. Inspired by traditional Ghanese and other West-African music, his compositions sound bright and vivid. Moving freely, Somuah and his band are the latest winners of the prestigious Erasmus Jazz award for Young Jazz Talent and as a gifted musician, he has already shared the stage with and/or recorded with Akwasi, Yung NNelg and Bridget Kearney. Catch the Rotterdam-based funky trumpeter tonight leading our TNO x SSJ jam session.
Phantom Wizard
No stranger to a solid experiment, Phantom Wizard plays the piano with everything he’s got. From the heart, soul, love and devotion to classics like Coltrane’s Naima to just-conceived fresh ideas of the mind like his latest EP Conscious, Phantom Wizard is definitely one to watch. From his broad musical range to his diverse palate of skills (production, composition, musicianship). His colourful afrofuturist performance and ever-curious mind will add a lot of new and unexpected directions to the jam session that is happening tonight in collaboration with The New Originals.
Gino-Cochise
In 2019 we already introduced you to some family members on our compilation album The Sound of The Lowlands, and a lot of listeners might have put their needles repeatedly on the grooves of side C, third track. Spacy synths, tight staccato bass work and distorted samples all might grab your attention. But above all, there’s this staggering, delicious broken rhythm immediately noticeable on the track. The man behind the kit - or better: the tight foundation - on Liquid Spirits’ Evolution Of The New Spirit?
Gino-Cochise, a 1990-born multi-talent who owned his stripes as a drummer for Anne-Fay and Pink Oculus, but developed his craftsmanship on guitar, bass and keys year before. It has made him into an early-scouted gifted performer, winning de Grote Prijs of The Netherlands around age 18. But at age 28, Gino decided to pull a 180: for some years now, he walks his musical path in solitude, leading his own band, releasing his projects with delicate carefulness and in a counter-chronological way. Fo Woa is the first single from Gino’s soon to be released album LBM III. On his new work, Gino is taking no prisoners and decides to tackle on crucial themes like a collective lack of consciousness and spirituality. And that’s where the dutch artist steps in: he’s worked three years on this batch of ten subversive funk songs full of rough edges, trippy falsettos and confrontational lyrics. The music is meant as meditation, not as medicine.
That’s why we’re curious and happy to grant the closing slot on saturday to Gino-Cochise. 23:30, Paradiso Amsterdam, november 20.
SMANDEM.
We’ll never forget what impact Yussef Kamaal’s Black Focus had on us back in 2016, and actually still does have to this day. It’s cool to see young jazz artists in The Netherlands also taking influence from dance, modern day hiphop, house, jungle, trap and all other genres that are supposed to be “off books” when it comes to performing in a smokey jazz club. That’s why Amsterdam powerhouse SMANDEM. gets a more than deserved spot next to the great Yussef Dayes on our line-up. The homies tend to not lose themselves in genres or limiting definitions while they’re working with Pink Oculus and Elena Pinderhughes, plus are being influenced by both Herbie Hancock, Thundercat and Drake. All musicians have earned their stripes on different dutch stages, and are ever-evolving when it comes to skill, composition and mixing. No room for tradition with SMANDEM.: they’re among the ones who are gonna take our jazz scene and family further and further into the future. We’re more than excited for what’s next.
Catch their two next performances on the sunday of SSJ, before the Yussef Dayes Trio blows the room to pieces.