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RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLD
BROADCASTING
“Gedicht Gezongen”
A review by music editor Angelique Stein, January
29 2004.
For several years
now the pride of the Dutch jazz world is named Denise Jannah.
In
1995 this vocalist signed a contract with the renowned American
label Blue note . Since then she has been showered with
complimentary reviews, in Holland as well as across the ocean.
Jannah
looks beyond jazz, though. Her newest album is called “Gedicht
gezongen”, Poetry Sung,
an ambitious project where she composed music for already existing
poetry.
Denise
Jannah has a wonderful, warm voice that does no over-the-top
belting, and her timing is extremely relaxed. Aside from her love of
the pure jazz art form she also has a strong feel for cross-over
music. In this context jazz serves as the foundation, melting with
music from Suriname – the land where her roots are – and even
with the musical, her second love. In Holland she starred in o.a.
“Joe –The Musica” and “A Night at the Cotton Club”. She
showed herself from again a different side in a production from the
Willem Breuker Kollektief. All in all Denise Jannah is a very
versatile vocalist.
“Winternachten”
(Winter Nights)
Maybe this explains why in 2002 she was asked to
set poetry to music for the 2002 edition of the
international literary festival “Winternachten” in The
Hague. She repeated this very successful performance this year
January at that same festival. All this has been captured on
“Gedicht Gezongen”. Jannah independently released the album, it
also being her own production, the
cd is widely available and can also be ordered through. her website
(www.denisejannah.com).
Even Gerrit Komrij, our Poet Extraordinaire and critical collector
of Dutch Poetry, is impressed by Jannah’s approach.
In his liner notes he states that she “effortlessly kisses
the poems awake”.
Indeed her music sounds
natural and in complete harmony with the chosen poetry. That may not
always have been easy: many poems have a complex construction and
have not been written to be sung. Still she succeeded to write
passionate and intense music for 22 poems of very different
character. She did such, she tells us, by acknowledging her humility
and by repeatedly asking for inspiration.
Influences
Jazz plays an important
part on the album, although Jannah’s versatility is most clear.
The poem “Waridikiri” (a
woman’s name, ed.) for instance, written by Ernesto
Rosenstand from Aruba, has a nice layed back Cuban
atmosphere,whereas “Dit is de laatste avond dat wij spreken”(This
is the last evening that we’ll be speaking) from Neeltje
Maria Min was given a suitable and sober accompaniment by piano
only. The Indonesian poem “Osmosa asal mula” (Osmosis
of origin) even breathes the atmosphere from the gamelan,
with jazzy influences. The combination of Jannah’ sweet voice and
the sometimes tough poems is
a pleasant one to listen to.
The collection of
“Gedicht Gezongen” maybe is too vast to listen to in one time,
especially since the poems claim much attention. Poems from Vasalis,
Hans Andreus and Gerrit Komrij are set alongside Surinamese poets
like a.o. Shrinivasi, Celestine Raalte and Trefossa. And then one
can also listen to the work of poets from the Netherland Antilles,
Indonesia and even South Africa. Reason enough to play this cd
often.
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De trots van
de Nederlandse jazzwereld heet sinds een aantal jaren
Denise Jannah. In 1995 tekende de zangeres een contract
bij het befaamde Amerikaanse Blue Note-label. Sindsdien
wordt ze overstelpt met lovende kritieken, zowel in
eigen land als overzee. Jannah kijkt ook verder dan
alleen de jazz. Haar nieuwste cd heet Gedicht
gezongen, een ambitieus project waarin zij bestaande
gedichten op muziek zette.
Invloeden