Lily Anna and Mario: It's never just emotions

I had to apologize to her today. I wasn’t myself maybe. Not in control of my euphoria over the success of the Dutch national team. Lily has been a loyal companion from day one of the World cup. Well I should say day two because that was the day of that massive victory over Spain. However to date the game against Mexico was the biggest. Coming back from a near disaster in the last seconds of the game, that made even me lose it a little bit. Or maybe I lost it in a big way because I forgot all about Lily and therefor did not help her to find a taxi home on a late Sunday night.

In these situations I wish I could be a singer like Lily. It is so much cooler to unleash your emotions into music like she does than whowhoing into the night with a bunch of guys, and a lukewarm beer.

I wrote her a separate apology for my crude behavior and I believe she accepted it.

So this is not an attempt to patch it up. This is an honest and true opinion, for what it’s worth coming from me. I think Lily is one of the most soulful singers I have seen singing live. This woman’s got the blues in every shade and vibrance and she’s got the voice to carry it.

Last Thursday at Sultan, just her and Mario Serio put up an awesome show, 

for too few ears to hear.  They had of the audience in their hands the entire two sets, with poppy soul, bluesy soul, and cool soul, old soul new soul you name it soul.

You may not take my word for it when I try to express the level of entertainment you will experience when you see Lilly sing, so I will let the shots speak for themselves and to do that I will start with Mario!

Leo Munoz' Los Quatro: The big 4-one

Last Tuesday Leo, who I know as the awesome chef of Piedra Negra, as well as the cool percussionist popping up in almost every Latin band around, organized a concert to celebrate his own birthday. 

Next to cooking up delicious Mexican dishes Leo has been working diligently on his project Los Quatro, a band formation with

Oliver von Essen - piano/keys (Germany)

Nicole Duffel – Saxophone (Australia)

Hiroaki Maekawa – Bass (Japan)

Leo Munoz - -Drum/Percussion (Mexico)

and band leader.

An eclectic bunch of musicians  who’s countries have all been represented in the world cup 2014.

On that Tuesday the eve of his 41^st birthday Leo and other three members of Los Quatro, on the third floor of Blu Jaz, treated us to a great night of music. As mentioned earlier my theoretical knowledge of music is limited and I failed to ask Leo to properly describe it, but it sounds Jazzy, Latin and very much contemporary.  

 Logically there was lots of attention to percussion and rhythm and also ample opportunity for Hiro, Nicole and Oliver to fire up the evening with hot solo’s

It was the first of three fantastic shows I saw this week and regretfully, and like all, totally under-attended. Of course Leo birthday treat was by invitation only, and many of the band members friends were gigging somewhere themselves, but they did miss out on something!!!

I cannot wait for the next gig and I assume we do not have to wait for the next birthday. I only hope that, as a Dutch national, after the results of the game tonight are known, that Leo will still smile and put me on the list of invitees!