The final concert of Kaunas Jazz 2015

It was a not so early August Friday morning. I was still in my bed lazily snoozing my alarm clock and browsing the web on my smartphone. In these days the majority of us do it. But I could compare it to a morning newspaper reading - it's the only newspaper time I have, while still in bed.
The article that a famous pianist is coming to Lithuania for a jazz festival, made me jump out of bed, run to computer and order a ticket. I didn't read properly when it's going to happen, I just knew that the prices of the tickets will go up very quickly or there might be no tickets at all if I delay my purchase. Well, as it has turned out, the concert is going to happen in December and that famous pianist is Omar Sosa. The first piece of him that I listened to was Toridanzon and it made me fall in love with his music. The very first notes of it covered my skin in goose bumps and carried my imagination away to a sudden summer rain with thunder. And every time I listed to it it still does so. So, there is no surprise that I somehow jumped out of the bed and was in the process of buying an expensive ticket.
Yesterday, the 18th of December was a day of his concert for Kaunas Jazz festival final concert of the year. I left from work earlier, rode to Vilnius(even stuck at the traffic jam) and there I was sitting in the front rows waiting for the magic to start. Usually in concerts, a pianist would be dressed in a black suit and even if his hands would become crazy in some moments, all his posture posture would remain straight and the rest of the body would be calm. When you come to a concert of Omar Sosa, you have to leave your attitude at home.
He walked into scene wearing white robes and somewhat futuristic hat, carrying a candle and some sort of an amulet in his hands. Some little rituals he made at the keyboard section(I don't know how to call a set of grande piano with 2 more large electric piano keyboards and one smaller one) and then he touched the keys. There was the magic happening right in front of me ten meters away. Other musicians walked into the scene one after another bringing a new musical layer for the song they were playing. Note after note it made me believe that I'm sitting somewhere else but the concert hall in Lithuania. It could have been Cuba or other warm island, showered in a light rain interchanging with the rays of sun. Extremely long musical pieces combining latin rhythms(of cha cha cha, son montuno), wild jazz and nostalgic piano solos nailed the audience to their seats, while the musicians were going wild on the scene. I admit I wanted to jump and start dancing to those rhythms. But being jailed in the middle of the seat row made it impossible to do so. And while this was a perfect place for listening and observation it was the worst place in this concert for me.
In this two hour concert I forgot that it was the middle of December outside, just a week before Christmas, that there was no snow outside, it was windy and foggy with a light drizzle. The days were short and it was dark outside and our streets were lit with cheap Christmas decorations. No, my heart became warm not because of them, but because of the light I found in the music that evening.

Dark cabaret, Canadian coffee and 5K

Today while looking for music for milonga's cortina I stumbled upon an interesting genre - dark cabaret. And while the music itself sounds not very dark (rather cheerful), the lyrics are somewhat disturbing. For example: "... sitting in a stack of skulls" (from the song "Rattlesnake" of Caravan of Thieves). Combined such lyrics and rather ungloomy music - I can't picture a statistical person listening to this music... Who would it be? Goths, emos, morticians or funeral service owners... Someone who doesn't understand lyrics, but enjoys that style of music.

It's been talks and promises for years for Starbucks coming to Lithuania, but no, they aren't there yet. And I doubt they'll ever be, because local coffees would be a tough competition. So, no! No Starbucks! But today I found out, that there is Canadian coffee place opened in Kaunas - Second cup. I'm not sure about their coffee, because I quit on that habit - year and eight months ago, but the chai latte is as good as in Lithuanian coffee chains and they do have very nice paper cups.
I did want to try out the London mist flavored chai latte, but they didn't have one. When I asked what is the taste like, I learned they never received one yet! Ok, it takes a while to ship a London mist from Canada... I hope that they won't hurry - I don't want to see any London fog on the streets of Kaunas, it's sad enough that the autumn is already here. But on the other hand I still want to try out that taste...

Today I took part in a local running event for a short 5K run. Now that I look at my current result, I remember that my first attempts at this distance took me 8 minutes longer to complete! And I was afraid I'm not gonna make it to the finish line then:)

RIP Raphy Leavitt

Unfortunately another great salsa musician has passed away.

How to make the rain go away

And when I thought that Acacia Alley turned into umbrella alley, the voice in the microphone said: "the rain is switched off". And it was. At least for a while. The park of bent pines(yes, leaning a bit to the side, the phenomenon you happen to see at the seashore) quickly began to fill with foldaway chairs and blankets, and yes, people, picnicking and waiting for the concert to start. Acacia Alley is an annual festival of author songs and singing poetry taking place 15th time already. A small festival that grew into a big one day event offering a wide line up of famous Lithuanian bards and singers, attracting more than 10 thousand listeners (and the main reason for this is, because it's free). It's taking place in a small nice town of Kulautuva, 20 kilometres away from Kaunas.

A concert was a little bit late and started with young singers' performances. Singing few songs each of them warmed up the listeners for more famous artists. Vladas Bagdonas summoned more clouds and it rained cats and dogs. I wasn't very happy with his performance, as I forgot my umbrella at home and had to survive the Great Flood with the camping mat and linden tree over my head. Then followed the Song Theater revived by Vidas Bareikis. The original Song Theater was created by Vytautas Kernagis. As it was all famous old music the rain didn't matter anymore. For me too, because I grew up listening to his vinyls. And the fact that I was already soaked up in rain, a little bit more didn't make any difference. I was armed with green tea thermos and "kinder Bueno" chocolate. not that I was fighting rain, more like I was cowardly hiding under the tree and camping mat.

Umbrellas everywhere... only I don't have one.

Then it was a turn for a red haired owner of unique voice - Alina Orlova. Pine trees are really good for acoustics, apparently. This performance sounded a lot better than the one in June in Kaunas old town. Her red hair switched the rain off, or just switched the sun on - it seemed like it was not raining, but some drops still dripping from the trees.

As the performers kept changing, the rain switch was turning on and off again. Maybe it's their songs that made the rain angry, maybe they were singing not enough about the rain, maybe too little, maybe not in the way that rain wanted them to hear.
Or was it me carrying that cloud curse? You see, I went for a run this morning, and the rain caught me up. Though it was a great motivator to run faster, as soon as I came back home, it stopped. How does one gets rid of that curse? And I'm really glad, I didn't go there with a bike.

Couchsurfing, 10k and Gregory Porter

Last weekend i had my first couchsurfing hosting experience, I took a hitchhiker first time in my life and I fell on the ground while running my 10k. First two experiences where rather fun, and the last one - quite painful and it's still lasting. But i learned a few lessons. First, if everyone is taking the left side of the road - follow  them. Right is not always better than left. Second - if you fall down, just get up and run. Momentary pain is sharp, but walking back(or giving up)- is shameful. Of course, if you have a broken bone, don't follow my last advice. But if it's just bruised palms or bloody knees - you can run 8K more. This might sound a bit extreme, but in life we rarely fall literally - but we might get our ego bruised. If the goal is worth it - everyone can handle a little bit suffering.
This flight resulted in me not going to tango lessons. Having a free Sunday evening, I ended up going to the best concert I've been in my life - Gregory Porter. And in live he sounds way better than on records. But anyway, just listen to his "liquid spirit" or "musical genocide". And this concludes to the third lesson - bad experiences can lead to good ones.

It's royksopp!

Listen(or watch) to this:

Now, You may read further...

I remember about 3 months ago hearing this song accidentally on radio. It stuck into my head, but not enough to remember the lyrics and use Google for finding out. That time I thought that it was Bjork. But actually, it's different from that singer. Maybe only the accent is a bit alike. But only a bit.
How I managed to find this? The same accident as hearing it first time. Only this time it was not radio, but a movie of concert on my computer.
And definitely it's not the only song of Royksopp worth listening to.

Prelude of Suite for Cello #1

I don't know how familiar to you is a feeling when you can't get something out of your head. For me it happens often. For example, if I hear a piece of music and can't identify who wrote it or performed, which leads to I can't download it and replay it. I get really obsessed with that something I can't identify until I find out what it is. Sometimes I get lucky very soon, and sometimes I have to wait far more longer until I know. I put all my efforts in googling by keywords which I think would help me. And sometimes it's because of that hard work and sometimes only luck helps me achieve what I was hunting for.
My latest "obsession" was Bach's Prelude of Suite for Cello No.1. First I heard it on TV Series "Criminal Minds", then on TV Series "House M.D.". Finally, I got lucky by finding a torrent of soundtrack for 3rd season of "House M.D.". It's really worth it the wasted time. And the more people I can tell how beautiful this piece of music is, the more it pays off. If you are not very against classical music, please take a few minutes to listen to it.

Though I find this suite performed by Yo-Yo-Ma is way better (in case this music catches your heart and you want to hear a better performance).

video for mum music

I really can't hold myself from posting this thing I found in YouTube - a very very nice and fresh video for mum music. It's not official, it's not professionl, though it looks like that. There really aren't that much videos for the works of this band. And in this case it's good combination of music and view(if you like ambient and IDM music style):