Music with balls for Beatrix at Holland Festival

Jazz-Rock, it still exists. In all those years of sitting in the theatre, reading books or listening to David Bowie or Rufus Wainwright, I had kind of forgotten about it. Music by real men, Heavy Metal for people who have studied for it, Gothic but with several conservatory degrees under their belt. Subtle chopping where the drummer hits a 17/23rd bar with the left hand, while the right hand hits a simple 19/16, and the bassist waltzes over it with an angular 15/8th. This usually leads to intricate headbanging. 

I sat in row six of the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw on Saturday 8 June for just under two hours with a smile from ear to ear. Festival-goers next to and in front of me were mostly angry, the rows in the back cheered elatedly. From the first row of the balcony, Princess Beatrix (this time without all the royal fuss) saw that all was well. Up to and including the furiously intricate, stomping encore. 

Pansy

Tigran Hamasyan is a gifted musician and composer who returned to his roots in Armenia after a life in the US. The programme 'The Bird of a Thousand Voices' is his celebration of that ancient homeland. The story that of a quest a young man must undertake to save the country, the tragedy that of a young maiden who grows old, dies and turns into a violet by waiting in vain for her lover's return. 

You don't expect stomping jazz-rock at a Holland Festival concert where the now very elderly princess also acts. So when it started with a candlelit rise by a singer dressed in white voiles, I was on the 'floating heavenward in rarefied sounds' mode. Then those two hours were going to be quite long. Nodding instead of headbanging. 

It started with all those rarefied vocals too, supported by two batteries of keyboards and sequencers on stage. That there was also a huge drum kit wasn't so noticeable yet. 

Many strings

Until the bass player came up with a six-string Fender. Bass guitars of regular bassists have four strings. People who want to get sophisticated sometimes add a fifth. Six strings is for serious men with a lot of notes on their vocals. It is the souped-up Harley Davidson among bass guitars.

The Armenian fairy tale was given the allure of an extra pimped-out Lord of the Rings by the four men with their monkish looks. Singer Areni Agbabian's flawless vocals provided the whole thing with the necessary heavenly overtones, while the stage setting gradually took wings over the two hours. 

It was all quite a lot. A lot of sound, and especially a lot of notes, but that's kind of part of jazz-rock. The story, which Areni Agabian partly read out thanks to an autocue, was already getting almost as complicated as the rhythms in the music. Still, it remained captivating, this real-life music with golden balls. 

And Beatrix enjoyed it. Especially that last one, I did not expect.