Yet More Reasons

If two Americans, a Syrian, a Brazilian and a German go to a flamenco concert by a Canadian and a bunch of Spaniards, then immediately afterward see some of the same musicians in a band that does country-bluegrass interpretations of old jazz standards...where must you be?

Berlin, of course.

Let's back up. A while back, I wrote about a cool jazz band concert/swing dance/dish-to-pass in someone's workshop in an old building in Kreuzberg, under the title "More Things to Love about Berlin" and I say these last couple weekends' concerts fall into the same category: reasons to love being in Berlin.

Last weekend, I caught a concert by my friend Roland for the first time in a while. Roland plays in several bands in various genres, but this was a solo concert, doing his more singer-songwriter type thing. (Nonetheless, violin and weird electronic experimentation were also involved.)

The concert was held in a beautiful apartment right in my neighborhood, with the hosts' kid manning the door and answering the buzzer – as far as I could tell, they simply said, Hey, why don't we have a party, then invited Roland to play and turned it into an official-ish concert. There was delicious food and copious wine, and everyone was friendly and talked to strangers (not always a given in Germany...), then we all crowded into the living room and Roland played. Didn't get any pictures, but here's an old video of Roland singing one of his favorite jazz classics:



After the concert, the party shifted back to the kitchen, where I ended up in conversation with two hilariously high-energy friends of Roland's, one Brazilian and one German. I'd gotten Roland's new CD after the concert, and these two insisted I get him to sign it for me. They ran off with the CD, and when I finally tracked down them, it and Roland, he handed the CD back to me and I saw that his dedication read, in its entirety, "ella – Roland." Which cracked me up.

"I wanted it to be something personal," he told me solemnly.

This weekend Roland was playing again, but in a flamenco band (the abovementioned concert I went to with an American, a German, a Brazilian and a Syrian). As I said to Shawn, who was visiting, I don't think I'd ever seen flamenco musicians jam before, like jazz players. They were really good. Also, the vibraphone? What a cool instrument.

After that concert, Roland had to rush off to yet another gig, so his friend Seraphim gave both him and us a ride across town. Roland went off to meet up with the band, and the rest of us ate at a stunning vegetarian restaurant I'd never heard of, tucked away inside an old industrial complex now converted to art and music purposes.

Being a friend of the band, Seraphim was down on the guest list with a "+1," but we were actually three: Ena, Shawn and me. So the guy at the door let Seraphim be "+2" instead, and just charged us 5 euros for the last person. The floor was already crowded, but Seraphim said, "I have a better idea," and led us to a side door that opened up right by the stage, where there was still some space up front. I ended up sitting the whole concert on the step that led up to the stage, so close I had to turn my head if I wanted to see the violinist or the clarinet player.

Afterward, a DJ played swing music, and we danced and didn't get home until 4 a.m. and Shawn, who'd been visiting from London, packed her suitcase and left straight for her early morning flight!

And that's a weekend in Berlin.