Berlin 10/4/08 - early

Sat the big agenda for the day was to go to the Musical Instrument Museum in the Philharmonic. That was a lot of fun. It seemed to be about old European instruments, as there was no African and almost no Eastern instruments. It was really cool. I got an idea of how they got to the piano and the sax. A lot of the strings were already perfected way back then.

That night we went to a completely different part of town. This place, Badenscher Hof, wasn't in my detailed book of 6 maps. I was a little worried about that, but I really wanted to check out the experimental afro-jazz. We took a cab and I was relieved the driver knew of the club. I was no longer worried.

The venue was awesome. Lots of pictures of jazz artists on the wall and a poster advertising the club with a picture of Miles Davis. I wonder if he played there. We were happy to see they served food. We opted for naps instead of a big dinner. All the tables were reserved except the one right up front. Great! After some trouble with the German menu I had a delicious pasta with veggies dish and we were able to finish right before the music started. It started with Arcadius Didavi doing a solo with his voice and some percussion thing attached to his shin. He was the leader and the only African. Then Hannes Kies joined him with a Guinean flute. I can't remember if Arcadius played another instrument then or not. Then Arcadius did a solo with this little homemade guitar. He told us this is where blues and funk came from. He was speaking French and German, so I could only catch a little. I think he mentioned Benin, which would make sense since that's where Lionel Louke is from. For the next song, Hannes came back and played either the soprano or more African flute. They were also joined by Matthius Klause-Dauter on piano. For this piece, Arcadius played that little guitar like a percussion instrument. I think he then did an electric bass solo. Then I think they did a trio piece. He played electric bass and Hannes played soprano for the duration. It was phenomenal. Then there was a short set break.

Then it was like a completely different band, even though it was the same people joined by a trap drummer, Dimitris Christidis. It was now an awesome modern jazz quartet. They did Green Dolphin St and something else I recognized. That set was about 40 min or so.

Experimenteller Afro-Jazz
ARCADIUS DIDAVI AFRO-JAZZ QUARTETT
Arcadius (e-bass,perc,vocal)
Hannes Kies (sax,flute)
Matthias Klause-Dauter (piano)
Dimitris Christidis (drums,perc)
Arkadi spielt und singt mit seiner Bgerliner Band zum ersten Mal im „Hof“ original afrikanische Musik, Songs mit Jazzeinflüssen.