LIVE IN CONCERT, THE HAGUE 2007

A good Jan Akkerman live album/dvd.

This dvd shows the latest tour of Jan Akkerman of 2007, which had a reprise in 2009. I saw the '09 show with my girlfriend and we were both pleasantly surprised: a no non-sense jazz- rock/cool-jazz concert with amazing guitar solo's and a competent band. Jan Akkerman has never been mister accurate, but his prestigious way of playing compensates more than enough! On this show Jan only played the electric guitar.

Though Jan Akkerman has always been very negative about playing Focus's pieces, he did play some Focus tracks on this live show. We get to listen to the Answers Questions jam, an eastern styled rework of the House of the King (now Palace of the King), Hocus Pocus (with great guitar effects instead of yodels) and the melodic Sylvia.

I myself bought the vinyl after the show, so I can't tell that much about the extra's of the dvd. I will tell something about the material played though! The Focus tracks are quite like the original, except for Palace of the King. The other tracks played are Tranquilizer, Slowman, Urban String and You do Something to me. All are jazz-rock and cool-jazz pieces with a modern jazz sound. The band had a professional sound, and the use of some electronic samples is functional. The concert could have been better if Jan Akkerman would have given more space for the other musicians to show their professional musicianship.

The recording of the concert is good, but not perfect. Jan uses digital guitar amplifications nowadays which don't work very good in my opinion and the recording sounds as if it was recorded directly from the mixing table. The liveliness suffers from this, the band sounded much thicker live. Still a professional recording, but not very tasteful.

Conclusion. I can conclude this is a good live album, but nothing too special. It is recommended to fans of guitar-oriented jazz-rock, fans of Focus and people who just want so see a 'normal' jazz-rock band playing a good concert with some nice improvisations. Three stars, and Focus and Jan Akkerman fans can add one star themselves.

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