jazz ain't summer music

It isn't, don't you think? In Switzerland, the weather is great since two weeks. In Berne there are (next to bears!) a lot of great bathing spots - you can, by river, see the most important buildings, slowly and lazily floating by for twenty minutes, getting tanned and doing some sightseeing!
For a week now, I've been working, been paragliding (yay!) and eating lots of grilled food. Never ever have I touched a piano. While a break is necessary for wrists and psyche, I still wonder about the compatibility of jazz for hot and sweaty times. When I listen to music now, it's Jimi Hendrix or Janelle Monae or hip new indie bands. I just can't really imagine sitting through Aaron Parks or David Binney or "the old cats" now. Doesn't fit! Can't do that in a little summer dress or a bikini!

The paraglider doesn't agree. As soon as the sun goes down, he's in the mood for playing - which still rules out the hot hours of the day. I wonder what others think about that?

Picture for today: the music academy in Basel apparently is a hot address for classical musicians in Europe. People who actually have soloist careers ahead of them because they're one of a kind come to study here. So there are one of a kind instruments here, too. They are so extraordinary and holy and awesome that they can only be played on very extraordinary and holy occasions. One of which happened last week, it was the diploma ceremony. And since the jazz school belongs to the music academy, the jazz school big band had to play there. And since I'm the piano player in this big band....
Well. It actually meant that I was allowed to play this holy thing! Wow!
(To be honest: I have no idea how it sounds. In a big hall with a high ceiling, there can't be anything louder than a big band, neither I nor anybody else present heard a single sound out of the grand piano. Still! I was allowed to play it!)

Hello summer!

Only a short one for today: it's over! Exams, concerts (well, almost: one left for tomorrow!) ended today.
A warm welcome to the summer break: two and a half months in which one will have to plan, or at least start thinking about, the next big thing to come: the bachelor project. Which people to play with. Concerts to plan, so that all the nice people who support me so much through my doubt-and-irony-ridden days will finally see what I'm doing. A network to be built, so that after the studies there will be contacts and ideas left. Wow, sounds serious already!

But let's not forget: hello summer! long weekends with my friends, and two weeks in Germany with The Paraglider. It's gonna be grrrrreat (isn't this what the Kellogs Tiger says in the US?)!

And lo and behold: two cheesy summer quotes, just for the sake of it:

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.  ~Albert Camus

In summer, the song sings itself.  ~William Carlos Williams