We spent a couple of hours at the Aberdeen Jazz Festival this afternoon. It was terrific. I love jazz. Especially live jazz. We used to go to the Christchurch Jazz Festival every year which was at a similar time of year; April I think. I wonder whether it still runs? The Aberdeen Festival was just as good if not better. Music was playing at a few different venues in what is called the Merchant Quarter in central Aberdeen. There was outdoor jazz at The Green although I think it should be called The Stone rather than The Green and here’s why:
We also went to the Carmelite Hotel where we listened to Alison Affleck and Vieux Carre playing 1920s and Tin Pan Alley jazz. They were great. Alison Affleck sang a lovely Billie Holiday song – You Can’t Be Mine – which I particularly liked:
Daniel and I were selfie-bombed (that guy looks way too serious to be at a jazz festival):
The kids got up and boogied out on The Green which was mildly embarrassing. Oh, how I can’t wait for them to become teenagers so I can embarrass them back. What is dancing exactly? Does running around in circles constitute dancing? I think not. Dancing might involve some running every now and again but running itself is not dancing. Boogieing to the jazz for Daniel and Elizabeth meant running round and round in circles. I asked them whether running is dancing and they looked a bit confused so Elizabeth decided to run around in circles and kick her legs out to the side at the same time which was somehow worse. Still, a fun time was had by all which is the main thing.
Our transport to and from the Jazz Festival was by Busby the bakfiets of course.
Busby is named after Busby Berkeley, an American musical choreographer from the 1920s and 1930s. He used to create geometric formations using human dancers. There’s one in this clip that looks like the wheel of a bicycle tyre:
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