米米與米米同台 - 2008年比利時義大利裔鼓手Mimi Verderame首度與我們從台灣巡迴開始合作

文 / 謝啟彬



My daughter Mimi is listening uncle Mimi (Mimi Verderame) playing a fantastic drum solo, and asked where she was. Actually they were on the same stage!

這也是一次神奇的巡演,Mimi第一次跟我們合作,之前在比利時久仰大名並看過現場,但原本邀請的專輯錄音鼓手檔期喬不開,貝斯手Bart跟我討論,改邀請Mimi ,也讓我們格外期待他的華麗絢爛鼓語會碰撞出什麼火花?


結果2008年時的他們,跟2015年去南非的我們,遭遇到一樣的狀況,前面班機延誤所以錯過了原訂搭的越洋班機,所以最後是晚一天從歐洲抵達台灣

時間上就被壓縮成當天早上到,趕快進旅館梳洗一下,下午進音樂廳彩排(跟第一次團練!),晚上就第一場演出了!



但是從當晚觀眾的超熱情反應,加上所有樂手現場的高度互動與喜悅滿足來看,沒有人會相信這是發生在一天內的事 - 相遇、彩排、演出


而這也是爵士樂的特色,所以真的,誰好誰不好,誰真的是行家,誰是吹牛厚臉皮的,真功夫都在現場跟這樣的情境中被激發出來了,但並不表示我們就是“隨便”“隨性”的“即興音樂人”啊!



所以說我們每個人都要來個一次以上的「從36小時減掉24小時只剩下12小時」就對了?哈哈哈!


這也促成了Mimi老師後來被我們邀請前來參與更多屆的TISJA,以及錄製了「米米妹妹」等多張專輯的美好成績



至於女兒米米在哪兒呢?她問。答案是她也在台上哦!不過是在媽媽的肚子裡,當時凱雅懷孕五個月了,跟鼓手米米一起創造音樂 ^^


我們當時的媒體報導真的很有趣呢!真正深入民間哦哈哈!




10 years ago (in 2018), we organized the "Mr. Bebu" Taiwan tour totally on our own, concerts in Taipei, Taichung and Nantou, and workshops and jam sessions in Taipei and Taichung, it was an unforgettable experience.

It's the first time we worked with the Belgian/Italian drummer Mimi Verderame, he came in May 2008 and we never played together, just one session before in Belgium long ago, but by then he is a professional already and we were just jazz students. The bassist Bart De Nolf and clarinetist John Ruocco were our teachers at conservatory, when we returned to Taiwan in 2003, we organized the first-time-ever Taipei International Summer Jazz Academy in 2004, Bart and John were invited as faculty from 2004 & 2005.

In 2007 we went "back" to Belgium to  record the second original jazz album "Mr. Bebu" at Pino Guarraci's recording studio, we invited Bart and John as well, so they knew the repertoire and we've been playing together for quite a while either in Belgium or Taiwan.

But Mimi was completely fresh with the repertoire, so Bart sent him the material, and the flight schedule was very tight, they flew in just right on the morning of the concert day!

We quickly drove them to the hotel to refresh a bit, then heading to the concert venue for a one-time rehearsal, it was a 1200-seat concert hall, and the tickets were sold out. The 3 international musicians didn't sleep at all, and we were under stress.

But by then the magic happened! we were listening to each other so closely on stage, so it means we interacted with each other a lot (actually we all were afraid of missing the forms and the cues because of all are original compositions), the whole band were so tight and the music flowed so well, you can hear how audience react to the live in the clip.

It was the first time I (or Kai-ya Chang and me both) could feel a great musical drummer who was pushing the music forward and throwing ideas to "make waves", and the dynamic was large, it could go very wild then very calm, with the strong density as well. So the soloists and the "compist" felt great then inspired us to improvise better!

We are grateful of that tour, and treasure every opportunity to play together by then. In July we decided to invite Mimi Verderame as the faculty of the annual TISJA too, so he came to Taiwan for the second time from Europe within 2 months, and from 2008 to 2015 he was the regular drumming and ensemble faculty every summer in TISJA Taiwan, taught countless local young drummers. And we recorded 4 more albums together.

Mr. Mimi Verderame is also a fantastic jazz guitarist so we can sense that his approach on jazz drumming is very harmonic, intuitive and he is very fast to catch up the improvisational ideas then help accomplishing the whole, our salute to you Mr. Mimi!

BTW, at that time Kai-ya Chang was pregnant, that was then our daughter, her brother - who is Mr. Bebu at 4 years old - gave the new born sister a nick name - Mimi.





延伸閱讀:

在班機嚴重誤點的情況下,延遲一天抵達南非開普敦,一下飛機就準備演出,與時差及疲憊奮戰

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