Blog of James Goodhead

The North Sea Jazz Festival has been edifying audiences for many decades so to celebrate the completion of my Economics degree, I decided to witness this wonderful annual spectacular. As the Graduation ceremony at the University of York was held on 14th July, to great pangs of frustration, I had to miss the opening day of the festival. From the individuals’ I spoke with in Rotterdam, Friday was a superb day with Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis and Al Jarreau providing positively sparkling performances.

As not to miss the final two days of Jazz, I had to ration myself to only two hours of sleep due to arriving back at a very late hour from York coupled with an incredibly early flight to Rotterdam. Despite this arduous challenge, my joie de vivre was at a high throughout the weekend. After arriving in Rotterdam and quickly dropping the bags off at the hotel, Kieran and I made our way straight to the city centre. The first aspect that struck me when visiting Rotterdam is the industrious history of the city; as I am sure you are very well aware, Rotterdam has the largest port in Europe. Conversely, the centre of Rotterdam is at the technological frontier with ingenious and innovative skyscrapers and bridges. Rather unsurprisingly, the centre was the epicentre for bars and restaurants. Thus, after a gruelling start to the day, a medium rare steak with a Continental beer was in order!

It is amazing how quickly the seconds pass when you are relaxed in a thriving atmosphere. Kieran and I are certainly not the first people to fall victim to this and will not be the last either. Due to this, we had to make a rapid trip towards the Metro. After passing a restaurant that hung rats outside its facade to illustrate cleanliness, we rushed to the Central Station. To our utter dismay, the Rotterdam Metro is a mixture between an archaic dinosaur and a lame duck as to get a ticket was far harder than getting blood from a stone! For travelling purposes, I decided only to bring notes and the ticket machine only accepted coins. Thus, getting change from an area where practically no-one is willing to offer change is an almost impossible task; I even started contemplating begging in order to get the various coins I needed. Thankfully, after great trouble we managed to procure tickets and despite Kieran getting trapped in the gates the route was clear and within minutes we arrived at the Festival.

Due to the complexity and length of what I wish to write about the performers, I will leave this until next week. However, I hope to have given you a small introduction into how the weekend started. 

As the reader, if you do not mind a colossal amount of self-indulgence please feel free to read the following blog. On Friday, I found out that I will be graduating with a First Class Bachelor of Science Degree, with honours, in Economics from The University of York. Despite people’s views, a great deal of hard work and endeavour was needed to achieve this degree classification. I now eagerly look forward to the Graduation Ceremony that will be held on Friday, 14th July.

The York Racecourse provided the venue for the 2006 University of York Graduation Ball. Before I arrived to the racecourse, a gastronomic meal at Low Petergate was the perfect way to start the evening. During my three years I had very often explored the gastropub experience, however, with the significance of graduation, gastronomy was certainly the correct choice despite it being at least four times the cost. Despite the exorbitant cost, a splendid environment, with exceedingly fine food (the most tender guinea fowl for main course) and a pianist who accomodated requests provided surprisingly excellent value for money. Speaking about the pianist, with a glint in my eye I requested Scott Joplin and within minutes Maple Leaf Rag and a unique version of The Entertainer with strong improvisation was played for my table.

A couple of mild ales were quickly quaffed at The Golden Fleece post-meal. Feeling very buoyant, I made my way by taxi to the venue. The York Racecourse, which memorably held Royal Ascot in 2005, has a main Grandstand set over three floors and this provided the setting for the evening’s festivities. On arrival, after greeting a number of my contemporaries, I made my way towards the casino. After riding my luck by beating the dealer more times than losing at Blackjack (21), I celebrated with a Gin and Tonic whilst listening to the Jazz Band. An hour passed, and I heard tremendous excitement from the downstairs dancefloor. Out of pure curiosity, I went to the area and to my disappointment a band called Goldie Lookin’ Chain were playing. The song I listened to was pretty unedifying and the words talent, musicianship, professionalism and enjoyment would not be applicable in describing the couple of minutes I experienced. Unfortunately, all of the bands on the main stage were hugely disappointing as they only accomodated for the common denominator. 

To recover from the previous ordeal, I queued for the notorious dodgems that brought back countless childhood memories. When I was set loose in the dodgem, my frustration was certainly released to everyone’s anguish. The couple I dined with were also in a dodgem at the same time as me and after hitting them at high speed they seemed particularly unimpressed. Meeting Victoria a couple of days after the incident, I was informed she was unfortunately suffering from the vagaries of whiplash in the neck. I can only place the blame on Goldie Lookin’ Chain and to apologise I offered never to listen to their music again. This was gratefully accepted and I strongly encourage others not to listen to that particular band either after my experience!

Further light-hearted conversation followed and to my surpise light started appearing from the sky. I took this as a signal to leave as I had an important Jazz and Blues society meeting the following morning. My memories will be generally positive as the people I went with and subsequently met made the evening infinitely more enjoyable than the intrusive noise that could have seriously compromised the whole evening. 

Tuesday marked my final show as Presenter of Jazz Blues Fusion, the flagship radio show for the University of York Jazz and Blues society, on University Radio York (URY). Over a dozen shows have passed with myself at the healm of the show and I feel it has been one of the most worthwhile activities I have experienced during my three years at the University.

Firstly, being the Presenter is a wonderful opportunity to be yourself whilst informing a keen and appreciative audience of your particular knowledge and interests in music. Secondly, having the responsibility of being the Presenter encourages one to explore one’s interests in the areas where one has a particular enthusiasm for. In my judgement, this is one of the most important aspects to the University experience as it develops the undergraduate’s persona for later life. Thirdly, the aptitudes any Presenter gains in organisation, communication and leadership inevitably improve making the experience even more worthwhile. However, the most satisfying part of being the Presenter are warm and positive emails, text messages and phone calls that are received to the studio during the show. This allows for improvisation and sponteneity whilst reinforcing that people appreciate you for what you enjoy.

I must thank everyone who contributed making the show what it was and the people who offered their support during the last year. However, my particular appreciation should be directed towards the effervescent Kieran O’Shea, who founded the show, and the very reliable and extremely knowledgeable Fabiano Corsetti who was an excellent guest throughout my time as Presenter. Fabiano will be taking Jazz Blues Fusion forward in October and I will be exploring various paths where I can continue my immense enjoyment with radio broadcasting.