The new concert album “Woodstock’s Renaissance” was presented by the group “Very Cool People” together with singer Aija Andreeva.
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The beginnings of the “Woodstock Renaissance” date back to 2020, when “Very Cool People” together with Aija Andrejeva presented a concert program dedicated to Janis Joplin at the “Rīgas Ritmi” festival. Later, the program was supplemented with the compositions of Jimi Hendrix and the group “The Doors”, which also resulted in the “Woodstock Renaissance”.
The new program was presented for the first time in April 2022 at the Liepāja Theater, where the recording of this album was also made, and has already experienced many powerful concerts both in Latvia and abroad.
“Very Cool People” are the real music hooligans with whom to implement such a program as “Woodstock Renaissance”, admits Aya Andreeva. “I can’t imagine any team more suitable for this project. I feel like a fish in water in it, because the saying “such a one finds such a one” corresponds one hundred percent to our cooperation. It is such a good hooliganism combined with professionalism, enormous work capacity and also a huge love for it, what this band does on stage.”
“Woodstock Renaissance” is a tribute to the legends who left an indelible impression on the music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
“Singing Hendrix and Morrison’s songs gives me bohemian, rock ‘n’ roll and storyteller energy,” adds Very Cool People trombonist Laura Rosenberg, who is also a vocalist in the new program. “At the moment of singing, I don’t really see myself as Laura anymore. Rather, as an auxiliary instrument, with the help of which I can look into the feelings of the past and touch the truest spirit of rock and roll, if only for a moment.”
The members of the group “Very Cool People” Elvijs Graftsovs, Māris Jēkabsons and Andris Buiķis have created modern and exciting arrangements of songs by Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison for this concert program for a group of eight people together with the great singer Aija Andrejeva, who also has a strong emotional connection with the specific songs .
“Janis Joplin was a nugget, an absolute emotional person, wrong in everything she did because she did it with her heart and against the system,” says Aya. “Thanks to Janice, I’ve realized how unimportant the outer facade really is, because the music and the story speak above everything else.”
The core members of the band “Very Cool People” are: Oskars Ozoliņš – trumpet, Māris Jēkabsons – tenor saxophone, Laura Rozenberga – trombone, Kristaps Lubovs – baritone saxophone, Elvijs Graftsovs – guitar, Māris Vitkus – keyboards, Jānis Olekšs – bass, Andris Buiķis – percussion instruments. Zane Biķe and Antra Krūmiņa also sang additional vocals in the “Woodstock’s Renaissance” concert program. The album’s bonus song “Mercedes Benz” was recorded at a concert in the cultural center “Siguldas Devons”, and Robert Martini played the tenor saxophone in this track.
The new album was produced by Elvijs Graftsov, mixed by Artūrs Sedriks Sinkevičs, and mastered by Jānis Kalve from “Labo išruu Studio”. It can be heard on major music streaming services and is also released in CD format, designed by Mārtiņš Legzdiņš.
