ROLLING WITH THE BEETS

       Holland's Beets Brothers Quartet and Switzerland's Starch will fire up some European jazz for Bangkok next week
       After rousing visits from American jazz artists Benny Golson and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Bangkok isn't about to let the groove slide. The Beets Brothers Quartet from the Netherlands will keep that rhythm flowing on October 1 as part of Bangkok's 11th International Festival of Dance and Music.
       Appearing with the Beets at the Thailand Cultural Centre will be Starch, a Swiss outfit that blends funk, rock, jazz and hip-hop.
       A drummer friend squares off the quartet, but the Beets Brothers - Marius, Alexander and Peter Beets - are the sons of a jazz-minded gynaecologist father and a classical-pianist mother.
       From an early they underwent stern tutelage in classical music, training an hour a day, six days a week. Their father managed to inject some jazz into the proceedings.
       The boys' initial objections to the tough regime soon yielded to the fun of playing together, and the Beets Brothers were born.
       At first their stage was the family living room, which was quickly stocked with all sorts of instruments. Next came school concerts and performances on the local radio station, and then invitations to play at festivals and in competitions - which they regularly won.
       The boys were already performing on a regular basis throughout their homeland and in Germany by the time Marius and Peter enrolled in the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Both graduated with honours.
       While sticking to mainstream jazz, the brothers created their own easily recognisable sound - a pronounced "tone-picture" superimposed on swinging rhythmic patterns. That, mixed with blistering energy, makes them a treat for the ears.
       It's not so easy describing Starch.
       The seven-member band's fusion of so many genres has been called "euphoric, crazy and full of artistic fantasy".
       Founded as a funk crew, their music absorbed rock and jazz and later hip-hop. Simon P Winiger and Chris Raxx lead the band into innovative territory that's posted with signs saying things like "indie funk", "crazy cosmopolitan rap" and "dizzy energetic rock".
       What do they call the sound? "Starch music!"
       In their decade of performing, Starch have played the Montreux Jazz Festival and toured Europe. This year has seen their first venture outside Europe, a sweep through Australia and Asia.
       The Bangkok audience will hear nine songs from their latest album, "Music", and their last, "Freak City".
       Book seats at www.ThaiTicketMajor.com or (02) 262 3456. The International Festival of Dance and Music continues through October 17. See the details at www.BangkokFestivals.com.
       Foremost in fado
       Mariza, the world's leading exponent of the singing style called fado, returns to Bangkok once more for an October 8 show at the Thailand Cultural Centre, presented by the Portuguese Embassy.
       Born Marisa dos Reis Nunes to a Portuguese father and African mother in Mozambique, when it was still Portuguese East Africa, Mariza describes fado as urban Portuguese blues, accompanied by the country's indigenous, sweet-sounding, 12-string guitar.
       It's widely believed that the Portuguese royal court brought fado with it when it returned in the mid-19th century from a decade's exile in Brazil.
       The lyrics embrace saudade (loosely translated as "nostalgia") and its nuances - longing, happiness, sadness, love and pain.
       All of Mariza's albums, from "Fado em Mim" in 2001 through "Fado Curvo" and "Transparente" to "Concerto Em Lisboa" in 2006, earned platinum status.
       Her latest, last year's "Terre", featured Dominic Miller, the British guitarist for Sting (with whom Mariza dueted at the opening of the Athens Olympics in 2004), and Spanish flamenco singer Concha Buika, who joined Mariza on "Pequenas Verdades".