On this set, Joris and the rest of the octet produce a sound that Swings and immediately captures the listener.
Jazz Master Tracks
Bert Joris: trumpet, flugelhorn; Jean Paul Estiévenart: trumpet, flugelhorn; Stéphane Guillaume: soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Rob Banken: alto saxophone; Gideon Tazelaar: tenor saxophone; Bart van Lier: trombone; Jos Machtel: double bass; Joost van Schaik: drums
Recorded by Christine Verschorren
There is a timeless class that Cool jazz, particularly in small ensembles, has which never goes out of fashion. On this set, Joris and the rest of the octet produce a sound that Swings and immediately captures the listener. The pieces come from Joris’ illustrious career with orchestras, Big Bands, and large groups.
Adapting for the smaller unit required adaptation not only to the reduce range of instruments but also to the intimacy of the octet. On the opening track, ‘Triple’, you get the unison sound and harmonic richness of Gerry Mulligan’s tunes on Birth of the Cool; in other places, there is the paired instrumentation of John Lewis.
But this is in no way meant to cast doubt on the originality of Joris’ arrangements or the playing of the octet. Not only has he addressed the problem of scaling down big pieces from orchestra to octet, but also the challenge of playing the pieces without a chordal instrument.
One solution to this problem (as Mulligan or Gil Evans had found) was for the horns to work the chords around the soloists. And Joris makes fine use of this approach. But this is not a composer or quartet wedded to a single approach.
On track 2, ‘Struttin with struttin’, the octet take a Lil Hardin Armstrong riff and inflate this to something approaching the pyrotechnics of a Big Band, with Estiévenart, on trumpet, and Guillaume, on bass clarinet, punching their solos.
Musical styles switch again in ‘Connections’ which has a moody, orchestral vibe driven by a melodic and very hummable bass line.
