Review of 'NEW IMPRESSIONS'
Jack Bowers, big band specialist 'Cadence' magazine
New Impressions
The Jazzmania Big Band | Munich Records
The Jazzmania Big Band, writes leader
Peter Guidi, “represents the highest level of the Muziekschool Amsterdam’s
Jazz department and contains some of the best young Jazz talents in The Netherlands.” No
doubt about that. The players are indeed young (as the group photo in the
album’s booklet attests) and remarkably talented -- the ensemble is
taut and agile, the soloists bright and enterprising, and the youthful energy
fairly leaps from the speakers.
Best of all, Jazzmania chooses wonderful music, combining popular standards
by Gershwin, Rodgers, Ray Noble and Bronislau Kaper and Jazz sketches by Quincy
Jones, Horace Silver, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and Rob van Bavel with
Guidi’s spellbinding originals, “Princess of Flutopia” and
the two-part “Up at Seven,” and infallibly nailing superb big-band
charts by van Bavel, Sammy Nestico, Les Hooper, Mark Taylor, Jerry van Rooyen,
Mike Tomaro, Jan Wessels, Michael Philip Mossman and others.
Any album as good as this one makes choosing highlights exceedingly difficult,
as almost everything transcends one’s personal yardstick: from Nestico’s
dynamic arrangement of Gershwin’s “Strike Up the Band,” which
kicks the album into high gear, through the spirited finale, Dizzy’s
bop classic “Groovin’ High,” smartly arranged by Taylor.
Guidi’s Caribbean-flavored “Princess of Flutopia,” arranged
by Henri Gerrits, is simply enchanting, while his tour de force for solo flute, “Low-Down
Morning Blues” (part 1 of “Up at Seven”) suggests the second
coming of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, an impression that is further enhanced by Guidi
and clarinetist Joris Roelofs as they swing impetuously through part 2.
Roelofs, this time on alto, is featured on Nestico’s arrangement of Jones’s “Quintessence,” trombonist
Erik Blok on Rodgers and Hart’s wistful ballad “Where or When,” handsomely
scored by Patrick Schenkius. Alto Carlo Banning has his say on “Green
Dolphin Street,” “Nica’s Dream,” “The Touch of
Your Lips” and “Groovin’ High,” trombonist Michael
Rorby on “Green Dolphin Street,” “Impressions” and “Groovin’ High.” Other
laudable improvisers include drummer Balijon, tenors Thomas Bruijn and Christiano
Giardini, trumpeters Herwin Lokken and Robbert Scherpenisse, guitarist Joeri
de Graaf and especially pianist Jasper Lekkerkerk who’s a standout on “My
Favorite Things,” “The Touch of Your Lips” and van Bavel’s
feverish flag-waver, “Please Take Notice.”
A further word about the charts, as they contribute so much to the album’s
over-all excellence and charm. Mossman arranged Silver’s “Nica’s
Dream,” Taylor, Coltrane’s “Impressions,” Tomaro “Woody ‘n
You,” van Rooyen “My Favorite Things,” Wessels “The
Touch of Your Lips,” and each one is a concise model of how to do it
right.
The Jazzmania Big Band, now ten years old, has won a total of sixteen prizes
(including fourteen firsts) in national or international competitions, and
it won’t take the informed listener long to understand why. This is a
remarkably impressive ensemble that serves, in Guidi’s words, as “a
stepping stone for many talented young players.” Jazzmania has them in
abundance, and the future of big-band Jazz, at least in The Netherlands, seems
as luminous and breathtaking as the aurora borealis