Composer and pianist Jeroen van Vliet - as 2014 Boy Edgar Prize winner - was commissioned by Leo Cuypers' Sea suite (1977) to be inspired for new work. He put the band together and, in the tradition Cuypers and his men, played at various Zeeland venues. As then, everything was recorded. On CD and (award-winning) DVD this time.
Last May, I was at the concert in The Hague.
The space where I heard these musicians play certainly cooperated: the Glazen Zaal in The Hague- a glass-covered courtyard between the Portuguese Synagogue and a stately eighteenth-century canal house . Fine acoustics. Ditto views of synagogue, blue sky and the men.
And who can play. I listened to riveting theatre with seven protagonists, each of whom showed tig different (distant) faces.
Jeroen kicks off solo in the Zeelandsuite. Introduces and invites. Pones, stirs and reassures with melody. The horns take over and - depending on your own musical baggage - their round of proposals sounds in instrumental close harmony, big band or consort style.
After this melodic presentation, the band bursts into a rhythmic, breezy groove that, as one is used to in jazz, alternates with various solos. The end is like the beginning so that the circle is complete. After which seven more totally different parts pass by.
Taking a broad and flexible view, the structure of the Zeelandsuite could best be compared to that of a suite from the seventeenth century: originally a collection of dances. Each dance with its own character, tempo and accents to present audiences with all kinds of flavours and, above all, to make them move.
The Zeelandsuite stands with its feet in that history: for instance, Waterworks functions as an overture, the typical rhythm of the sarabande (short, laaaaang in a ¾ measure) resounds in Waltz. The often continuous notes of a courante are in Ostinato, and as icing on the cake, Wind Nisse feels like a real Air. And move you will.
More hints of history resound: from hoketus technique (=the notes of a melody are divided among several players) from the Middle Ages in Ostinato, to Spaghetti-Western from the 1960s in Waterworks. Something Kenny Garret-like in Maurice's Twist and a pop angle in North Sloe. Patches of the anarchist jazz predecessors in Wind Nisse.
I see emptiness, peace and space (in Polder). Feel pounding, soaring threats. Which are occasionally depicted on the DVD. There could have been more evocative wandering-boat footage as far as I'm concerned. Anyway: above all, I hear really good musicians. Musicians who give each other solos. Musicians who 'are' music and play with visible - and audible - fun.
Just go and experience them for yourself:
21 Nov Zeeland Suite - Hot House (Tuinzaal de Burcht), Leiden
22 Nov Zeeland Suite - Theatre De Stoep, Spijkenisse
Nov 28 Zeeland Suite - Mahogany Hall, Edam
Nov 29 Zeeland Suite - Hothouse Redbad. De Harmonie, Leeuwarden
A suivre!
PS Small hint for a next project: maybe invite some spirited musicians? Tineke (Boy Edgar Prize winner 2015) Postma for example;)
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