Monthly Archives: April 2013

Crowdfunding in the Press

Dutch jazz journalist Bert Jansma always writes nice columns about the The Hague jazzscene. This time he devoted a major part to crowdfunding, taking my project Smalls NYC as an example. The article – which is written in dutch – also highlights some recent moves in my carreer such as Java Jazz, the Youtube film with Gerard Gibbs (organ), Pete Thornton (percussion) and James Carter (sax) and recent as well as coming concerts in Holland.

To help crowdfund the project, please go to my page on Voordekunst.

article about crowdfunding in Den Haag Centraal

Den Haag Centraal 20-04-2012

Jazz Orchestra + Roberta Gambarini

In March I played at Java Jazz with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebout. How nice it is to see there is some video footage of the concert we did with Roberta Gambarini! The band line-up:

  • trumpets: Loet van der Lee, Florian Sperzel, Gidon Nunes Vaz, Ellister van der Molen, Rodolfo Neves
  • trombones: Vincent Veneman, Lukas Jöchner, Erm Navarro, Erik van Lier
  • saxophones: Marco Kegel, Jasper van Damme, Caspar van Wijk, Rick Margitza, Juan Martinez
  • Rhythm Section: Peter Beets (p), Vincent Koning (g), Frans van Geest (b), Cees Kranenburg (d)

Triplicate at Jazzahead

Triplicate LogoComing weekend pianist Bob Wijnen and me shall be promoting Triplicate at Jazzahead! in Bremen. As we’re always on the outlook for new playing possibilities, this is the ideal spot to meet new people and expand our playing field.

In case you will be there yourself: in between the conferences etc. we’ll be at the Dutch Performing Arts stand (B11) on Friday between 5 and 6pm, Saturday between 12 and 1pm, and at the Sunday jazz brunch with plenty of promotional material.

See you there!

The music of Gerry Mulligan / Art Farmer Quartet

From 1952 on Gerry Mulligan has been experimenting with pianoless quartets. He believed omitting the piano would make the band to sound tighter. The best known recordings of this setup are those with Chet Baker, but Mulligan did the same trick with several West Coast musicians such as Lee Konitz, Bob Brookmeyer and Paul Desmond.

Trumpetplayer Art Farmer joined the band in 1959. The cooperation didn’t last for very long, since both players had other projects keeping them from the quartet (Mulligan founded the “Concert Jazz Band in the spring of ’60 and Farmer started the Jazztet together with tenorist Benny Golson). Fortunately they left some evidence in the form of several live recordings and a superb studio recording “What is there to say”.

Baritone player Tini Thomsen

picture by Ties Mellema

Together with baritone sax player Tini Thomsen, bassist Jos Machtel and drummer Niek de Bruijn (he just won the Erasmus Jazz Award) I’ll be paying a tribute to this band. So far we have two dates planned: May 2nd at the Regentenkamer and May 12th in Schiedam.

Jazzflits review

jazzflits logoAlmost forgot to mention: in the jazzflits of March 11th there is a very nice review to be read about the Triplicate release “Call of the Wild“. I quote:

Op de debuut-cd ‘Three And One’ (2011) van Triplicate zat ‘good old’ Eric Ineke als gast achter het slagwerk. Collega-recensent Tom Beetz vroeg zich bij de bespreking van de eersteling van trompettiste Ellister van der Molen, pianist Bob Wijnen en bassist Johnny Daly af of de groep zonder Ineke wezenlijk anders zou klinken.
Op het net uitgebrachte ‘Call Of The Wild’ geven de musici het antwoord: nee. Je mist een drummer niet. Wel klinkt het trio moderner. Er staan diverse eigen composities op de release. Het is opnieuw het beheerste geluid van Van der Molens trompet en flügelhorn dat de sound bepaalt.
Wijnen en Daly soleren beslist niet onverdienstelijk, maar de heren zijn hoofdzakelijk dienend in de weer om de dame in het gezelschap te laten uitblinken. En dat doet ze. Met aanstekelijke partijen, die zwaar op de bebop leunen. De flügelhorn klinkt van zichzelf omfloerst, maar ook op trompet kiest Van der Molen voor de Chet Baker-benadering.
Ellister van der Molen heeft goed geluisterd naar alle groten en daar haar voordeel mee gedaan. Haar techniek getuigt van veel ervaring en muzikale lenigheid. Triplicate bestaat uit eind dertigers en begin veertigers, die in tal van combo’s hun sporen hebben verdiend als ‘sideman’. Hun samenspel is zeer hecht en compact, maar die kwaliteit vertaalt zich niet in melodisch opvallende stukken. ‘Call Of The Wild’ lijdt helaas aan een zekere eenvormigheid.
Hans Invervizzi