review

Oosterpoort Groningen

Posted: May 31, 2012

I came across this announcement and I couldn’t help feeling very proud.

I have been visiting jazz concerts since I was very young. My father used to take me to Theater Pepijn in The Hague, De Tobbe in Voorburg and Thelonious in Rotterdam to see the jazz greats of that time. There were some people that we would go to see more often than others. Like Jarmo Hoogendijk or Ferdinand Povel.

And the Rein de Graaff trio. For 25 years Rein has been organizing tours, performing with internationally renown artists. I have seen many impressive concerts throughout the years, starting from a very early age.

Now you understand why it is that I feel so proud playing with Rein. Last year we did a short tour with flutist Sam Most, and now we get to play together again! Rein is celebrating his 70th birthday and his 25 year lustrum as an organizer. Other participants will be Houston Person(!), Sylvia Droste, Benjamin Herman, Ben van Gelder, Martijn van Iterson, Marius Beets and Eric Ineke. The week after we play at the Bimhuis.

Review time

Posted: January 23, 2012

: picture by Jos Knaepen www.josknaepen.be

I didn’t really get to making end-of-the-year-lists last year, but if I would have, certainly the tour with Rein de Graaff trio plus Sam Most would have had a promintent place. Fortunately the concerts didn’t go unnoticed. In the weblog Draaiomjeoren Eddy Determeyer wrote the following (you can click here for the whole article):

Als tweede blazer had De Graaff trompettiste Ellister van der Molen uitgenodigd. Een goede keuze: deze dame behoort inmiddels tot de top en bewees dat met een fraai en logisch opgebouwde solo gelijk in het eerste nummer, ‘Take The A-Train’. Als collega Valaida Snow nog had geleefd, zou ik de respectieve middenriffen van de dames wel eens aan een vergelijkend warenonderzoek hebben willen onderwerpen.

(As second hornplayer De Graaff had invited trumpet player Ellister van der Molen. A good choice: this lady nowadays ranks among the top and proved so with a nice and logically built up solo directly in the first song ‘Take the A-Train’. Had colleague Valaida Snow still been alive, I would have liked to compare the two ladies’ abdominal muscles.)

Another nice review was written by Hans Koert in his Keep (it) Swinging weblog. He writes about Chris Peeters‘ cd ‘My name is Chris’, one of the cd’s that I have had the pleasure of contributing to. The whole story, plus nice pictures and a little youtube video of Chris can be found here.

Three Triplicate gigs in a row

Posted: October 16, 2011

Such a joy! Three weeks in a row playing with Triplicate is really getting us somewhere. I truly had a blast yesterday with Bob, Johnny and Eric in Dordrecht. A wonderful audience and crew, too!

From the Triplicate concert last week, which was almost just as exciting, I just found a little review from a very enthousiastic listener. Triplicate Heemstede In between those gigs there was also the concert of the New Generation Big Band plus Anton Goudsmit at Pulchri Studios, The Hague. Some hip cat that Anton is! Really a pleasure to play with. It was pretty hard to play in a loud sounding room such as Pulchri. Nonetheless I think we did a good job.

Allemaal leuk nieuws

Posted: April 26, 2011

Op cultuurpodium.nl schrijft René de Hilster een leuke recensie van de Triplicate cd Three and One. Klik hier voor een directe link naar het artikel.

In oktober speel ik 4 concerten met Rein de Graaff trio plus fluitist Sam Most: Groningen, Oosterpoort (met Ben van Gelder) Heist op den Berg, Leiden (Burcht) en Heerden. Een fantastische eer om door Rein uitgenodigd te worden!

En vandaag heb ik gewoon geweldig lekker gespeeld op de jazzdagen in Scheveningen. Goeie vibe! David Lukács op tenorsax (onbezorgd samen timen, mengen, riffjes/specials verzinnen, gaat vanzelf!), Bob Wijnen op piano, Eric Heijnsdijk op contrabas en Eric Ineke op drums. Swingen vanaf de eerste noot!

Tot slot twee concertaankondiginen:
Donderdag 28 april speel ik mee met het Voorschotens Kamerkoor, dat “The Armed Man” van Karl Jenkins uitvoert.

1 mei speel ik met Leticia y su Rumbadama in Café Local, Antwerpen

Binnenkort meer concertaankondigingen en – last but not least – binnenkort een nieuwe website.

Het gaat de goede kant op!

Another Triplicate cd review

Posted: March 9, 2011

A nice review by Rakendra Smit, in the dutch magazine Muziekwereld

Op deze cd horen we drie jonge jazzcats Ellister van der Molen (trompet en flugelhorn), Bob Wijnen (piano) en Johnny Daly (contrabas) samen met oudgediende drummer Eric Ineke. Dit gezelschap zoekt geen nieuwe wegen en volgt geen trends. Ze spelen standards en een aantal mooie composities van trompettiste Ellister van der Molen. Het is traditionele jazz uitgevoerd met vakmanschap en enthousiasme. Virtuositeit wordt gekoppeld aan subtiliteit waarbij alles in dienst staat van het groepsgeluid. Alles vol gevoel en doordacht. Opvallend in het geluid van dit kwartet is het gebruik van de flugelhorn, het zachte klank-karakter van dit instrument wordt door Ellister van der Molen op imponerende wijze ingezet bij unisono spel met de piano in snelle abstracte bopthema’s.

Met deze debuut-cd levert Triplicate, zoals ze het zelf zeggen, een rijke hommage af aan het grote verhaal van de jazz en wat jazz nog steeds kan zijn.

Yet another nice review

Posted: March 2, 2011

Another review (in dutch) of our cd “Three and One”, written by Jacques Los:

Very flattering indeed!

Jeroen de Valk on the Triplicate CD

Posted: March 2, 2011

Ellister van der Molen’s trumpet makes you forget the trumpet. You just hear music, good music with a lot of heart. Notes, weightless and yet confident, dancing on Eric Ineke’s brushes or sticks, creating melodies and intelligent variations on the spot.
As if blowing a trumpet with a warm sound, going through every chord change imaginable and swinging hard are no big deal at all. She’s a poet on her horn and reminds one of other lyrical trumpeters; Chet Baker and Kenny Wheeler in particular.

(Up in jazz heaven, Chet will be proud to hear someone continuing his tradition of lyricism with a rhythm section he would have hired immediately, and a band as a whole who knows how to handle Gnid, one of his favourite Dameron-tunes. Wheeler, who is still very much with us, is honoured with his own ‘Everybody’s song but my own’.)

There is also a touch of swing trumpet in her playing. While visiting her website, I wasn’t surprised noticing she collaborates also with Dixieland veteran Dim Kesber.

In any style, Ellister is herself – a wonderful musician who, hopefully, will continue recording as a leader after this impressive debut.

Jeroen de Valk

Nice CD review by Hans Koert

Posted: January 22, 2011

Hans Koert, a dutch jazzblogger, reviewed our CD.

Thanks, Hans!