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The last thing I wanted was to have a band – I am busy guest conducting in Europe, composing and in 1996 become Chief Conductor of the Danish Radio Big Band. However, while living in Holland and teaching at the Rotterdam Conservatory, I heard (and taught) an exceptional young pianist, Kris Goessens. He and I began playing duo, for fun, in late 1992, and I found in him a partner with almost the magical ability to relate to another player, something I hadn’t experienced since my year with Him Hall in 1979. We wound up in Paris the next year and succeeded in making it work, for us and the audience. We then played with Dre and Riccardo and said ‘OK, we’ll make a band’ – this recording was the first time we actually performed together, and since then we have grown with every concert. Kris and I contributed most of the music, with Chaconne by Henning Berg the lone exception. He is a member of the West German Radio Band and this piece came from a ‘2 Man Show’ we did in 1988. It is also an indication of our future. More electronics, more theater and more experimentation will follow. As I said, I really hadn’t planned on having a band, but I am very glad that I now have one and we look forward to seeing you often in the coming years.
-- Bob Brookmeyer
When music so accurately reflects a man’s mind and soul, you know that it reaches beyond the hollow qualifiers of good or great or fine: it becomes an act of necessity. It becomes the artist’s answer to the many questions that he has accumulated in a lifetime. Bob Brookmeyer’s playing has always struck me as being the product of a deep, sensitive intellect. The man and his music are one. When I first met him, I marveled at the noble quality of his speech: I thoroughly enjoyed his long, well-balanced sentences, his soft tone, his choice of words. Few people can achieve such a command of language. His playing had the same characteristics, enhanced by the range of the valve trombone, a brass incarnation of the human voice: whatever he plays translates effortlessly into a perfect statement, with all the ingredients of an architectural prowess.
I believe that Bob Brookmeyer is one of the handful of musicians in the history of modern music – not just jazz, I insist – who have managed to explore the hidden places of theory and writing while developing his craft as an unique improviser. Indeed, I can’t think of any other player who can build long solos without betraying the listener’s attention – or skirting a difficult challenge.
This recording is a blessing. The Brookmeyer you hear is the unsurpassed trombonist of whom all the jazz greats are in awe: his playing is a lesson throughout. Each composition is a short story that illustrates the all-too-rare ‘virtuous’ circle, whereby serious writing is the best vehicle for improvisation, which in turn is so inspired that it becomes an act of writing in real time.
It is therefore no coincidence that Bob chose demanding partners to perform demanding music: pianist Kris Goessens seems to have been born into a piano. When you see him play, you realize that nothing can distract him from his love affair with the instrument; he takes you to secret corners, finds the beautiful notes and literally irradiates the other musicians. His is a spiritual adventure. Riccardo Del Fra, whose impressive resume would be an easy justification for his presence here, is once again the right man at the right place: his understanding of the form, his absolute sense of time and the natural elegance of his bass lines – partly due to his talent as a composer – add a magnificent contrapuntal value to the music. Rarely has a bassist said so much with such restraint.
The aerial element comes from the young drummer Dre Pallemaerts: his sticks and brushes seem to delineate some featherweight percussive dance, or better still, to paint some watercolor with dots and lines that suggest more than they underline. Lightness is gravity mad clever. And God know how clever this recording is…
-- Francois Lacharme |
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| | Amanda | | | Elle-Que | | | Chanson |  | | Arp | | | Erik Satie | | | Airport Song | | | Gospel Song | | | Chaconne | |
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Bob Brookmeyer - valve trombone
Kriss Goessens - piano
Riccardo Del Fra - bass
Dre Pallemaerts - drums
Recorded at Studio 44, Monster, The Netherlands on October 15, 16 and 17, 1993 and January 5, 1994. |
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