Classical Music

Classical Music

After celebrating their 15th anniversary in September 2014, the excellent Matangi Quartet presents a new CD featuring their extraordinary combination of classical and jazz, with several world premiere recordings Jazzics! Is an ode to jazz, from a classical point of view.

"Over the last few years, I have composed music for many literary concerts, where writers tell their story live and I create a musical scenario based on the story. I then arranged some of these compositions for the band and took them with me to the studio. All the notes were new to the musicians. Although we had only two days to record everything, I felt certain this would not be an issue, since the band is such a close-knit group. Plus, something special often happens when musicians are still exploring material. And you can hear it, too. The result is a mysterious album featuring layered, richly resonant pieces in which the musicians take turns telling their own musical story." (Corrie van Binsbergen) All compositions on this release were originally composed for stories and poems by famous Dutch writers and guitarist Corrie van Binsbergen. She later arranged her compositions for her "all-star" band VanBinsbergen Playstation.

Drummer Pieter Bast is one of Europe's most resourceful and creative drummers, performing with a wide variety of groups. In the past, he worked with artists including Kenny Wheeler, Charlie Mariano, Eric Vloeimans, Mike Mainieri, and Paul van Kemenade, whom he has joined for various CDs and concerts around the world. Pieter teaches drums at the Brussels Conservatory.

Classical Music

The Old School Band is the latest project of Dutch guitarist/composer Marnix Busstra. Together with his ‘friend for life’ bassplayer Norbert Sollewijn Gelpke he initiated this brand new band. Back in the early 80s they shared their first musical footsteps with the schoolband they played in, now it’s time for the Old School Band. In Marnix Busstra’s latest projects- the cooperation with renowned vibraphonist Mike Mainieri in the Mike Mainieri/Marnix Busstra Quartet, and his modern jazzband Marnix Busstra Band with pianist Rembrandt Freichs- the music was more purely jazzminded. In the Old School Band the focus is on funk! The classic combination of the electric jazzguitar and organ gives the music the sound and flavor you need to make it really funky, and the choice for the most funky musicians you can find in The Netherlands completes the concept. Marnix Busstra wrote nine brand new compositions for this debut album; different tastes, all funky. The recordings are very straight forward, no overdubs or other tricks were used. It’s a pure registration of a band playing ‘live in the studio.’

For jazz pianist Marc von Roon, these recordings are a dream come true. They represent the culmination of almost five decades of exploring, playing, performing, contemplating, constructing, deconstructing, searching, researching, reflecting, engaging in conversations, jamming, sense-making, traveling, instructing, sharing, dreaming and being. For a long time he desired to allow himself full immersion in this genuine kind of improvisational exploration with its invitation to let go of habitual patterns and grooves and to resonate more deeply with the music and her deep generative source: a source that expresses itself in silence and sound so infinitely mysterious. Recording this music has been an invitation to improvise on a tightrope, letting go of preconceived designed and trained artistic conceptualizations and has been a journey to the edge of technique and control with a strong refusal to repeat himself and a keen interest in taking risk and explore unknown territory. As an underlying framework he chose to use the printed keyboard scores of Johann Sebastian Bach. The result is beautiful album in which the listener can discover how to creatively connect the pre-composed orchestrated with the improvised "Jazz" of life to which we are continuously being invited: a "Jazz" that encompasses and integrates both the sorrowful blues and the joyful swing of Jazz and life.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This disc features Bram Stadhouders, one of the most promising jazz guitarists of the Netherlands, and Aart Strootman, a classical music pioneer on guitar. Endless improvisation, composing, and sharing of thoughts have resulted in a very special duo, with a mix of classical and jazz on two acoustic guitars. The album was recorded in the south of the Netherlands in an abandoned monastery, where the peace and spiritual atmosphere contributed to the quality of the music.

2014 hybrid SACD pressing. Buzz.

Classical Music

Songwriter Roos Meijer takes inspiration for her music from societal issues and unheard voices of people around the world. Sven Arne Tepl, director of the Residentie Orkest was so touched by her music that he invited Roos to be part of her own Symphonic Junction concert with the Residentie Orkest.

Bram Stadhouders’ Suite X is a collection of eight baroque music tracks for the present. It is the out of the box thinkers of Baroque Orchestration X (B.O.X), with whom he has entered into this unorthodox alliance. With Suite X, Stadhouders pays tribute to the soothing baroque sound, which he manages to mix with the sound of an electric guitar and synthesizer in a logical and surprising way: once as a soundscape, then in a catchy groove, and last but not least, with intriguing melodies that immediately settle into your head.