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Saturday 16th November, 17:00 – House of Hard Bop. Today the second and final programme dedicated to the recently deceased tenorist, composer and bandleader Benny Golson. You will hear the remaining pieces from the album Meet the Jazztet from 1960. Then the complete album Free from 1962 – a quartet line-up with Tommy Flanagan on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and on drums: Art Taylor! Meet the Jazztet With It’s All Right with Me this hour starts at a brisk pace. It is a feature for trombonist Curtis Fuller. The quality of his solo is on the same level as the arrangement by Benny Golson. Golson makes full use of the presence of three wind instruments – all sorts of things regularly happen behind the soloist. The title Park Avenue Petite, a composition by Golson, was initially a mystery, until Golson himself came up with an explanation: “I thought of a lovely single young lady living in one of Park Avenue’s high rises. Each day she passes the building’s doorman without knowing that he has great admiration for her. However, he is never able to approach her or express his feelings because of his job and her high position in society. The lady is so high above him socially.”Sadness, futility, desperation, hopelessness and unfulfillment become his metier as he mechanically opens the door for her each day, sharing only her delightful, captivating and alluring smile.” Mox Nix, a composition by trumpeter Art Farmer, has something special in its design. Halfway through, after the tenor solo, the texture narrows to two-part: trombone & bass. From there, a new structure follows. After the ballad Easy Living, Golson’s Killer Joe sounds. The meaning of the title is explained in detail this time. Even before the first note sounds, we get an extensive portrait of the person Killer Joe. In spoken word! The composition has dozens of covers. One of the best known is that of Quincy Jones, on his album Walking in Space. Several female vocalists have been added to his orchestra. Free This record (1962) is for the time being Golson’s last as a leader. He continues as a full-time arranger. It is not until 1977 that he leads another recording session. The drummer in the quartet line-up is Art Taylor. He replaces Philly Joe Jones, who did not show up. The smaller line-up offers less space for arrangements. But the advantage is the spotlight on the only wind player: Benny Golson himself. And he takes the time to solo. Sock Cha Cha is the relaxed, Latin style opening. Mad About the Boy – originally a song; music and lyrics by Noël Coward. It concerns women’s infatuation with a movie star: “On the silver screen He melts my foolish heart in every single scene…” Just by Myself, Shades of Stein, My Romance and Just in Time. —————————- Click for the first broadcast – Click for the corresponding News item   House of Hard Bop – Eric Ineke

Saturday 9th November 2024, 18:00 – Vocal Jazz. Not only the genre, vocal jazz, connects all the pieces in this programme. They also have the year of publication in common: 2024. A new harvest! You will hear music by Norma Winstone, Alexis Cole, April Varner, Samara Joy, Anna Serierse, Jazzmeia Horn, and Michael Mayo. We zoom in on this 32-year-old American, Michael Mayo. Mayo (photo) grew up in a professional musical family. His father played sax with Earth, Wind & Fire – mother was a backing singer with Diana Ross, Beyoncé and Whitney Houston. He studied at the Thelonious Monk Institute, where he was taught by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. His elastic voice has a more than average range. His vocal possibilities transcend boundaries. All for the benefit of creative expressiveness. After Bones, from 2021, Fly is his second album. His choice of standards is striking. He breathes new life into well-known compositions. The arrangements have their own signature. He piles layers on top of each other, sometimes taking care of the bass line in walking bass form. This piling can really thicken up. I Didn’t Know What Time It Was is a song from 1939, composed by Richard Rodgers. This standard has hundreds of versions. Mayo starts with a minimal, 3-layer texture: he sings the melody with lyrics, and accompanies himself with a vocal bass line. Finger snapping on the 2nd and 4th beat is the third layer. In the following chorus he improvises without lyrics in a high register, polyphonic vocal lines join in harmoniously and colorfully. The complexity then gradually increases until the end. All this takes no longer than 2’20”. In Speak No Evil, a composition by Wayne Shorter, Mayo uses a broader sound palette with keyboard, bass guitar and drums. He sings completely without lyrics, in a high register, and here too he deviates considerably from Shorter’s original. Rhythmic/metric relationships are more complicated. Halfway through the tempo slows down, not much happens anymore, which does not benefit the tension curve. At two minutes it is a piece of very short duration. The authorship of the standard Four is disputed. Miles Davis is generally considered the composer, but according to saxophonist Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson the piece is his. (There are a few other compositions that, according to the ‘real’ creators, have been wrongly claimed by Davis.) The theme, with lyrics, is sung straightforwardly by Mayo. But bass and keyboard go against it. If we – for the sake of convenience – assume a four-quarter time signature, their accents sound like this: 1 2 3 4| 1 2 3 4| 1 2 3 4| 1…, every three beats. Then a regular hand clapping is added, on every 3rd beat of the four-quarter measure. The second chorus is a scat improvisation. The third is for the bass player. Then Mayo concludes with the theme. That theme is respected 100%, note for note. The fingerprint is also in the arrangement here. For the complete programme, see the Guide. Vocal Jazz – Ineke Heijliger

Saturday 2nd November 2024, 20:00 – Behind the Dikes. Gijs Hendriks (Utrecht 1938-2017) was a reed player, composer, bandleader, and a tireless inspiration for Utrecht’s jazz life. He was part of Boy Edgar’s big band and the VARA Dance Orchestra. In his own groups, bassist Bert van Erk and drummer Michael Baird were his regular accompanists for many years. Widespread appreciation for his work was expressed in the Wessel Ilcken Prize and the VARA Jazz Award. His home city Utrecht honoured him with the Culture Prize of the city of Utrecht and the Silver City Medal. Hendriks’ activities extended beyond Utrecht and the Netherlands. In the 1950s he worked in Germany, France, and Morocco. Among the many foreign contacts with whom he later shared the stage are Johnny Griffin, Slide Hampton, Nina Simone, Stan Tracey, Tom Harrell, and the American drummer Beaver Harris. Merciless is the title of a documentary that Ellen Blom made about Hendriks. Click for the Playlist of this programme. Behind the Dikes – Hajé Nordbeck (photo: Jaap van de Klomp)