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Saturday 30th November 2024, 14:00 – Past, Present & Future. *Tenorist Johnny Griffin recorded an album for the Riverside label in February 1958: Way Out! A quartet line-up with pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer ‘Philly’ Joe Jones. *In September 2023, the BIDA Orchestra, led by percussionist Sun-Mi Hong, played at the Amsterdam BIMHUIS. The recording was released on BIMHUIS Records. *Also, live from the BIMHUIS (July 2022): three pieces by Marike van Dijk. In the second half of the 1950s, Johnny Griffin’s career took off. He became one of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, performed on stage and in the studio with Thelonious Monk. He also recorded an album with John Coltrane. Griffin opens this hour with three pieces from the album Way Out! – the last being the standard Cherokee. He tackles it in his infamous breakneck tempo. The theme is sharply designed: the successive use of bass, drums and piano respectively accentuates the different parts of the song form. Pianist Kenny Drew matches Griffin’s speed in his solo, at the expense of the articulation. But then again, try to match Griffin’s solo rhythm. Korean Sun-Mi Hong has been in the Netherlands for about ten years now. She started studying percussion here, and in a few years she grew into an improviser, composer with her own signature, band leader and international stage personality. Her current BIDA Orchestra features two saxophonists, a trumpet player, pianist and bass player. Hong’s compositions rarely lack ostinato passages: repetitive rhythmic/melodic figures, consisting of simple rhythms and only a few notes. They function as a ‘background’ for improvisations, but the soloing wind instruments also sometimes find each other in unison playing: doing the same thing together in unison. They seek each other out, they part ways. Tight metric runs out in no time, and vice versa. These compositional elements are of course no guarantee for captivating music. A high-quality, musical brain is required for that, and the right – combination of – musicians. Both present! The title of the album Stranded, by saxophonist Marike van Dijk (photo), refers to her period of lockdown in Australia, during the corona pandemic. Perhaps that forced confinement stimulated her creativity, because the collection of pieces is something to behold! Changes takes you, after a ‘searching’ intro, directly into a tight beat. That beat – a keeper – is the prelude to a colourful, layered theme section. Improvisations and ensembles alternate, then follows the reprise of the theme section. Cheerful. Sun also has that right balance between solos and ensembles. The electric guitar adds a sharp colour accent. All the pieces, including the closing Stranded, are immediately convincing. Imaginative themes, rich colour palette – nine musicians – that allows for layering, instrumentation, design… Perfect. Programme and line-ups in the Guide Past, Present & Future – Jaap van de Klomp

JazzNotJazz on Saturday 23 November at 12:00 CET looks back at the career of Quincy Jones. Until the early 1970s, Quincy Jones built a name for himself in jazz music. As a musician, composer, arranger and producer. In the 1970s, a crossover to pop music became evident and was increasingly successful, culminating in the 1980s with Michael Jackson and We Are The World. Those are just a few examples. On his own albums in the 1970s he defined his own style. With clear roots in jazz, other genres were smoothly forged into new gold.

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