Author: Francois

De Groote – Faes Duo Time Unfolding (Vlaamsekunst Records 2026)

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NEW RELEASE – DE GROOTE – FAES DUO

Flemish eclecticism of the grittiest and soulfullest order.   

Personnel

Bruno de Groote (guitar), Ben Faes (bass), Dré Pallemaerts (drums)

Recorded

in 2025 at Studio Portino in Antwerp

Released

as Vlaamsekunst Records 004 in 2026

Track listing

Time Unfolding / Floating On Time / On A Timeline / Drifting Low / Acte de Présence / Leaving The Nest / Another Road / Break Of Day / September Blues / Spinning Days

Remember the first time you heard Pat Metheny’s Bright Size Life? So fresh, super melodic, so dreamy but edgy. The opening title track of De Groote – Faes Duo’s Time Unfolding has the same sort of effect. Thrilling.

Guitarist Bruno de Groote, cooperating here with ace bassist Ben Faes, who co-wrote tunes, and acclaimed drummer Dré Pallemaerts, has been around for many years on the Belgian and European scene. Somewhat an enigma for y’all on the other hemispheres which needs clarifying, and a big influence on Belgian guitarists in a country that was musically eclectic before the term was coined and became hip. Lowlanders may have seen him jump and rock the blues with Mambo Chillin’ a long time ago and, in the 21st century, heard him swing traditionally in most original fashion with Vindaloo Five.

They may have seen him play a part in the killer indie rock band Deus.

I had the pleasure of seeing the duo without drummer at the little workplace of a guitar builder in a little village in the Dutch Flanders region last November. A very intimate concert of subtle swing, blues, Spanish tinges, Americana and a bit of Bach-inspired stuff to boot. Immaculate, spontaneous interaction between bass and guitar.

They played part of their latest, Time Unfolding. A surprising collection with a loose philosophical leitmotiv of ‘time’. (the discussion of what time actually is besides matter might take a while) The deep pocket of Acte de Présence is embellished by De Groot’s other masterly guitar tale besides the opening gem, which may have something to do with having the guts and skills to, what I, in the slipstream of Monk, like to call ‘ugly beauties’, divided equally between single lines (made up of Brunotes) and chordal patterns.

Another Road is a back porch ditty no doubt appreciated from Salt Pork, West Virginia to Lexington, Kentucky.

The introduction of Leaving The Nest – the explosion of a data center and lightning strike of an oak tree occurring at exactly the same time – segues into a wedding party song, a bit of Zappa-ish wit, only to be followed up by a section of gritty loose and free swing.

Break of Day hints at the modal style of Impressions and the like. Another fine tune of a record and act that shouldn’t be missed. We need Marc Ribot, Will Bernard, Nels Cline in our lives. Please add Bruno de Groote (and his gang) to your roster of favs.

Check out the De Groote – Faes discography and Time Unfolding on Bandcamp here: https://degroote-faesduo.bandcamp.com/

A splice of the top

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CHET BAKER & THE DICK BOCK SCAM –

Pré-digital practice of cutting and reshuffling made it hard to distinguish what is what. 

Anyway you look at it, you have to call it a scam. I remember finding Chuck Berry’s On Stage in my dad’s collection, thinking it was a live recording but finding out later applause and audience roar was added to studio recordings. Shame on you, oh sweet and holy Leonard and Phil Chess!

At least nobody tinkered with the actual recordings. Nowadays, splitting and cutting and overdubbing is not unusual, raising discussion, certainly in jazz and the art of improvisation, whether it takes off the edge of spontaneity. Few, I would think, blame Monk and Orrin Keepnews for editing the complex Brilliant Corners from multiple takes. Or would they? As long as the story is fulfilling.

Sometimes though, people just push it too far. What about Chet Baker’s Pretty / Groovy on World Pacific from 1958? I didn’t know about this story until the serious collector Rudolf “Fiftiesjazz” posted the album on Instagram. Dig this. Owner Richard Bock really outdid himself on this one.

Fiftiesjazz: “The liner notes could not be more vague to hide the truth. An album presented as yet another Chet Baker Quartet/Quintet album is just old stuff doctored by chief alchemist Richard Bock.”

“Chet’s first vocal album, 25cm Pacific Jazz LP 11, was dismembered and the vocals by Chet were filtered out. Instead, ‘guest artists’ Bill Perkins and Jimmy Giuffre were filling in the free space. Ingenious! Another ploy was to use already issued tracks from LP 3 and some unissued alternates. One track with a guitar dubbed in dates from December 9, 1957, the last recording Chet made for Pacific Jazz. So the album spans a period from 1953 to 1957.” 

Chet Baker - Pretty : Groovy
Chet Baker - Sings
Chet Baker & Joe Pass - Sings (Japan)

“Richard repeated the scam in the sixties by dubbing in Joe Pass on guitar instead of Perkins and Giuffre and issuing it as a Chet Baker/Joe Pass collaboration. That album was available in Japan.” 

Bock, who gave us tons of great music and deserves the homage Bock To Bock from Wes Montgomery, seriously crossed a red line here!

What’s your ‘favorite’ scam?

Won’t get fooled again

Terry Gibbs Take It From Me (Impulse 1964)

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Good advibe. 

Personnel

Terry Gibbs (vibraphone), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Sam Jones (bass), Louis Hayes (drums),

Recorded

on January 16, 1964 at Rudy van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Released

as Impulse A-58 in 1964

Track listing

Side A: Take It From Me / El Fatso / Oge / Pauline’s Place / Side B: 8 LBS., 10 OZS / Gee Dad, It’s A Deegan / All The Things You Are / Honeysuckle Rose

Terry Gibbs is actually Julius Gubenko, born in New York City in October in 1924 from Ukranian ancestry. Yes, you’re right: 101 years old. Hurray! Didn’t he live through a lot, by God. Soldiers that survived the Western front, searching for a new role in society for good or worse. Soldiers that didn’t come home, madness and horror, the horror, destroying them in the trenches like brooms sweeping out the ashes in the morning.

He saw queer adults do the jitterbug, Gatsby’s fall to pieces after the stock market crash, skeleton men sitting on the porch all day rolling Bull Durham cigarettes, the only thing left in the world, enjoyed coolly and collectedly.

Shiny T-Model Fords came roaring from the oasis, lightbulb and telephone came from hell or heaven, while out there in the Deep South some bastard crowd hung a black man. Frederik Delano Roosevelt took on the monster commonly referred to as you-know-who in Jewish quarters on the continent. Gibbs/Gubenko, 17 years old, scanned the thick black headlines, meanwhile heard Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the new age.

Also in his orbit: the suburban sprawl, opulence, flower power, Vietnam. Etcetera and. Let’s try to be rational, he also experienced the gradual, general progress of mankind: increase of hygiene and good health, decrease of hunger. But new threats and challenges as well. He had to take all of this in, a world that went from horse and carriage to Tesla and telegram to Facetime in the blink of an eye.

Unperturbed, strong-willed Mr. Gibbs did his thing in a world where the meaning of thing is constantly debated. A go-getter, whose collection of activities is overwhelming. He started out with Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Louie Bellson, was in Benny Goodman’s band from 1946 to 1951, and while advancing the causes of female colleagues Terry Pollard, Pat Moran and Alice McLeod (Coltrane), the pianist/vibraphonist became musically acquainted with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy DeFranco, Horace Silver.

A bop legend that founded his killer Dream Band in 1959 featuring L.A.’s finest Mel Lewis, Conte Candoli, Frank Rosolino, Joe Maini, while making a career on tv in the 1950’s on the shows of Mel Tormé and Steve Allen, there where the glow of the tube for the first time in history filled just about every household in the land of the free and not that easy.

Who doesn’t love to browse through the imposing discography of Gibbs? A lot of good stuff since his Good Vibes debut on Savoy in 1951. Good vibrations certainly is a term that qualifies for Take It From Me, released on the legendary Impulse label in 1964.

Gibbs checked out the East Coast cats, Kenny Burrell, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. Good news. Even better, place of action is Rudy van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, almost goes without saying. Sam Jones and Louis Hayes, the swinging steam machine of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet since 1960, unbeatable. Kenny Burrell, foremost picker of the day, everyone wants to play with K.B., every note rings through, is the truth, is the most tasteful exhibition of bop and blues.

Here is how it goes, Jones/Hayes as tight-knit as tweed jackets, laying down a pocket as groovy as the murmur of the crowd in the Apollo Theatre, quite understated so as not to overpower the vibraphone of Gibbs, a concentrated conversation among themselves and a message to Gibbs and Burrell, go ahead and swing boys, we know where you’re at.

Gibbs, who brought saucy, blues-based songs to his New Jersey session, is in a good mood, he’s thinking I like the ideas these guys pass on, and, behind Burrell, who’s Burrell, classy, fiery, elegant, stays active with compliments and asides and reflections upon their blues-drenched selves. He’s feeling what these guys are up to, take it from him, and they’re feeling their way through his realm, all concerned share a language without words.

It’s all good, a relaxed date underlined by the brushes of Louis Hayes (also still around, played at Spike Wilner’s Jazzcultural in NYC just recently!) though the meaty El Fatso may be a cut above the rest.

A cut above the rest is nothing unusual for Terry Gibbs.

Listen to Take It From Me on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0vSJK6vT5M&list=PLCJ-KW1SZ34ymX6aESSPxnggFry8q3pzB

Emmet Cohen Universal Truth (Mack Avenue 2026)

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NEW RELEASE – EMMET COHEN

Cohen & Co call up the spirits of Miles Davis and John Coltrane.   

Personnel

Emmet Cohen (piano), Tivon Pennicott (tenor saxophone 5-8), George Coleman (tenor saxophone 3, 8), Jeremy Pelt (trumpet 2, 4, 5-8), Yashushi Nakamura (bass 1, 5-8), Ron Carter (bass 2-4), Joe Farnsworth (drums)

Recorded

on October 5, 2025 at Sear Sound in New York City

Released

as Mack Avenue in 2026

Track listing

Budo / Well, You Needn’t / My Funny Valentine / Gingerbread Boy / I: Eternal Glimpse / II: Compassion / III: Universal Truth / Blue Trane

Emmet Cohen tours the world with a Miles Davis and John Coltrane Centenary tribute, continuing his saga as a blessing for contemporary jazz. If anyone is doing the jazz realm a favor (in sync with fellow pianist Sullivan Fortner), it’s Cohen, lodging in the castle of giants yet stepping out and darting over the hills with fresh and exuberant ideas popping out of his head and hands. Not mention creator of the popular and exciting YouTube channel Emmet’s Place.

Universal Truth builds on his touring concept, not so much a clear-cut revival of repertoire but more like a spiritual tribute. The cool-boppish complexity of Budo goes way back to Birth Of The Cool, while My Funny Valentine is associated with The Second Great Quintet of Miles Davis. It’s the flexibility and near-telepathy of that iconic group that rubs off on Cohen & Co, a group so terribly tight-knit from playing together continuously in New York over the years it’s frightening. Apart from close associate Joe Farnsworth, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and tenor saxophonist Tivon Pennicott, Cohen is assisted by former Davis bassist Ron Carter on two tracks.

Oh, how they dig up Valentine from the grave is something else, the spontaneity is palpable and all concerned – including giant George Coleman (Sonny Rollins passed on but Big G’s still around) and melodic (and fast) rhythm maestro Farns – go with the sumptuous ebb and flow as dolphins dancing on the ceiling.

Cohen’s mini-suite I-II-III is more Coltrane-inspired, the climaxing title track tailor-made for his gorgeous voicing and meandering river-lines. Can’t help but be swept away by Cohen’s sinuous waves of joy.

Check out Universal Truth on Bandcamp here: https://emmetcohen.bandcamp.com/album/universal-truth

The Ghost, The King & I Featuring Scott Hamilton & Strings (2026)

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NEW RELEASE – THE GHOST, THE KING & I

Soothing swing ‘n’ strings from Holland’s finest and Great Scott.  

Personnel

Scott Hamilton (tenor saxophone), Rob van Bavel (piano), Vincent Koning (guitar), Frans van Geest (bass), Wonyeong Kim (artistic director Salon de Musique), Hyemi Kim (violin), Jieun Kim (viola), Sohyeon Park (cello)

Recorded

at Studio 1, Hilversum in October 2025

Released

as Sound Liaison 1084-A in 2026

Track listing

I Want To Be Happy / Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar / Everything I Love / Sergei & Bill / Goodbye, Mr. Evans / In The Still Of The Night / Weaver Of Dreams / Autumn Of New York

The music of Scott Hamilton has always gone down well in The Netherlands, not least because of cooperations with prime Dutch musicians, notably pianists Rein de Graaff and Rob van Bavel. Van Bavel is part of The Ghost, The King & I, a drum-less trio featuring guitarist Vincent Koning and bassist Frans van Geest dedicated to refreshing the American Songbook.

A high-quality coupling with Hamilton, our veteran with a sound as warm as the smoldering heat from the embers, a way of phrasing that equals your balanced steps on and off dune hills. Old-school art of the tenor that alternates warm-hearted ballads with mid-tempo swingers.

It’s always a joy to hear Hamilton build a story with ever-increasing tension, non-spectacularly in the good sense of the word, with Ben Webster-ish wit and heat. He’s matched by Van Bavel in I Want To Be Happy, who’s doing with two hands where others need four.

Great Scott and (Korean) strings has come off as envisioned by Van Bavel, a marriage of sophistication and romance, lemon and custard. All in all, top-rate mainstream stuff.

Check out The Ghost, The King & I Featuring Scott Hamilton on Rob’s website here: https://www.robvanbavel.com/

Floriaan Wempe The Light Of Day (2026)

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NEW RELEASE – FLORIAAN WEMPE

Lowland post-bopper branches out on the sunny side of the street.  

Personnel

Floriaan Wempe (tenor saxophone, alto saxophone), Rodolfo Ferreira Neves (trumpet), Rob van Bavel (piano), Steven Zwanink (bass), Willie Jones III (drums)

Recorded

in 2025

Released

in 2026

Track listing

The Observer / Acquiescence / Quest / Angel Roy / Love Me / October 10 / What To Do / The Glow Of Promise / Gonna Be Alright

It’s always a treat to hear a tenor saxophonist and composer shamelessly and fearlessly living the lessons of giants like Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Clifford Jordan, Herbie Hancock, Cedar Walton, Michael Brecker. The treat here is Floriaan Wempe, who is inspired without succumbing to epigonism. Wempe is a mainstay on the Dutch scene and has collaborated intensively with Philip Harper, Willie Jones III and Roy Hargrove, among others, with three albums including The Light Of Day on his résume.

Typically “The Hague”, coming from a solid bop and hard bop tradition, you would have, if you’re a bit of an observer, seen a tall, slender, blond-haired chap milling about anxiously and enthusiastically in the halls of the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague or Rotterdam, where living legends and top-tier contemporary heroes unite, likely with his alto sax friend Tom van der Zaal, only to see him partake in a jam a little while later.

So, that’s the kind of guy, Long Tall Wempe and The Light Of Day, a high-quality record full of spirited, hip melodies, you’re actually almost finding yourself in Rudy van Gelder’s studio in the mid-1960s, The Lion’s on the phone, The Wolff’s taking pictures, the other day it’s Bob Thiele tending business, jazz in elegant monochrome.

Certainly a record of today, though. A new chapter in Wempe’s career, with a new band, his stab at lyric writing, and fresh ways of composing. Wempe: “Nowadays, I tend to look more at the essence of a natural melody and space for interpretation. We had a lot of fun with my pieces and I hope that they will linger in the head of the listener and maybe inspire other musicians as well.” 

The mid-tempo What Do To stands out, Wempe with his eye on the prize, building a well-structured story with ever-growing energy, edging his bright, big tone with some pieces of sandpaper. Kinetic stuff! October 10 is equally swinging and sophisticated, marked by a sort of Horace Silver-stop-time-feeling, kickstarted rather brilliantly by the wonderful pianist Rob van Bavel, followed by pithy unisono bop lines by the horns.

Modal-tinged Quest, with lovely harmonic twists, is without a doubt one of the hard-swingenest tunes of this year. In a more subdued vein, the pastoral Acquiescence thrives on the pairing of alto sax and piano.

His is a positively exciting group, completed by trumpeter Rodolfo Ferreira Neves, bassist Steven Zwanink and Jones III on drums. Then there’s guest vocalist Fay Claassen, Holland’s finest, appearing on three tunes including Angel Roy, a touching homage to Roy Hargrove, and the ballad Love Me, where her sublime intensity meets with Neves’s soulful trumpet.

Welcome additions to a top-rate contemporary post-bop album.

Check out The Light Of Day on Floriaan’s website here: http://floriaanwempe.com/

Here’s What To Do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwny4hJNbSw

Here’s The Observer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQrNZieEVOM&list=RDCQrNZieEVOM&start_radio=1

Push it real good

- Francois Leave a comment

SUGGESTIVE SEXY & SEXIST –

Sex sells, if you push push it hard enough. 

Suggestion sold, whether it was in movies, music or fiction. I’ve got plenty of vintage, lurid pulp books with covers depicting women in various poses in various ever-so-slightly see-through negligés. I’ve got plenty of vintage records with illustrations of beautiful women that were supposed to lure soul jazz lovers into buying the finished product in the record shops. Shamelessly sexist covers are rare but there are a few examples which if they were created in the postmodern world could by artist’s intent pass as cultural commentary and/or would raise a fuzz, but back then, were clear-cut marketing tools.

Were men the only buyers of records? History of (black) culture proves that this is surely not completely the case, so imagine a couple or a family walking into a record store or a barber shop or a supermarket and browsing through a bin. Wow, this looks really cool, young Charlie ponders while pulling his father’s trousers legs. What’s with the lock, dad?

O'Donel Levy - Everything I Do
Harold Ousley - Sweet Double Hipness
Brother Jack McDuff - Sophisticated Funk

Mr. McGriff’s label seriously got down to business. Kenny Clark/Francy Boland’s office took the arty route.

Jimmy McGriff - Groove Grease
Jimmy McGriff - Soul Sugar
Kenny Clarke : Francy Boland Big Band - All Smiles

Female buyers were either totally neglected or scared off like mice in the kitchen. I couldn’t resist to show a perennial favorite (joke) among jazz collectors, Herbie pushing the limits of the bearable. And what about avantgardist Albert Ayler? Sassy goatee, man! Yuk. You won’t find Wild Bill Davis in any controversial or ludicrous pose. Nor find any of his labels exploitative. No hesitation to accuse Coral of bad and scary taste, though. If this is supposed to be lust you might as well throw it to the dogs.

Herbie Mann - Push Push
Albert Ayler - New Grass
Wild Bill Davis - Lover

Find at your local record store or erotic shop