Rob van Bavel Sweet Sixty (RVB 2024)

NEW RELEASE – ROB VAN BAVEL

Birthday piano maestro surrounds himself with a dynamic crew of Dutch partygoers.

Personnel

Rob van Bavel (piano), Jan van Duikeren & Rik van Mol (trumpet), Tom Beek (tenor saxophone), Vincent Koning & Martijn van Iterson (guitar), Anna Serierse & Deborah J. Carter (vocals), Frans van Geest (bass), Marcel Serierse (drums)

Recorded

in 2024 at MCO Studio 2, Hilversum

Released

as RVB in 2024

Track listing

Raincheck / Here’s That Rainy Day / Our Love Is Here To Stay / Faites Vos Jeux / The Rain Has Gone / Games People Play / Game Changer / How Long Has This Been Going On / September In The Rain / The Winner Takes It All / On The Sunny Side Of The Street / Remembering The Rain – After The Rain / Devil’s Game / Sweet Sixty

Rob van Bavel possesses the special talent to always let you leave a concert elated, murmuring ‘uhm uhm uhm… this is just tóo good’, whether he plays Gershwin, Cannonball Adderley or an étude, even Christmas music, oh my sweet ‘n’ sour Lord. Unassuming and genial are his middle names. Dutch-Brabants to the core. Let the keys speak for themselves. Vote against self-congratulation.

A young lion from Breda, Van Bavel came into prominence (stunningly McCoy-ish) in the flamboyant Jarmo Hoogendijk/Ben van den Dungen Quintet in the early 1990’s and recorded sophisticated and swinging piano albums. He played with luminaries as Johnny Griffin and Woody Shaw. Over the years, Van Bavel has developed into a versatile pianist with classical tinges and delicate and dynamic toucher.

Van Bavel turned sixty. Plenty reason to celebrate. Sweet Sixty features a bunch of top-rate friends from the Dutch jazz realm, who acquit themselves very well, thank you. His pals from The Ghost, The King & I, bassist Frans van Geest and guitarist Vincent Koning, interact smoothly on Gershwin tunes with Van Bavel, whose intricate and meaty bass lines and nocturnal voicing take Our Love Is Here To Stay higher and higher. There is guitarist Martijn van Iterson, rarely heard on small ensemble recordings these days, who takes on Strayhorn’s Raincheck with customary gusto.

The lyrical, bittersweet trumpet of Jan van Duikeren is at the heart of Remembering The Rain/After The Rain, a stately blend of Bill Evans and John Coltrane, while young singer Anna Serierse (she’s the daughter of drummer-at-service Marcel Serierse) flexibly leads Van Bavel’s The Rain Is Gone.

A lot of ‘rains’ and ‘games’ on Sweet Sixty, which compiles two thematic ‘Rob van Bavel Invites…’ EP’s and a couple of new songs. Joe South’s Games People Play is a lively honky tonk romp, a deeply groovy mix of Van Bavel’s sassy runs on the keyboard and Rik Mol’s virile, jubilant trumpet playing. Van Bavel’s Faites Vos Jeux (‘play your games’, ‘do y’r thang’) is similarly smooth and groovy, a Nat Adderley-type, gospel-infused party tune, succinctly seasoned by tenor saxophonist Tom Beek.

Devil’s Game might best be described as Neo American Songbook, consisting of music by Van Bavel and sophisticated lyrics by Deborah J. Carter, perfect foil for her experienced, burnished voice. Van Bavel’s Game Changer is a plainly gorgeous ballad. The mix of melancholy and the sweet pain of longing and loving that Van Bavel, Mol and Beek put into it, cuts right to the bone. Already one of the top tracks of this year!

Then there’s The Winner Takes It All, surprising and sensitive vignette of Abba culture, somewhat reminiscent of forebear Louis van Dijk. At age 60, the new-fifty so they say, Rob van Bavel is playing at the top of his game.

Buy Sweet Sixty on Rob’s website here: https://www.robvanbavel.com/ 

The New York Second Room For Other People (NYS 2024)

NEW RELEASE – THE NEW YORK SECOND –

White dresses, elevated trains and staring children stir the imagination of the Dutch-International The New York Second.

Personnel

Harald Walkate (piano), Teus Nobel (trumpet, flugelhorn), Tom Beek (tenor saxophone), Vincent Veneman (trombone), Mark Alban Lotz (flutes), Rob Waring (vibraphone), Lorenzo Buffa (bass), Max Sergeant (drums)

Recorded

on March 4-6, 2024 at Fattoria Musica, Osnabrück

Released

as NYS in 2024

Track listing

983 Third Avenue / Florida, 1957 / The Collectors Corner / The Class Photograph / Room For Other People / Safety Service Comfort / The White Dress / Location & Date Unknown / View Of The Ile Saint-Louis / Downstairs For Incoming Trains / Room For Other People (Reprise)

Similar to good music, good photography can take you on an adventurous trip of the imagination. Harald Walkate combines both on Room For Other People, inspired by the photography of Vivian Maier. A thoroughly enjoyable story by the Amsterdam pianist, who specializes in culturally-motivated records of completely self-written repertory, having tackled writer Aldous Huxley (Music At Night) among others – notes-heavy and luxuriously illustrated CD packages.

The equilibrium of mind of heart is Walkate’s terrain, an approach as balanced as his thoughtful style that borrows from pop, classical and minimal music. The New York Second’s partners-in-epic-slash-dreamy-crime feel like fish in the water of Walkate’s supple harmonies, a few of them big fish, pike-perches, breams, monk-fishes, that solo beautifully, in and out of sweet-sour dissonance, velvet resonance, notably trumpeter/flugelhornist Teus Nobel, flutist Mark Alban Lotz, tenor saxophonist Tom Beek and vibraphonist Rob Waring.

Small suite-like sections, especially the lively 983 Third Avenue and intriguingly orchestrated The Class Photograph, alternate with the bounciness of The Collectors Corner and mystery/melancholy of The White Dress. The title is taken from Vivian Maier’s sobering statement that ‘Nothing is meant to last forever. We have to make room for other people.’ The New York Second understands that sentiment all too well.

Find Harald’s website and Room For Other People here: https://haraldwalkate.com/

The New York Second present Room For Other People at Phil in Haarlem, The Netherlands on February 1.

See my interview from 2023 with Harald here: http://flophousemagazine.com/2023/06/14/some-other-time/

The Life of Brian

BRIAN AUGER – Support the making of a documentary of genre-bending and groundbreaking Hammond organist Brian Auger.

A movie about Brian Auger? Yes please!

Filmmaker Alfred George Bailey and Auger’s creative and business manager Greg Boraman have started a crowdfunding campaign for I Speak Music, a documentary film about Auger, trailblazing Hammond organist that came up in the swinging sixties in London and went on to change the game of fusion with The Oblivion Express in his typically kinetic fashion.

Auger ran into Billie Holiday in a London club, backed Jimi Hendrix on the guitar god’s first UK gig. He is a jazz cat who tuned into rock and soul and worked and played with a staggering variety of artists including Rod Stewart, John McLaughlin, Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Tony Williams, Jimmy Smith, Eric Burdon, Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John and many others. His work was embraced by the acid jazz movement and hiphop acts such as Mos Def and The Beastie Boys.

Check out the crowdfunding page and the trailer of I Speak Music and donate here:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/brian-auger-i-speak-music-film

The Hammond maestro’s current Oblivion Express includes his son Karma and his daughter Savannah. He is 85 and lives in Los Angeles, Venice to be precise and everybody’s happy that he came out unharmed by the terrible fires in the Los Angeles region.

I spoke with him at length for the now defunct Jazzism in 2023, here are some quotes:

“I already played organ in the early sixties but I couldn’t get the sound of my hero Jimmy Smith. Then I discovered Live At The Apollo by Jimmy McGriff. On that cover he was depicted with the B3 organ. I brought it to the Hammond office and said, ‘I have to have one of those!’ That was quite a hassle. But it eventually was shipped as a building kit from the US. And it really turned out to be nirvana.”

“I wanted to build a bridge between the rock scene and the jazz world. When Trinity & Julie Driscoll had a hit with Bob Dylan’s This Wheel’s On Fire, the record company wanted to build on that success. But I was already thinking about the next step. As a jazz pianist I had worked with the best musicians. At the same time, I loved the cheerful beats of the new pop music. Our crossover music went down really well in the US. The promoters were amazed. Normally, the white and black audience was segregated. Not with us. We were just used to interracial mingling in England. The people from the Caribbean and the whites raved together in the clubs in London.”

“All I can say to young and ambitious musicians is follow your heart. Unfortunately, the industry manages to sell a lot of nonsense. I would stay away from that as far away as possible. There remains more than enough good music. If you have something original of your own that you have made, then bring it into the spotlight. That in turn stimulates others of the same breed. In this way the level will be higher again.”

This Year’s Kissa

JAZZ KISSA – Jazz vinyl cocktail lounge Kissa Kissa in Brooklyn, New York is the first bonafide jazz kissa in the USA. A café based on the classic and modern Japanese jazz bar, which typically harbors a vintage collection of jazz records and welcomes customers intent on dedicated individual and communal listening. 

Kissa Kissa is located on 667 Franklin Ave in the Crown Heights part of Brooklyn, New York. Owners Danny and Nina de Zayas founded Kissa Kissa little under a year ago, a stylishly designed place with a collection of classic jazz records from labels as Blue Note, Prestige, Clef, Pacific Jazz, Contemporary, Riverside, Argo, Mode, Impulse, Bethlehem, Barclay, SABA, MPS, Atlantic, Pablo, Candid, ECM, Audio Fidelity and many more.

Danny says: “When I first came across the existence and history of Japanese jazz kissa, there was something about them which I found spellbinding. They have an ineffable charm – there is a beauty inherent to their existence. The cozy size. The celebration of this music which has meant so much to me since I was very young. The lack of artifice and pretension in favor of foregrounding the simple act of listening in community. The often aged proprietor who unlocks his door for a few hours a week, as though welcoming the world into his home.”

“My assumption was that it must have been replicated all over the world, especially in places with a history of supporting jazz like Copenhagen or Paris or NYC for that matter. But everyone I spoke to, people whose expertise I held in high regard, said that they had never seen it done. By this, I mean an exclusively jazz format, ideally all vinyl, with a focus on the listening experience, but without being a live music venue. I was flabbergasted! I’d be at Sam Records buying albums and Fred would say, ‘Nope, that doesn’t exist in France.’ I thought, well, maybe we just need to be the ones to do it.”

Looks like a classy reenactment of the source. Fascinated by American/Western culture, cafés in pre-war Japan played phonographs while promoting dancing and sexual services. As a reaction to these loud places, quieter spots cropped up with a more relaxed and refined atmosphere. The first jazz kissas (kissaten originally means tea-room that tends to a sophisticated crowd) were founded in the 1930’s.

The golden age of the jazz kissa is the 1950s/60/s/70s. Live music was scarce and it was difficult to obtain expensive imported records. The knowledgable patron functioned as host to a bohemian crowd and often lectured on the artists from the records that he spinned. The jazz kissa was an important source of information to students, journalists and musicians. It usually was located in a quiet part of the hipper neighborhoods of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Socio-cultural shifts resulted in various subgenres as swing, modern jazz and free jazz. Typically, the proprietor – or ‘master’ of the ‘tiny’ jazz kissa takes pride in hi-end gear.

Danny takes pride in a big record collection. He continues: “The records have all been individually purchased by me. Building a collection involves a high ratio of time spent to LPs acquired but, of course, the chase is half of the fun! The wall feels like a creature unto itself in some ways. There have been many magic moments watching people interact with it, often timidly at first, scanning spines, brushing a finger horizontally in search of a surname, a smile spilling wide at the sight of a particular title.”

“Record collections can be so oddly personal, can feel like such an extension of who we are – not just our proclivities and tastes but in a way that seems to reveal a deeper truth about our essential selves – and here this jazz kissa invites you to take a seat and explore that vulnerability. Perhaps that’s a bit hyperbolic but it does feel that way at times when I’m putting a playlist together or dropping the needle.”

The jazz kissa is a fascinating phenomenon still vibrant in Japan today. And being kick-started in the USA by Kissa Kissa by Danny, Nina and their team. One can only hope others follow suit and open up joints that promote individual tastes instead of standard corporate riffs. Who needs another Starbucks anyway?

Check out the website of Kissa Kissa here: https://www.kissakissa.us/

Flophouse Favorites 2024

FLOPHOUSE FAVORITES 2024 – The beat goes on.

Ulysses Owens Jr., A New Beat! (Cellar)

Emily Remler, Cookin’ At The Queens (Resonance)

Mike LeDonne Groover Quartet, Wonderful! (Cellar)

The Eric Ineke JazzXpress, Swing Street (Timeless)

Heavy Hitters, That’s What’s Up! (Cellar)

Art Tatum, Jewels In The Treasure Box (Resonance)

Emmet Cohen, Vibe Provider (Mack Avenue)

The Dam Jawn, Forward! (Cellar)

Kurt Rosenwinkel, The Next Step Band (Heartcore)

Teis Semey, En Masse! (Loumi)

Check out the harvest of 2024 below, plenty swing if you look in the right places.

Rarely if ever does one hear neo-hard bop performed as energetically as on drummer Ulysses Owens’ Jr. first live album on the indispensable Cellar label. Glorious archival release of Emily Remler, live and cooking, testament to her greatness as heir to the classic guitarists. Gospel tinges from the undisputed king of vintage organ jazz. Sparkling Cannonball tribute by Dutch drum legend Eric Ineke and his sharpshooters.

(Very) Heavy Hitters keep the flame of Eastern Rebellion-ish hard bop burning brightly. A treasure trove of Tatum gems, live in 1953. Versatile Cohen pays beautiful homage to NYC jazz sage.

Young lions plus Dick Oats turn in top-notch sophomore effort. Game-changing band from the Philly-bred string bender in full flight. Danish guitarist briskly hurls himself in the mouth of grunge jazz.

Bud beautiful continued…

BUD SHANK – After publishing about the life and career of Bud Shank recently, I got into touch with jazz aficionados and collectors Randy L. Smith from Japan and Jan-Erik Karlsson from Sweden, knowing that both have photographs of many jazz legends, including Bud Shank. 

Port Townsend is a beautiful seaside town approximately sixty miles north from Seattle in Washington State in the Puget Sound region. Shank moved to Port Townsend in the 1980’s and became director of the local jazz festival. Smith: “Shank was induced by pianist and mover and shaker Barney McClure to move to Port Townsend. McClure was also the mayor of Port Townsend. Shank built the festival into a world-class affair with his many connections.” Pictured above: Conte Candoli, Bud Shank, Bill Perkins, John Clayton, Jack Nimitz. Below: Bud Shank and Lee Konitz on the left. Photographs by John W. Bubb, July 1988.

Jan-Erik Karlsson took pictures in the 1980’s at the Skeppsholmen festival in Stockholm. Karlsson visited countless editions of the festival. Here’s Bud Shank on the left with drummer Jeff Hamilton and bassist Ray Brown of the L.A. Four. Beautiful shot, guys having big fun!

Thanks Randy L. Smith and Jan-Erik Karlsson.

The real thing

GRANT GREEN AND JACK KINSELLA –

We heard from guitarist Jack Kinsella, a fine straightforward jazz guitarist from The Hague, The Netherlands, who also plays in the positively charming country band The Good, The Bad & The English. Kinsella uploaded a couple of rare tunes from The Real Thing session from tenor saxophonist Houston Person featuring guitarist Grant Green and organist Brother Jack McDuff.

Of course, all participants are the grooviest, but as a guitarist, of course Kinsella is specifically interested in ‘hero’ Grant Green, also a Flophouse Favorite as everybody who trespasses the premises frank and free is well aware of. In the early 1970’s, Grant Green had moved from New York City to Detroit. The most prolific artist of Blue Note in the early 1960’s, even eclipsing chart magnet Jimmy Smith as far as number of sessions is concerned, he gradually vanished from the scene in the mid-1960’s, largely due to his addiction to narcotics.

Green returned at the end of the decade, inspired by his feature on organist Reuben Wilson’s Love Bug and, with strong support of Francis Wolff, set up a new career as jazz funk guitarist. Green made a series of great albums, revered nowadays as jazz funk classics by aficionados (though there always has been a strong segment that considered him a sell-out to real jazz at this point) and good sellers. Although Green remained quite frustrated at not having reached the kind of fame like Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery, who had passed away in 1968 after a run of extremely successful commercial albums.

Green was recently divorced and bought a house in Detroit. Motor City had always been a place where black people, secured of regular jobs in the automobile factories, owned more homes in general than elsewhere in the USA. Motown had left to Los Angeles but people still appreciated good ‘n’ groovy black music. One of the centerpieces of action was Watt’s Club Mozambique. How great the atmosphere and music was at this club can be heard on organist Lonnie Smith’s Live At Club Mozambique (recorded in 1970) and Green’s Live At Club Mozambique, (recorded in 1971 and also featuring Person and Muhammad) both ‘previously unreleased’ Blue Note albums from, respectively, 1995 and 2006.

Green was a regular musician on the stand of Club Mozambique. Another album, The Real Thing, by the great tenor saxophonist Houston Person, a double LP, was recorded in March 1973 and released the same year on Eastbound. It featured, in different line-ups, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, organists Brother Jack McDuff and Sonny Phillips, bassist (and Motown ‘Funk Brother’ legend) James Jamerson, drummers Idris Muhammad and Hank Brown and singers Etta Jones and Spanky Wilson. A solid album of pop, funk, blues and ballads. Listen to The Ohio Players’s Pain here.

Green appeared on five tracks on the official release. Kinsella found a bonus track on a compilation CD, Lester Leaps In, listen here. Great to hear Green, McDuff and Person in a straight-ahead mode. Next, Kinsella uploaded the funky Grazy Legs from the CD version, better quality than the vinyl rip, listen here.

Kinsella also mentions an upload from Big John Patton’s Blue John album featuring Grant Green from 1963, only released on CD in Japan in 2004, five bonus tracks including Green’s Jean de Fleur, five months before Green’s recording on his seminal Idle Moments, listen here.

Green is beautiful.