Ben van Gelder - Reprise '2013

Tracks list

The quintet is a special discovery - a young, fresh, and yet amazingly mature
sound out of New York, constructed with intelligence, along with something else
that is felt in every moment of the music: an elemental desire to play. Here is
music that swings, pulsates. It has lyrical elegance, carried along by a
rhythmic density, transparency, and groove that is never gratuitous. It is music
that flows out of the mainstream of contemporary jazz, yet moves with such
sovereign elegance that what immediately stands out is its special position
within that mainstream.

The power of the sound combined with a subtle purity immediately stands out;
flowing saxophone lines, tight, compact play—and with it an unusual
transparency. There is no need to zap to a piece on which one of New
York’s current tenor saxophone stars, namely Mark Turner, plays.
Throughout—with Turner or without Turner—a unique, swinging,
compelling world of sound opens up. Alto saxo- phonist and bass clarinetist Ben
van Gelder is this world’s instigator, and here is Reprise, his first CD
on Pirouet. Ben van Gelder is in his mid-twenties, and is one of the new voices
who has been getting a lot of attention on the New York scene. Born in 1988 in
the Netherlands, van Gelder plays here with partners from his own generation.
Most of them were born within the same year: four of the members of the quintet
are the same age, and the fifth member has yet to reach his 30th birthday. The
quintet’s instrumenta- tion is unusual: alto saxophone, vibraphone,
piano, bass, and drums. The group immediately wins the listener over with music
that transmits the allure of surprise.

Ben van Gelder —j azz aficionados might well wonder as to whether he is
related to Rudy van Gelder, the famous recording engineer whose recording studio
in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey was the site of thousands of recordings for a
variety of jazz labels; many of these recordings are now legendary. However, Ben
is not a relative of Rudy van Gelder; Ben comes from a Dutch family who loves
music. His father owns a record store, his mother is a classically trained
musician. Ben became involved in the jazz scene at an early age, was already a
prize-winner as a student, and appeared at such prestigious jazz venues as the
North Sea Jazz Festival. He studied in Amsterdam, and shortly there- after
landed in New York where he continued his schooling with the likes of Lee Konitz
and Mark Turner while playing with such diverse major jazz players as Ari Hoenig
and David Binney. Van Gelder’s quintet partners on this CD are
vibraphonist Peter Schlamb, pianist Sam Harris, bassist Rick Rosato, and drummer
Craig Weinrib; they are all major talents on the New York scene; each has
frequently ap- peared throughout the area performing with various groups. This
particular band has been playing together for over two years. They have already
released a debut album, Frame of Reference, in 2011. That CD featured special
guests pianist Aaran Parks and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. These two players
are major forces on the American jazz scene, acclaimed by both critics and their
fellow musicians. The CD was highly praised, and as is the case with the present
CD, it was recorded at the Sear Studio in New York. All About Jazz marveled that
it was “hard to believe that ‘Frame of Reference’ is a debut
album”. The group then took the album’s music on the road, touring
the USA, Canada, and Europe. Despite its members’ unabashedly youthful
presence—a photo on Ben van Gelder’s homepage portrays the band in
checkered shirts, playful and self-ironic—they al- ready have
considerable experience in putting forward their own concepts and compositions.

With the exception of R.E.L. which was written by Peter Schlamb, all of the
compositions on the CD are by Ben van Gelder. These are pieces that seem to be
tailor-made for this band and its unique sound. “We’ve taken a lot
of time to develop a band sound. The combination of vibraphone and piano is
unusual and creates a distinctive texture. Each of us has a strong sense of form
and has a deep under- standing of composition. The band can create a large
orchestral sound, and it can also sound minimalistic, with little in the way of
chordal information. But the most impor- tant point is that everyone listens as
intently as possible to what’s going on. And we’ve all immersed
ourselves in the jazz tradition.”

Sometimes the compositions are hymnal, sometimes lyrical, savoring the cantilena
of the alto saxophone and expanding the space of the vibraphone and
piano’s tonal possibilities. Once again the space retracts, then allows
the sounds to gradually grow as they remain intensely transparent—all of
this in a single piece whose title clearly expresses, the character of the
composition: Crystalline. The musical movements come off as being exceptionally
sophisticated and multidimensional. In Crystalline exuberant, agitated, driving
drum play underpins a lyrical theme.

Ben Van Gelder, alto saxophone, bass clarinet
Peter Schlamb, vibraphone
Sam Harris, piano
Rick Rosato, bass
Craig Weinrib, drums
Mark Turner, tenor saxophone (on tracks 5 and 8)
Ben Street, bass (on tracks 5 and 9)

Tracklist:
01. Ben van Gelder - Introduction (3:12)
02. Ben van Gelder - All Rise (6:10)
03. Ben van Gelder - Crystalline (5:45)
04. Ben van Gelder - Tribute (5:23)
05. Ben van Gelder - Into Air It Disappears (3:57)
06. Ben van Gelder - R.E.L. (4:37)
07. Ben van Gelder - Yarnin (1:35)
08. Ben van Gelder - Reprise (4:41)
09. Ben van Gelder - vocation (2:59)
10. Ben van Gelder - August (4:09)
11. Ben van Gelder - Without Haste (1:24)

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