Polar Bear - 04/04/2004, Brussels

Ingrid Laubrock - ts
Pete Wareham - ts
Tom Herbert - b
Sebastian Rocheford - d

They're back! This time in Brussels at the Archiduc, late on a sunday afternoon.

The repertoire was similar to that of the first concert back in October, mainly covering songs from their debut album, Dim Lit. Ingrid Laubrock is a sub and hadn't played with the group since then, so there were a lot of flubs and missed cues, but the energy level was high and nearly all solos were very, very good.

Despite working essentially in the head-solos-head format, Sebastian Rocheford's writing and arrangement for the group is very fresh-sounding and intriguing, full of memorable contrapuntal melodies, tempo-shifting grooves and the odd bit of exotica. For example, on a Russian-flavoured tune, Rocheford began by clapping a rhythm, which he later turned into a slightly martial, dynamic drum pattern. Contrary to the driving groove to which a honking Wareham contributed, Laubrock played a rather languid and nostalgic melody. Russian-sounding, of course.

This band's most interesting feature is its interplay between the tenors and between the tenors and the rhythm section. While both Wareham and Laubrock seem to come out of similar modern jazz backgrounds which takes in everything from bebop to free jazz, with a little r'n'b and even free improv thrown in for good measure, they have arrived at quite different sounds and approaches. Laubrock is a bit fuller and warmer, but Wareham can be quite haunting at times, especially in his almost flute-like upper register. And of course, there's an omnipresent irresistable groove provided by Rocheford's idiosyncratic mix of jazz and contemporary London rhythms and Tom Herbert's melodic lines. They reached back in time for the concert's only new tune, "King of Aberdeen," when bass and drums established a fun, very fast, old-timey two-beat.

Rub Recordings label owner Gea told me that Dim Lit has just been released in the UK and apparently it's doing quite well over there. UK readers (if there are any), go get this album! They're aiming for a second album by the end of the year, which I'm very much looking forward to.

The next day, they played at the Hnita-Hoeve. Due to the combination of energy and imperfection, I would have loved to have gone, but alas I caused my first car accident in 6 years of driving on saturday and lost my front fender, so the car was (and still is, at the moment) undriveable... No injuries though.

Houston Person & Jesse Van Ruller with the Rein de Graaff Trio - 28/03/2004, Heist-op-den-Berg

Houston Person - ts
Jesse van Ruller - g
Rein de Graaff - p
Marius Beets - b
Eric Ineke - dr

2 generations of players met in this ad hoc quintet: the senior citizens Houston Person, Rein de Graaff and Eric Ineke, and the thirty-something Jesse van Ruller and Marius Beets. The stylistic differences were slightly less marked than than the age difference, though.

Houston Person progressively warmed up throughout the two sets. At first he was rather restrained and stony-faced, but by the end he was positively ebulliant and actually said something loud enough for the crowd to half hear. His tenor was always out front: big, smooth, velvety, erupting into a sharp blues lick. No-nonsense, old-school soulful swing'n'bop playing. His last performance of the night was arguably his best, on a "Georgia on my Mind" encore.

Van Ruller also seemed to warm to the task progressively. By the time they reached a somehow odd sequence of "Sunny" and "Pennies From Heaven" in the second set, the guitarist was chomping at the bit of the imposed harmony. As they played a sign-off riff-blues for the third time of the night (each time featuring a rather mechanical, train-like snare drum shuffle from Eric Ineke), he made no bones about searching out his own harmonic paths, to great effect.

In between the various takes on the blues, you'd get a samba (first set) or a bossa (second set, during which Person nicely contrasted the lower-register theme with some brief light, high-register soloing), a ballad ("My Funny Valentine," for example). Nothing much to say about the concert other than just good, solid swing. The alternate name for the group, Movin' & Groovin', had kind of tipped us off.

More good shows coming up at the Hnita-Hoeve, check 'em out.

Club guide: Hnita Hoeve

While set in a bit of an odd area for a jazz club, the Hnita Hoeve manages to draw good crowds. It is arguably the oldest active club in Belgium, going back to 1955, under the same name but in a different location. For the last 20 years the club has been in a converted farm. It was started by Juul Anthonissen and as far as I can tell is now run by his son Peter. When I went up there to see Polar Bear, I found a very warm and friendly atmosphere where the management is very close to the listener base.

Concerts range from young Belgian upstarts to international headliners and soon (and quite surprisingly), the Brussels Jazz Orchestra! How the big band will fit into the club while leaving room for listeners is anyone's guess. The club has an excellent track-record and has often brought international artists to Belgium for the first time. Amusingly, way back in the day (late 60s) Keith Jarrett played the Hnita, for a sum he probably wouldn't lift a finger for today.

To be informed of concerts, send an e-mail to hnitajazz@pandora.be.

Currently lined up are:

Friday, November 7, 20.30: ROBIN VERHEYEN TRIO (B) (20 year old sax phenom)
Friday, November 14, 2003, 20.30: ELECTRIC MILES PROJECT (B - D) (featuring the inevitable Jef Neve)
Saturday, November 15, 2003, 20.30: BRUSSELS JAZZ ORCHESTRA directed by Frank Vaganée (B) (with no guest soloists, which is unusual for them)
Wednesday, December 3, 2003, 20.30: RAVI COLTRANE QUARTET (US)

Lostraat 106 te
2220 Heist-op-den-Berg
015/24.19.53

Note to Peter: the website is lacking the club's address, telephone number and access details (at least, in English it is).

Polar Bear - 30/10/2003, Heist-op-den-Berg

Ingrid Labrock (?) - ts
Pete Wareham - ts
Tom Herbert - b
Sebastian Rocheford - d

As promised, I returned to the Hnita-Hoeve to see the English quartet Polar Bear. We don't get non-free improv English jazz very often, so that stoked my curiosity. Apparently, many others felt the same, as Peter Anthonissen from the Hnita noted that he was happy that the audience trusted him enough to come to see a virtually unknown band. Considering people's reactions after the concert and a whole box of CDs sold, that trust was rewarded.

They played 11 originals penned by Sebastian Rocheford, the leader with the improbable hair. The melodies were generally low-key and deliberately paced, but with a kind of sad beauty. The two-tenor frontline weaved in and out of unisson and counterpoint and the music was precision-crafted, yet retaining a loose, open feel. Underneath, rhythms were established and deconstructed, as on "The Shapes in the Clouds Aren't Always Happy," when Herbert and Rocheford took apart a slow 12/8 to re-fashion it into minimalistic but irresistable pointillistic groove.

There were no microphones on stage (only the double bass was amplified), which suited the room and the music just fine. Saxophonists Wareham and Labrock (or is it LeBroque?) were subtly different. The former had a thinner sound and his fragmented explorations were more interior and dark blue, seeming to never take the direct route to get his point across, whereas the latter had a warmer, fuller and more generous sound and flowing lines, more golden, something like a Dexter Gordon to Wareham's Wayne Shorter. When they duetted, the saxophonists were careful to not step on each other's toes: not quite as unfettered as Chris Potter and Robin Eubanks can be in the Dave Holland Quintet, then, but still interesting.

An interesting aspect of both of their playing was how their respective foundations transferred themselves to their freer playing. Without reaching screeching extremes, Ingrid seemed to favour the more extroverted and joyous end of free jazz, whereas Pete built more on post-bop complication and minimalist soundscapes. For example, on the last song of the first set, Rocheford brushed a light drum'n'bass groove which steadily built up as Wareham moved from riff to riff throughout his solo. At maximal volume (which, in absolute terms, was not that loud), Labrock joined in with an ascending motif and Wareham moved on to grating harmonics.

Playing both inside and out was but one aspect of the band's palette. While many of the songs had binary rhythms, some veered towards up-tempo swing, such as "Argumentative," which was "inspired by the movie 'So I Married an Axe-Murderer,' with that guy from 'Wayne's World'," said Sebastian. Towards the end of the song, Ingrid went up high to somehow manage to sound like a dixieland clarinet.

I just listened to the CD, which, interestingly, is on a Belgian label (info@rubrecordings.com) and was extremely surprised by how different it was from the concert. Many of the tunes played last night are not on the CD, and were arranged differently, drawing on a larger palette. For example, in concert "Urban Kilt" began with arco scrapes and Wareham beating out a percussion part on his saxophone keys, over a slow and dark binary groove, but on CD none of this is present.

The quartet (with Mark Lockhart instead of Ingrid Labrock) is joined by cello and viola on several tracks, to very good effect. Just yesterday I was thinking about how strings are used. It seems to me that jazz musicians use strings mainly harmonically, which tends to be a bit boring, whereas in pop strings tend to be used to double or expand on the melody. Rocheford writes for the strings in a very interesting way, drawing on both approaches. "Snow" has a vocal part and I think it could appeal to the Portishead/Björk fringe of pop radio.

In a few hours I'll be heading up to Antwerp to interview the band, so maybe you'll get some more info then.

You can listen to some mp3's on the website: http://www.polarbearmusic.com.

Hnita Hoeve til dawn

Last night I went up to the Hnita Hoeve jazz club to meet up with some of the members of the Dutch-language Jazz Forum. Small crowd, but conversation raged on 'til 3:30 AM. I must say I'm pretty proud of my Dutch: I understood nearly everything that was said and incredibly made myself understood. I even made them laugh once or twice, no easy task in a foreign language.

I'll be headed back up there for Polar Bear, an English quartet led by drummer Sebastian Rocheford, this coming thursday. They've just put out (or are putting out) their first CD and even the club owner hasn't heard their recent music, so we're right on the cutting edge of discovery.