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Delius, De Joode & Van der Schyff - The Flying Deer (review)

 

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This is very vital free jazz. The musicians here seem truly open. They have exploratory attitudes. Even though you could say that they’re moving around a certain idiom, they are still inventing and reinventing the music in each moment. They take jazz and contort it. They push it to new places with both aggression and high sensitivity. One might be tempted to compare this music to Archie Shepp’s records from the 60’s, but that would be a mistake. This music is of a different culture and a different time, and the musicians here have found their own unique ways of playing and reinventing .

Every time I’ve heard Delius, I’ve been completely knocked out. His sound is enormous, and it can morph into all kinds of different colours. The shapes of his phrases is something unusual. Just one phrase can contain a full story, so rich in ideas and detail. He places these phrases and pauses in a way that makes the whole music swing and shimmer. Although Delius is strikingly expressive, sometimes there are moments where the saxophone has an accompanying role, leaving the other members to be in the foreground, and that’s incredibly rare. Even in more abstract, sound-based (as opposed to melodically and rhythmically based) music, there are still often limitations coming from the musicians’ inability to be free from the instruments’ traditional roles. The bass and drums accompany, the wind instruments are soloists, and so on. This group is challenging that idea.

Both De Joode and Schyff have a relationship to the tradition of the rhythm section and accompanying, but they don’t limit themselves to that. They can take it to all kinds of different places and can deviate from each other. Schyff is a rare type of drummer, who seems relatively free from mechanical habits. You don’t hear that typical habitual use of the hi-hat, that so many jazz drummers compulsively use. Schyff can take off in different directions, both becoming the soloist, the accompanist or an equal player of collective improvising. He brings a raw energy to the table. De Joode is also very intense, bringing a good drive to the group and bringing everything together in the center. He seems to be in a kind of swinging trance, grunting and keeping a long line going throughout the pieces which becomes the skeletal structure on which the freely flying actions of Delius and Schyff can blossom. It gives a wholeness to the overall impression. The only downside in the "rhythm section" is that the bass drum and the double bass are not tuned well to each other and thus create an undefined rumbling in certain moments. This doesn’t really harm the overall impression of the music, though.

This is the type of free jazz that we need more of! Full of dynamics, interesting forms, different types of expression. We are tired of hearing the "full blast"-variety. Give us more free jazz like this!

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