Search - Eric Vloeimans :: Bitches and Fairy Tales

Outstanding recording from Dutch trumpeter Vloiemans

08/22/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can not let a day or two go by without playing something from this record. There isn't a boring track in here. Vloiemans has written music that is accessible, catchy, "hooks" if you will, but that does not lessen the quality of the playing. Vloiemans has a wonderful fat, open kind of trumpet sound, a la Kenny Wheeler I guess. He almost sounds like he's playing flueglhorn sometimes. Whatever: he is bang on with every note in these charts.The rest of the band is enough to make you want to buy this anyway: English piano great John Taylor has never sounded better to my ears. If you're used to him with Peter Erskine and Kenny Wheeler and Azymuth with Norma Winstone, where he's much more spare and cerebral, watch out. He tears the wood off the piano. He really rocks! Bassist Marc Johnson is right in the middle of the mix, pulsing and driving, while Joey Baron is his usual killer self on drums. He has a couple of fills and riffs that give you pause to wonder just how long he's played this music.Not very long I would think, maybe only this session, but what a great touring band this would be. Vloeimans is a known quantity in Europe, but it's time for the rest of the jazz world to wake up to his great sound and writing.Check this record out!"