Around the World

• Artist: J.C. Tans Orchestra
• Rating:
• Genre: Jazz

Review

The J.C. Tans Orchestra is an anomaly in Dutch jazz. While most of its players are deeply wrapped in the avant-garde's exploration of the limits of space and how it can be utilized musically as well as improvisationally, J.C. Tans has created an orchestra whose very existence is equated with the word "swing." That said, they are a thoroughly modern orchestra -- not particularly tied to Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, the Thelonious Monk Orchestra, the Gil Evans Orchestra, or the Sun Ra Arkestra. The J.C. Tans Orchestra is tied to something mercurial, slippery no matter how deceptively simple and "straight-ahead" the music sounds on first listen. The same can be said of Franz Koglmann's work since the mid-'90s. Tans' music is rooted in the exploration of swing for modern aims. His soloists can get out there with the best of them -- just listen to the clarinet and trumpet breaks in "Red Adair" -- but he's looking to use harmony as a way of creating new dimensions in big band play and never missing the groove, never leaving the pocket rhythmically no matter how adventurous the dynamics or soloing tendencies of his players are. His arrangements, especially for the brass instruments, are outrageously complex: note the four-part suite "Werom Nei Fryslan," especially "Part One: Jive Samba," pitting pairs of dissonant harmonies against each other to create a consonance that sounds like Texas R&B meets Antonio Carlos Jobim meets the reed section of the mid-'50s Ellington band. Also, Tans shifts his arrangements around to place different types of music in one another's path. On "Part 2: Western Wind," the raw sensuality of Memphis soul meets the film noir-ish textures of the '30s and the honking of Chicago blues clubs -- à la the squawk of Illinois Jacquet and Ike Quebec meeting Curtis Counce and Booker T uptown for a throwdown. (The pianism of Curtis Clark, the lone American in the band, is akin to Sonny Clark's -- no relation -- in sheer hard bop melodic invention, and encompasses within it not only the history of jazz, but the history of blues, honky tonk, soul, and early rock & roll and R&B as well.) As Tans takes the listener around the world in a suite, with interludes for "Sissy Boy Needs 12 Hours Sleep" with a show-stopping trumpet solo from Boy Raaijmakers, or the title cut with every jazz orchestral tradition showcased -- some simultaneously with a quickly arpeggiated guitar solo by Piet De Vries for the sake of irony and added punch -- as if this music needed it -- the package is complete. There is no big band in Dutch jazz, or maybe anywhere for that matter, that swings as hard and as wide as the J.C. Tans Orchestra without missing a beat. This set is a must-have for jazz fans of any persuasion. Hot, cool, and hard, this is a disc to beat. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi

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