April 2020 marked a celebration for the tireless el NEGOCITO Records. For ten years now, the Ghent-based label has been a haven for improvisers from Belgium and abroad, run by Rogé Verstraete. He is an idealist who sees the label as a mere tool for the collective’s work. The essence is still live music. Many musicians from el NEGOCITO’s stables have also performed live at nona in recent years. So this double bill is a fitting tribute to the label.
Boundless
trumpet
Patrick De Groote
double bass
Paul Van Gysegem
percussion and piano
Chris Joris
Raf Vertessen Quartet
tenor saxophone
Anna Webber
trumpet
Adam O’ Farrill
double bass
Nick Dunston
drums and compositions
Raf Vertessen
in partnership with
Mechelen Cultural Centre
“It is boundless, as its title suggests. And what a pity that their published output is so limited.”
****½ The Free Jazz Collective on Boundless
Boundless
Bassist Paul Van Gysegem was already exploring a new musical vocabulary back in the early sixties, inspired by the American avant-garde. Trumpet player Patrick De Groote began his jazz career around the same time. Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Don Cherry sparked his interest early on. It was only logical for the pair to team up. For the album Boundless, which appeared on the el NEGOCITO label, they joined forces with the percussionist, composer and pianist Chris Joris in 2017. The Mechelen-based musician has been a pioneer of all kinds of ethnic musical genres for decades, incorporating them subtly into his compositions and improvisations. The delicate double bass and raw trumpet engage in dialogue with the fluctuating timbres of the percussion and piano. This is a story characterised by continuous alertness, tension and release, swings of mood. Listening to Boundless, you find yourself browsing through a pliable sketch book of sound drawings.
Raf Vertessen Quartet
The drummer, percussionist and composer Raf Vertessen, who lives and works in Brooklyn, will present his first LP LOI – also due for release on el NEGOCITO – on the same evening. His quartet use graphic scores and invented signs to structure the music and improvisations. Nonetheless, all the compositions have a different final result each time they are performed. As the laws of improvisation dictate, there is no hierarchy among the performers and never one soloist in the spotlight. The musicians include Nick Dunston, whom we also heard in the project Fragments of Expansion by Pentadox last season. Predictable build-ups of tension are not in this quartet’s vocabulary. So prepare to be surprised.
