The playing of pianist and composer Gideon van Gelder can be heard on Benjamin Herman's unsurpassed album Campert. He now works and studies in New York where, like his brother Ben, he joins the growing international club of young jazz musicians that dominate the jazz scene of this city. The fact that this group is hardly bound by style and is mainly looking for a musical adventure can be heard on
… Van Gelder's debut album Perpetual. With his sextet, including a tenor and alto saxophonist in the line-up, Van Gelder uses almost the entire jazz history to achieve a baroque and monumental sound of his own. Supplemented with the wordless jubilee of Becca Stevens, it sometimes (as in the opening track Wave) evokes memories of the spiritual avant-garde jazz of the early 1970s. But the company is also slowing down, as in the fragile Lullaby. With this accurate debut, Van Gelder effortlessly joins the major Dutch jazz names. (MR)more
