"Jazz makes me nervous," a friend emailed me the other day. I countered with a recent clip of the subdued jazz trumpeter
Matthew Halsall (which fell into fairly fertile territory). While listening to The Skypainters' debut album, this conversation came to mind again. The music of this quintet from Groningen - modern jazz with the necessary influences from romantic classical music from the early 20th
… century and opera singing - can at times best be described as 'nervous'. This is mainly due to the sometimes fiddly playing of keyboardist Tonke Suithof and guitarist/composer Kirill Dumchenko. The band, which further consists of Andreia Florindo (viola), Manon Barendsen (bass) and Petr Agapov (percussion), calls it 'impressionistic jazz' itself. There is great musicianship, and for fans of somewhat more complex, primarily instrumental music, Elusive Moments offers a fine test of skill. (RME)more
