“Evensong” = VLOEIMANS & FONDSE: Evening; VLOEIMANS: Lex; Requiem; Your Majesty; FONDSE: Waterfront – Challenge Classics multichannel SACD CC72582, 61:48 (7/9/13) [Distr. by Allegro] *****:
(Eric Vloeimans, trumpet; Hans Vroomans, piano; Jeroen Vierdag, doublebass; Dir-Peter Kölsch, drums; The Netherlands Sym. Orch./ Jurgen Hempel)
Trumpeter Eric Vloeimans has had an incredible career in Dutch and international jazz, and here he has created a trumpet concerto and other works performed with a large symphony orchestra. Dutch composer Martin Fondse also provides a five-movement piece for solo trumpet and string ensemble inspired by the classic Marlon Brando film On The Waterfront, which piece was originally performed on the waterfront in Holland. (It seems to me there should be a credit for Leonard Bernstein, who originally composed the film score which is heavily quoted here.) Fondse also arranged the Vloeimans works Lex and Requiem on the disc.
Vloeimans’ trumpet sound is quite different from that of Miles, and may remind some more of Chet Baker or Wynton Marsalis. He often uses a rather foggy sort of tone which fits well into the orchestral tapestry. His compositions are all most interesting and even compelling, with a non-forced-sounding and very successful mix of jazz and classical genres. The trumpet concerto is extremely robust, and during its four movements generates some real emotion while remaining in a tonal guise. Its first movement has an eerie feeling about it, and the second pits the trumpet against a busy percussion section. The third and more complex section is very rhythmic, and the fourth may have been inspired by Prokofiev.
Lux was originally the score for an animated film about a Jewish musician, and Requiem is an orchestral setting of a track from Vloeiman’s 2000 album. Your Majesty is from another film score, this time in the style of frantic large ensemble jazz. Actually it wasn’t used in the final film due to its being so unusual and surprising.
Challenge’s hi-res surround is full 5.1 and skillfully done to create a realistic and almost holographic representation of the performers. It differs from most multichannel SACDs in making use of the .1 subwoofer channel, and the booklet recommends that to benefit from the sound quality of the recording one should use a sub-woofer for the frequencies under 40hz.
—John Sunier
