Clazz strong in the new jazz
( NRC / main Dutch Evening paper)
The Clazz Ensemble is one of the best initiatives in recent years.
I immediately felt like a fish in water when my recent piece 'Pimpin' landed
on the music stands of the Clazz Ensemble.
Jacob ter Veldhuis (composer of 'Pimpin' for the Clazz Ensemble)
A smooth cooperative effort between the two idioms. With strong soloists, the Clazz Ensemble has clear international allure!
(Festival Jazz International Rotterdam concert 2008 - Jazzflits
As a composer, it is interesting for me to write for these musicians because of their broad individual interests, so I can confront them with both disciplines in the hope that with these challenges they can develop something unique.Niko Langenhuijsen (composer of 'Cancricans for Clazz
Finally a band that succeeds in fusing the beauty
of these two worlds
Kris Goessens (pianist in the Clazz Ensemble, Professor Amsterdam and Rotterdam Conservatory)
Adventures
When limits are exceeded, boundaries blur. We see the landscape in a new perspective; we experience another space, yet untrodden.
We hear a new sound, still unknown but yet recognizable.
A new rhythm surrounded by new colors, a new melody embedded in a surprising cadence.
A mix of familiar and unexpected.
Composition and improvisation act together and flow together.
When modern classical music and jazz meet a new language is created.
A language in which, although we might know the words,
a new story is created wherein those well-known words sound reborn.
An adventurous and challenging story whose outcome is not certain.
Improvisation takes the composition by the hand and leads it beyond its boundaries. Classical and jazz come together in a fascinating balance. Composition and improvisation act together and flow together.
The Clazz Ensemble is a 'small big band' that performs works on
the cutting edge of modern jazz and composed music. In this new Dutch ensemble, founded in 2007, trumpeter-composer Gerard Kleijn and saxophonist-composer Dick de Graaf bring together several generations of top musicians from jazz and classical music to surprise audiences with their adventurous frontier-crossing
music written by contemporary composers from
modern classical music and from jazz and improvised music.
For its first project 'ADVENTURES' the Clazz Ensemble
commissioned compositions from David Dramm, Jacob ter
Veldhuis, Maud Sauer, Frank Carlberg, Nico Langenhuijsen,
Konrad Koselleck, Michael Moore, Ilja Reijngoud, Dick de Graaf,
Marco C. de Bruin, Ig Henneman and Arend Niks.
Saxophones/Clarinets:
Paul van der Feen, Dick de Graaf, Nils van Haften, Arno Bornkamp
Trumpet/ Flugelhorn:
Martijn de Laat, Frank Anepool, Gerard Kleijn
For me collaborating with the musicians is always an important part of composing. No matter how the pieces differed, through such cooperation there was always a strong argument delivered for each composition.
Ig Henneman (composer of 'Twirl' for the Clazz Ensemble).
