A lustrous double album showcasing just why Jasper Blom is one of the Netherlands’ most prominent, forward-thinking saxophonist-composers in contemporary jazz. ‘Polyphony’ documents two sold-out live concerts from his quartet at Amsterdam’s BIMHUIS in collaboration with two special solo artists - trumpeter Bert Joris and trombonist Nils Wogram. Available on CD and as a high quality, 180 gram, 12” 2x Gatefold LP (4 sides of music - A, B, C, D) that comes with a download code containing the digital album in multiple formats. This format will be available 22rd March. Blom has been performing in different line-ups for over twenty years with guitarist Jesse van Ruller, bassist Frans van der Hoeven and drummer Martijn Vink; and as this band since 2006, they have released four studio albums. The first set features the quartet’s longtime friend Bert Joris; and Nils Wogram, in the second set, has been on Blom’s radar for years as a particularly original player, composer and improviser: “I’m a fan, and his freer approach is a good match for my music.”
Across more than 100 minutes, these 16 tracks deliver a polychromatic throng of styles and influences - from mellow dual horns and gyrating guitar in ‘Walz for Magnus’ to pop-mediaeval ‘Virelai’ (after Guillaume de Machaut). ’Decidophobia’ introduces Nils Wogram’s deliciously bluesy, growling trombone; and more abstract expressions in ‘Running Gag’ and technicallydemanding ‘Least of Your Worries’ run fast and hard with spiky, chromatic melodies and boisterous extemporization. Grooving ‘Macedonian Candidate’ produces lithe solos from Wogram and Blom, and the quintet’s more spacial ambiences are heard in dreamy ‘Nancy in the Sky’ and the attractively tiptoed tones of ‘Antidote’.
