Doug Webb has played and recorded with legends such as Horace Silver, Quincy Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Sal Marquez, Stanley Clarke, Mat Marucci, Kyle Eastwood, Billy Childs, Rod Stewart and Carly Simon. A major saxophonist for decades who has mastered virtually every reed instrument from sopranino to contrabass sax and all types of flutes and clarinets, Doug Webb is best known for his tenor playing, as heard on this recording, featuring a selection of songs by great players such as
Cole Porter and Lee Konitz, complimented by Webb’s own compositions. In 2015, Doug Webb toured Holland with veteran pianist Rein de Graaff’s trio which included bassist Marius Beets and drummer Eric Ineke. “We did an extensive tour,” remembers Doug, “something like 13 concerts in 14 days. In 2018 I returned to play a gig, pick up a contra alto flute and a subcontrabass flute from world renowned flute maker Eva Kingma and record with Marius and Eric.”
Playing with a pianoless trio presents some challenges that Doug Webb clearly enjoys. “I always like playing in this type of trio, I have much more freedom than in a larger group and I can play with a lot more energy to fill in the space. In college I played in pianoless trios all of the time and a big influence at the time was George Garzone and his group The Fringe. Eric Ineke is a great swinging drummer, while Marius Beets is a wonderful bass player who adds a great deal to the music.” Ineke, who has worked with Rein de Graaff for 35 years, has recorded along the way with such notables as Dave Liebman, Al Cohn, Barry Harris, George Coleman, Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster. He leads the Eric Ineke JazzXpress, which has made many recordings for the Daybreak label. Marius Beets played with his siblings as the Beets Brothers and has worked with Rita Reys, Johnny Griffin, James Moody, Gary Bartz, Deborah Brown, Houston Person, Dave Liebman and many Dutch groups
including the Metropole Orchestra and his own Powerhouse Big Band.
