Featured Artist: The Gerard Kleijn Group

CD Title: Le Flirt de Satie

Year: 2007

Record Label: Boomerang Music Group

Style: Progressive

Musicians: Gerard Kleijn (trumpet, flugelhorn), Franck Amsallem (piano), Paul Berner (double bass), Joost Kesselaar (drums)

Review:

Le Flirt de Satie is the fourth album of Dutch trumpeter and flugelhorn player Gerard Kleijn with his international band pianist Franck Amsallem of France, double bass player Paul Berner of the USA, and drummer Joost Kesselaar of The Netherlands.  Produced by Kleijn and Berner, the album is a collection of material inspired by the music of French composer/pianist Erik Satie and taped at the Bird’s Eye Jazz Club in Basel, Switzerland on March 18, 2006.  The arrangements have a progressive jazz pathos and avant garde imagination taking the finer points of modern European jazz properties and brandishing an array of physiques from sullen and pensive to bustling and cosmopolitan.  The individuality of the horn and piano melodies embellishing the loose snare drum strokes and double bass loops is relaxing and unhindered.  The melodic lines have a free spirit and cohesiveness which kindles their consonance and affinity for polyphonic phrases composing a musical mini series that evolves and changes generating floral prisms and flickering embers throughout the progressions.

Tracks like “Voyage En Espagne” and “James Brown Dans les Balkans” store a powerhouse of twirling horns and frilly piano vignettes skillfully interweaving and indenting sprigs of vivacious flutters and rustling patterns moving in an upbeat tempo.  The soft pop stylizing of “Le Jardin d’Amour” and “Deuxieme Impromptu” have a gentle rhythmic bounce undertoning the relaxing horn ascensions and easy fluidity.  The drum strokes are graceful and the double bass bumps are smooth and intrinsically embedded in the corals of the melody.  The ruffling horn and piano movements on “La Nuit Africaine” propagate vigorous flourishes and lacy embroidered patterns.  The twinkling horns and glimmering piano bows on “Flow” and “Batterie et Basse” harness a pleasant atmospheric with bustling textures and a cosmopolitan swagger.  The dynamic chord changes and cultivated rhapsodies are energetic and passionately versed.  The pensive mood of “Pas de Deux” extend a continuum of silky piano arabesques and slowly moving rhythmic steps while the soothing cha-cha rhythms of the title track are upbeat and plushly packed.

The delivery is passionate and the chord progressions are skillfully steered and entwined.  The music has a progressive jazz orientation with bearings in avant garde compulsions following a jazz-pop compass making the compositions easy for audiences to consume.  The Gerard Kleijn Group’s recent album Le Flirt de Satie is a statement that not only flirts with Satie’s works but permeates of influences from around the world in creating a contemporary soundscape of jazz improvisations and exhilarating collaborations free of inhibitions.  The music is instinctually made from a love of jazz and to indulge audiences.

Tracks:

Voyage En Espagne, James Brown Dans les Balkans, Le Jardin d'Amour, La Nuit Africaine, Deuxieme Impromptu, Batterie et Basse, Pas de Deux, Flow, Le Flirt de Satie

Record Label Website: http://www.boomerangmusicgroup.com

Artist's Website: http://www.gerardkleijn.com

Reviewed by: Susan Frances

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