Route 4
Blauwe Route

A saxophone quartet is no longer a regular sight. The Artvark Saxophone Quartet has been involved in special collaborations (with Peter Erskine, Doudou n’Diaye Rose, Claron McFadden and others) since 2005. Via Philip Glass’s minimal music they now arrive at Arvo Pärt and Aphex Twin for their tenth album, Mother of Thousand. For this project, the guys retreated to their self-built studio for a year. Looking for that one truffle has never felt so urgent before. The quartet experimented with brief ideas as the starting point for the new music. The result is a dreamworld full of sound and space, hypnotizing patterns and unadulterated blues. A soundtrack for an adventurous cycling tour.

Singer Una Bergin (saxophonist/bandleader Sean Bergin’s daughter) has assembled a special edition of her band Snowapple for the ZJFT. Nearly all these musicians were members of Sean Bergin’s MOB (My Own Band), which often caused musical havoc at the ZJFT with its catchy South African tunes. Snowapple takes you along into a playful, sometimes absurd world, where humour is always nearby. The outfit, with three vocalists, will present its new album, Wrong Feet, at the Amsterdam Bimhuis in late September. The Huizinga barn will provide a sneak preview.

Bert Kleijn is a name from the heyday of the Groningen free funk scene. He was featured in Gerard Ammerlaan’s Artisn’t and the Johan Huizing Quartet in the 1980s. He’s now involved as a percussionist in the Groningen trio Timber3 which owes a great deal to the music of Bill Frisell and Julian Lage. The Timber3 men have invited tenor saxophonist Hans Wijnbergen for a Sonny Rollins effect. We’ll be able to hear if the saxophonist still upholds his old love for tough tenors. After all, in his early days, the studio boss from Roderwolde and initiator of Draslanden Jazz, used to be known as Hans ‘Wild Saxman’ Wijnbergen.

The Rotterdam Hydra Ensemble is the brainchild of Gonçalo Almeida. The Portuguese bassist is hardly a stranger to the ZJFT. He gave wonderful concerts with The Selva, Rodrigo Amado’s The Attic, LAMA Trio and Spinifex. Collective improvisations, minimal and ambient are the basis of the Hydra Ensemble’s music. The musical backgrounds in this string ensemble range from hardcore punk jazz and contemporary classical music to industrial. Electronics specialist Rutger Zuydervelt, for instance, can boast of an impressive underground career under the stage name Machinefabriek. Don’t expect any happy sing-along tunes in Oldehove this year.

Saxophonist Iman Spaargaren has been working with a regular rhythm section of two Amsterdam based Argentineans, guitarist Guillermo Celano and drummer Marcos Baggiani, for ten years. First as the Undercurrent Trio and now in Spaargaren’s new Undercurrent Orchestra. The music for this large line-up could easily be used as a film score. He played in the band Thelonious4 with guitarist Celano and with guitarist Mark Tuinstra in the drumless trio Pelican Three. His Spaargaren Quintet featured Jasper le Clercq, Paul Pallesen and Yonga Sun. He’s a busybody, our Iman. He should be world famous in the Netherlands by now.

Garnwerd will once again feature a ZJFT tent as a central meeting point, with scrumptious food stalls. The tent also functions as a music stage during the daytime and for the final party in the evening. This year, it features Naked Ears, the jazz funk band of bassist Jasper de Beer, best known for his work with the Amsterdam Klezmer band. Co-led by guitarist/producer Gil Lopez, this eight piece outfit presents an exciting mix of funk grooves, P-funk, ska and Afro beat. The American singer/trombonist Joseph Bowie (Defunkt) will be featured as a special guest.

And extra: DJ Swoolish in the tent.