LUC HOUTKAMP/SIMON NABATOV/MARTIN BLUME – Encounters
Leo Records CD LR 716
Luc Houtkamp, tenor sax, straight alto sax; Simon Nabatov, piano; Martin Blume, drums.
This trio is another product of cross-overs between international prodigies in the worlds of improvised music and jazz, this time a saxophonist from the Netherlands, a pianist from Russia and a drummer from Germany. Houtkamp is known as an expressive saxophonist in style and as an ensemble leader who works with groups trying to faze over the margins that exist between composition and improvisation, in order to emphasize the full gamut of the continuum between them rather than the seeming differences. Nabatov is a remarkable pianist and composer who conceives new forms and pursues new links with historical formulae including those evidently from mainstream and classical influences. Blume is a truly creative drummer and his punctuation is a catalyst to the musical developments around him.
Luc Houtkamp supports stylistic freedom and his particular bravura is based around the manner in which the musicians relate to each other when playing – musical expression comes before pure ‘style’. Martin Blume is so sensitive that at times he seems to have disappeared. He listens carefully, so is fully focused: he is more attentive to playing in harmony than he is to his own rhythmic vigor. Simon Nabatov’s piano too is extremely sensitive, though seldom seemingly absent from the field of play. He has been learning since the age of three and has a very broad experience which has no doubt led him to be a listener first. That experience includes such diverse talents as Arthur Blythe, Mark Feldman, Steve Lacy and Phil Minton.
Encounters is an altogether charismatic album of multi-faceted, profound sensitivity, executed with absolute aplomb. It is unequivocally enchanting.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Leo Records CD LR 716
Luc Houtkamp, tenor sax, straight alto sax; Simon Nabatov, piano; Martin Blume, drums.
This trio is another product of cross-overs between international prodigies in the worlds of improvised music and jazz, this time a saxophonist from the Netherlands, a pianist from Russia and a drummer from Germany. Houtkamp is known as an expressive saxophonist in style and as an ensemble leader who works with groups trying to faze over the margins that exist between composition and improvisation, in order to emphasize the full gamut of the continuum between them rather than the seeming differences. Nabatov is a remarkable pianist and composer who conceives new forms and pursues new links with historical formulae including those evidently from mainstream and classical influences. Blume is a truly creative drummer and his punctuation is a catalyst to the musical developments around him.
Luc Houtkamp supports stylistic freedom and his particular bravura is based around the manner in which the musicians relate to each other when playing – musical expression comes before pure ‘style’. Martin Blume is so sensitive that at times he seems to have disappeared. He listens carefully, so is fully focused: he is more attentive to playing in harmony than he is to his own rhythmic vigor. Simon Nabatov’s piano too is extremely sensitive, though seldom seemingly absent from the field of play. He has been learning since the age of three and has a very broad experience which has no doubt led him to be a listener first. That experience includes such diverse talents as Arthur Blythe, Mark Feldman, Steve Lacy and Phil Minton.
Encounters is an altogether charismatic album of multi-faceted, profound sensitivity, executed with absolute aplomb. It is unequivocally enchanting.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
