The CD 'Bye-Ya! - The latin jazz quintet' (AL 73215) was released in March 2001 by Challenge Records/ A-Records. Recorded December 4/5 2000 at studio LeRoy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..
Linernotes
(By the Dutch producer/ trumpeter Angelo Verploegen)
Although most of the festival organizers, club owners and A&R managers would like you to believe that the sound quality of the demos they hear doesn't matter to them, I can assure you, from my own A&R years at A-Records, that the sound quality of a demo does matter. And as to every rule, here too, there are exceptions confirming that very rule: despite the pretty poor sound quality, Bye-Ya!'s demo CD convinced me instantly. What I heard - besides a lot of noise, distortion, off balanced and weird sounding instruments - was a band as tight and exciting as a band can get.
A band combining the finest musicians from all over the world, sharing their musical craftsmanship, background and above all sheer joy, making the band and it's music to what they are right here and now: a Latin-Jazz Quintet in the truest sense of the word.
The Bye-Ya! members are: The Dutch stellar trumpeter Jarmo Hoogendijk, one of the strongest and most inventive players of our time. Clearly deriving from the line of Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw, Jarmo has firmly established himself on the international Jazz scene, together with his life long musical companion saxist Ben van den Dungen;
Pianist/composer/arranger Randal Corsen from Curaçao. Here's a master blender of Antillean and other Latin American rhythms with Jazz harmonies. And although Randal has proven his skills on the two previous A-Records releases of his trio Cross Currents, with Bye-Ya! he takes his playing and writing up to a superior level;
The Dutch Mick Paauwe plays the so-called baby bass: an upright, fretless electric bass with a remarkable small body. She makes it sound punchy and yet with a rich and warm sustain, in other words making it fitting as a glove to the band's musical concept;
The German conguero/percussionist Jens Kerkhoff not only plays a five piece conga set, but also the shekere and the campana. Last but not least, Jens is, together with Mick Paauwe, the co-founder of Bye-Ya!;
And straight from Cuba, drummer/percussionist Liber Torriente. Having traveled the world with the Cuban super band NG La Banda, he decided to establish residence in Holland, where he became as much in demand as he would have been anywhere else. In Bye-Ya! Liber sticks to the drums only.
As for the music, as always, it's extremely difficult to capture it's spirit in words. It swings, it cooks, it convinces. When you want to dance, dance to it, when you want to listen, listen to all the hip solos on everlasting jazz-tunes like Dizzy's Be-Bop or Wayne Shorter's El Gaucho or check out the chord progressions of the newly (just one week before the recording session!!) composed Balor Di Bida or Porto Marie, both by Randal Corsen.
Well, fortunately for all of us, on this very recording the band didn't lose the tiniest shred of the excitement and persuasion it exposed on it's demo CD. Only the sound quality improved considerably (what else to expect from Chris Weeda at Studio LeRoy), so for the above mentioned festival organizers and club owners there's simply no excuse left ignoring Bye-Ya!
Angelo Verploegen
PS. Yes, the band plays Monk's Bye-Ya!, but chose not to include it on this album. And no, their demo didn't sound THAT bad. I just needed a lead for these notes.
Recorded December 4/5 2000 by Chris Weeda and Jurre Wieman at studio LeRoy, Amsterdam.
