These innovators of European jazz have found each other: earlier this year pianist/organist Kit Downes and guitarist Reinier Baas played a spectacular improv-set at the BIMHUIS Café and alto saxophonist Ben van Gelder gave a guest performance on the BIMHUIS stage with Enemy, the trio featuring Kit.
British pianist Kit Downes garnered acclaim for his recent solo album Obsidian on ECM Records, on which he plays various church organs. Reinier Baas and Ben van Gelder have been playing together for ten years. More than 200 times they have joined forces on stage in all kinds of formations. They form a trio with drummer Han Bennink, for example, and for the recent album Smash Hits they have collaborated with the Metropole Orchestra, which they will perform with at the upcoming North Sea Jazz Festival. In the past year they have toured as a duo in Europe, Great Britain, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Baas and Van Gelder mainly play their own compositions, which are sometimes abstract, often orchestral and mostly danceable. They will release an album as a duo later this year.
Reinier Baas & Ben van Gelder
Ben van Gelder altsax, Reinier Baas gitaar
Kit Downes Solo
Kit Downes piano