Jazz Articles about Douwe Eisenga

About Douwe Eisenga

Album Review

Douwe Eisenga: Poetry of a City

Read "Poetry of a City" reviewed by James Fleming

by James Fleming
September 21, 2023

Poetry of a City begins with the gentle, rolling arpeggios of “Have I Not Tried." Douwe Eisenga's triplets stretch the tension in the chord out across the beat. The melody is played in double stops to add weight to the rhythm's swing. A violin enters, far below the piano, drawing out long, mournful notes. The chord progression loops back on itself, ushering in the jagged syncopation of the strings and the hard slamming of the percussion. This is one of ...

Album Review

Douwe Eisenga: The Border

Read "The Border" reviewed by James Fleming

by James Fleming
January 15, 2023

The brass section on The Border's opening track, “At The Coast," tolls like a foghorn through its two-note riff, pauses, then returns, pierced this time by a synthesizer's shimmering. Douwe Eisenga's piano does not make an appearance until the second track, “Encounter." He rolls through an arpeggio, changing just one note every bar to transform the voice of the chord, as the music moves from piano to forte, a bass drum pulses, and the saxophone glides a long, flowing melody ...

Album Review

Douwe Eisenga: Open

by James Fleming
November 3, 2021

Douwe Eisenga's riffs cycle around slight, subtle variations, echoing through the space of the studio. His right hand on “Left Out I," the opening piece, explores the possibilities his left hand opens up for it: two riffs on the left; chiming melodies on the right. “Bruno" feels like it has always been here, moving along a chord progression which waltzes upwards through the ascension's anticipation, then drops back to the starting riff, teasing the listener deeper into the arpeggios' rolls ...

Album Review

Douwe Eisenga: For Mattia

Read "For Mattia" reviewed by James Fleming

by James Fleming
June 12, 2019

The music on Douwe Eisenga's For Mattia flows like a ballet dancer's movements. Its nine songs, all solo piano compositions, glitter with a lyricism many vocalists cannot manage. As if Eisenga is playing with light as well as melody. Weaving the two about each other like threads of sound and aether. This is a record of deep sadness. Mattia, of the title track, was a young woman who committed suicide. Her parents commissioned Eisenga to write this piece--a ...