Jazz Articles about Hans Dekker

About Hans Dekker

Album Review

Hendrik Meurkens and the WDR Big Band: Samba Jazz Odyssey

Read "Samba Jazz Odyssey" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 16, 2022

One could probably count the number of big-band albums featuring a harmonica player on the fingers of one hand and leave some unused. Only one other springs to mind here, and it was released so many years ago that the names have long since been forgotten. And so it is indeed a genuine pleasure to hear the virtuosic Hendrik Meurkens performing with one of the world's foremost large ensembles, Cologne, Germany's exemplary WDR Big Band. More than ...

Album Review

Hendrik Meurkens: Samba Jazz Odyssey

Read "Samba Jazz Odyssey" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
June 18, 2022

One of the leading proponents of bossa nova and samba in the jazz world, New York-based chromatic harmonica virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens continues his love affair with Brazilian music with the big band sound of Samba Jazz Odyssey, his seventh release on the ZOHO record label. This time Meurkens is joined by the world-renown WDR Big Band from Cologne, Germany where the maestro and ensemble record nine tracks and seven of his most popular compositions arranged by Grammy-nominated conductor Michael Phillip ...

Album Review

Bob Mintzer: Soundscapes

Read "Soundscapes" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
October 10, 2021

Well, what is your pleasure? Swinging charts? You have them. A tight big band? Yes, that certainly, and more. Terrific soloists? In abundance. A blend of genres that go from straight ahead to Latin to funk? That is all here too. The only thing absent, and all respect to Bob Mintzer, is excitement. To be honest, many contemporary big bands doing studio recordings have a similar issue. The level of musicianship is astronomical, but something is not there. You wonder ...

Album Review

Bob Mintzer & WDR Big Band Cologne: Soundscapes

Read "Soundscapes" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 3, 2021

Saxophonist Bob Mintzer, a New Yorker who left home long ago to see the world, is a professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music and chief conductor of the world-class WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany, with whom he has recorded Soundscapes, a luminous showcase for his singular talents as composer, arranger and soloist. As anyone who is familiar with Mintzer--through big-band recordings, his quartet the Yellowjackets or other avenues--clearly understands, he will ...

Album Review

The John Goldsby Trio: Segment

Read "Segment" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
January 1, 2021

Let's humor one another and just say that it's the hardest of the hard core who won't find themselves swept up in this snazzy little tart of a disc. It's music that gives you enough rope to range and get your chores done but holds you always in its easeful sway as the world is in freefall. Segment, the newest respite from bassist John Goldsby's intimately tuned association with pianist Hans Dekker and drummer Billy Test, is a ...

Album Review

Dave Stryker: Blue Soul

Read "Blue Soul" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
June 29, 2020

Germany's WDR Big Band has welcomed a great variety of musicians such as Fred Hersch, Michel Camilo, Ambrose Akinmusire and Jimmy Heath as guest soloists over the years. On this occasion they provide an invigorating backdrop for the springy and soulful guitar of Dave Stryker. The set list on this CD finds Stryker and the band tackling a combination of vintage pop and soul hits and the guitarist's original compositions, all arranged and conducted by saxophonist Bob Mintzer. ...

Album Review

Dave Stryker with Bob Mintzer and the WDR Big Band: Blue Soul

Read "Blue Soul" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 17, 2020

Bob Mintzer had an idea. The renowned tenor saxophonist, who serves as principal conductor of Cologne, Germany's world-class WDR Big Band, had made several appearances as guest artist with guitarist Dave Stryker's New York-based organ trio and was so impressed that he thought it would be a good idea to re-orchestrate some of Stryker's music for big band and invite the guitar maestro to return the favor by traveling to Germany and performing as guest artist with the WDR ensemble, ...