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Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet: Heaven On My Mind
by Ian Patterson
So called spiritual-jazz seemed to come out of nowhere with John Coltrane in the mid-1960s. If one jazz musician was the catalyst for the emergence this sub-genre of jazz it was he. Coltrane acolytes Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane and Charles Lloyd, among others, subsequently took up the mantle. No easier to define than jazz itself, spiritual jazz is hip once again. Not that Yuri Honing openly subscribes to the label, after all this is a musician who has steadfastly chartered ...
Continue ReadingYuri Honing: North Sea Jazz Legendary Concerts
by Ian Patterson
It's fitting that saxophonist, composer and quiet visionary Yuri Honing should be acknowledged as one of the pivotal voices in the history of the Netherland's world-renowned North Sea Jazz festival, described in 1990 by Jazz Times as “the best jazz festival in the world." Honing's first appearance at the NSJF's was in 1995, where he performed with pianist Michiel Bortslap's sextet. Since then, he has played all but three of the last 18 editions, reflecting his status alongside pianist Misha ...
Continue ReadingYuri Honing: Sounds And Vision
by Ian Patterson
Strange that such a gruesome tale, drowning in blood, could have inspired so much great art. So it goes with Bluebeard, the seventeenth century French folktale, which continues to inspire artists to this day. Dutch saxophonist/composer Yuri Honing's Bluebeard (2020)-- his fourth album on Challenge Records with his acoustic quartet--is not just a highly personal take on the Bluebeard legend, but arguably one of the most lyrical and musically poetic. It's a stunning work, spare yet deeply layered, and beautifully ...
Continue ReadingYuri Honing Acoustic Quartet: Bluebeard
by Ian Patterson
Since the late 1980s, Dutch saxophonist Yuri Honing has steered a singularly eclectic course, bouncing between straight-ahead jazz, the two-guitar Wired Paradise, rock-cum-electronica, and Franz Schubert. This questing musician has never sat still for long. The mesmeric True (Challenge Records, 2012), however, marked the beginning of a more stripped down, meditative acoustic jazz, an aesthetic further refined on the award -winning albums Desire (2015) and Goldbrun (2017)-also on Challenge Records. Bluebeard, inspired by the French folktale of the same name, ...
Continue ReadingYuri Honing Acoustic Quartet: Bluebeard
by Bruce Lindsay
Mournful. That's the adjective that springs to mind when Dutch musician Yuri Honing blows his saxophone on Bluebeard. “Blows" is something of a mis-description though: Honing's considered approach to his instrument is closer to caressing. His sound and approach are mirrored by his bandmates, who are equally adept at such a distinctive form of creativity. The resulting album is the perfect partner for a few minutes of quiet, individual, reflection—an ideal way to diminish stress and wallow in the beauty ...
Continue ReadingYuri Honing Acoustic Quartet: True
by Ian Patterson
Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet True Challenge Records 2012 If the dust of jazz history ever settles, saxophonist Yuri Honing may well be looked upon as one of today's trailblazers. As the debate limps/rages on (take your pick) as to what jazz is or should be, it seems clear that more and more young musicians with a deep respect for and knowledge of the tradition and its language, feel nevertheless unbound by convention, and open to all music as ...
Continue ReadingYuri Honing Wired Paradise: White Tiger
by Ian Patterson
Dutch tenor saxophonist Yuri Honing is nothing if not versatile; in the last decade he has recorded with pianist Paul Bley, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Paul Motian on Seven (Challenge, 2001); tackle Radiohead and Wayne Shorter compositions with the 51-piece Metropole Orchestra, conducted by Vince Mendoza, with Symphonic (Challenge, 2006); and interpret Franz Schubert's Winterreise song cycle, based on the poetic lyrics of Wilhelm Muller, alongside pianist Nora Mulder. White Tiger shows another facet of Honing's craft, the electric ...
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