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DDT by Chris van Voorst van Beest
From the album
Album Title: Bye Design
Label: Adhyâropa Records
Released: 2026
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About the Album
Bye Design (ÂR00181) is the extraordinary new album by bassist and composer Chris van Voorst van Beest. Featuring contributions from rising stars of the New York progressive jazz scene Zach Lapidus (piano) and Nathan Ellman-Bell (drums), Bye Design is an encapsulation of van Voorst van Beest’s dual fascination with jazz improvisation and classical harmonic language and forms, expressed through his exquisite compositional voice and the ultra-responsive interplay between the masterful trio.
Originally hailing from Maine, van Voorst van Beest is now based in New York and has emerged as a unique voice within New York's jazz and improvised music community. He has performed and/or recorded with artists as diverse as Frank Kimbrough, Robert Glasper, Gabriel Kahane, and Joe Lovano, and plays bass in a variety of projects and ensembles, including Garage Ellington and the Danny Fox Trio.
But it is van Voorst van Beest’s work as a composer that truly distinguishes him. He is a three-time nominee for the Charles Ives Arts and Letters Award, and has composed incidental music for dance (Kelly Ashton Todd’s Nest) and documentary film (Listening to the Land) in addition to his prolific work in both jazz and classical genres. A student of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David del Tredici, van Voorst van Beest’s music is as steeped in the classical tradition as it is in jazz, though he displays the same flair for the transgressive as his mentor, as evidenced by the first notes of the record, the fugue that opens ‘DDT’ and leads seamlessly into Lapidus and van Voorst van Beest’s flowing solos, supported with great sensitivity by Ellman-Bell. The interplay within the trio during the improvised sections is notably as intricate and contrapuntal as the written sections; a first listener would hardly know where one left off and the other began.
Tracks
DDT; Reactor; Rainy Day Music; The Long Line; Interludio; Pastiche; Early Riser; Bye Design; Open, Broken; Three Moods
Personnel
Date featured
July 19, 2026
This song appears by permission of the contributing artist and/or record company. It is for personal use only; no other rights are granted or implied.
