Every great jazz musician has his musical mate—an artist who perfectly complements his or her style and sound. Such jazz pairings that come to mind are Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Pepper Adams and Donald Byrd, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Rouse, Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Art Farmer and Benny Golson, Clifford Brown and Max Roach, and so on. For Toots Thielemans, it was Rob Franken, the Dutch pianist, Fender Rhodes virtuoso and session musician who appeared on more than 400 records.
Thielemans, a jazz harmonicist and whistler, first met Franken in 1972 when they worked together on the soundtrack for Turkish Delight, a Dutch erotic drama film released in 1973. They recorded and performed up until 1983, when Franken died at age 42 from an internal hemorrhage. As Thielemans said to Dutch journalist Ton Ouwehand, “Rob was much younger than I was. He had studied Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea and you could hear that in his playing style. I used a cassette of his solos like someone studying Russian or Chinese. I locked myself up and listened to nothing but Rob Franken's solos. No other language."
Now, the Netherlands Jazz Archive in Holland has released Toots Thielemans Meets Rob Franken, a three-CD set that documents their previously unreleased studio sessions together between 1973 and 1983. According to liner notes by Frank Jochemsen, Franken during this 10-year period headed up the Functional Music recording sessions that took place in Holland's best recording studios. The results were used as background music in shopping mall, hotels, elevators, department stores and airports.
After Franken died, the Fumu recordings by Franken were saved by Theo van Leeuwen, the sessions' producer. When Jochemsen began exploring the tapes in the 2000s, he found three CDs' worth of recordings by Franken and Toots Thielemans.
The three albums in this set released by the Netherlands Jazz Archives are Together (1973), Absorbed Love (1974-1978) and Nature Boy (1981-1982). Unlike American easy listening music during this period, which tended to be saccharine orchestral renditions of pop songs of the day and yesteryear, these Dutch recordings by Franken and Thielemans are pure jazz and smooth on the ear.
The 57 tracks feature Thielemans playing harmonica and, on other songs, whistling improvised lines. Frank comps behind Thielemans' on Fender Rhodes and then solos. None of the songs are easy listening, per se, but you can imagine how the relaxing music could be a sophisticated chill-out soundtrack in public spaces in the Netherlands. Listening to these albums, Franken and Thielemans were extraordinary together and on the exact same page.
These newly discovered recordings are in addition to the many albums that Franken recorded with Thielemans, including Live (1975), Live Two (1975), Old Friend (1975), Soft Melodies (1975), Live Three (1976), Slow Motion (1978), When I See You (1979 and 1980), When I See You (1980) and Bratislava Jazz Days (1982).
So you have a sense of what a monster Rob Franken was on the Fender Rhodes, here's a compilation album...
Thielemans, a jazz harmonicist and whistler, first met Franken in 1972 when they worked together on the soundtrack for Turkish Delight, a Dutch erotic drama film released in 1973. They recorded and performed up until 1983, when Franken died at age 42 from an internal hemorrhage. As Thielemans said to Dutch journalist Ton Ouwehand, “Rob was much younger than I was. He had studied Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea and you could hear that in his playing style. I used a cassette of his solos like someone studying Russian or Chinese. I locked myself up and listened to nothing but Rob Franken's solos. No other language."
Now, the Netherlands Jazz Archive in Holland has released Toots Thielemans Meets Rob Franken, a three-CD set that documents their previously unreleased studio sessions together between 1973 and 1983. According to liner notes by Frank Jochemsen, Franken during this 10-year period headed up the Functional Music recording sessions that took place in Holland's best recording studios. The results were used as background music in shopping mall, hotels, elevators, department stores and airports.
After Franken died, the Fumu recordings by Franken were saved by Theo van Leeuwen, the sessions' producer. When Jochemsen began exploring the tapes in the 2000s, he found three CDs' worth of recordings by Franken and Toots Thielemans.
The three albums in this set released by the Netherlands Jazz Archives are Together (1973), Absorbed Love (1974-1978) and Nature Boy (1981-1982). Unlike American easy listening music during this period, which tended to be saccharine orchestral renditions of pop songs of the day and yesteryear, these Dutch recordings by Franken and Thielemans are pure jazz and smooth on the ear.
The 57 tracks feature Thielemans playing harmonica and, on other songs, whistling improvised lines. Frank comps behind Thielemans' on Fender Rhodes and then solos. None of the songs are easy listening, per se, but you can imagine how the relaxing music could be a sophisticated chill-out soundtrack in public spaces in the Netherlands. Listening to these albums, Franken and Thielemans were extraordinary together and on the exact same page.
These newly discovered recordings are in addition to the many albums that Franken recorded with Thielemans, including Live (1975), Live Two (1975), Old Friend (1975), Soft Melodies (1975), Live Three (1976), Slow Motion (1978), When I See You (1979 and 1980), When I See You (1980) and Bratislava Jazz Days (1982).
So you have a sense of what a monster Rob Franken was on the Fender Rhodes, here's a compilation album...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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