Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Jerry Van Rooijen and The Dutch Jazz Orchestra: You Go t...

126

Jerry Van Rooijen and The Dutch Jazz Orchestra: You Go to My Head: Billy Strayhorn and Standards

By

View read count
Jerry Van Rooijen and The Dutch Jazz Orchestra: You Go to My Head: Billy Strayhorn and Standards
Jerry van Rooijen's Dutch Jazz Orchestra continues its exploration of the work of Billy Strayhorn. But on this release, the group looks at another side of Strayhorn, his considerable arranging skills. And arranging, after all, was what he was called upon to do the most of with the Duke Ellington Orchestras, as well as serving as composer and sit in pianist. Of the 14 cuts on the play list - - all standards - - only one was ever recorded by Ellington commercially and that was "Where or When" and that as an instrumental. Here the Orchestra uses the original vocal version with Marjorie Barnes doing the vocalizing. Other arrangements were put to disk from radio broadcasts. But eight have never been recorded in any form, anywhere and now are heard for the first time. Toon Roos delivers an especially lyrical solo on tenor. As the first measures come out of the speaker, you can hear and feel the ghosts of Ellington's great aggregations as they played at their many one night stand dance dates and concerts that constantly crowded the Duke's schedule. Packed with exceptional performers, one can almost match player by player the personnel of this band with that of Ellington's. On "The Man I Love" Martijn Sohier recalls Lawrence Brown, and John Ruocco's clarinet produces images of Jimmy Hamilton on "I've Got the World on a String". Under Van Rooijen's leadership, the Dutch musicians have captured the essence of Duke Ellington as expressed through the Strayhorn charts while at the same time putting their distinctive imprimatur on the music. If this CD doesn't show up on many ten best of 2002 lists, we've all gone tone deaf. Recommended. Although it's mostly in Dutch, I was able to determine from the orchestra's web page at www.dutchjazz.nl, that more Strayhorn projects are in the works to be released by the Challenge label. So keep your eyes and ears open.

Personnel

Album information

Title: You Go to My Head: Billy Strayhorn and Standards | Year Released: 2002 | Record Label: Challenge Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.