One of the great but underrated players in Holland's long-standing ICP collective, Leo Cuypers is a pianist whose playing and compositions reconcile melody and avant-garde adventurism. Here, Cuypers heads a reunion with formidable saxophonist Willem Breuker, drummer Han Bennink, and bassist Arjen Gorter. All four were early ICP members, but there was a subsequent parting of the ways over personal and artistic differences. Enjoying a period of free-jazz détente, the quartet reconvened and set up shop as a take-no-prisoners supergroup that was impossible to ignore. As improvisers, the quartet lived up to their billing, effortlessly deconstructing folk melodies, pounding out manic avant-garde volleys, and just mucking about. All the above are cornerstones of outward-looking jazz, but Cuypers's underlying compositions provide a particularly poignant base that enabled the group to create a rare and memorable musical vision. Recording their only album in 1981 after the group's short but busy time together, this reissue is weighty even if it was a largely forgotten page in the canon of the European jazz scene until now. --Tad Hendrickson
Heavy Days Are Here Again,Leo Cuypers,Atavistic Records,Avant-Garde Jazz,Jazz,Pop
Jazz Music:
- Heavy Nights [Import]
- Here's to My Lady [Hybrid SACD]
- Idle Moments
- In Person: Friday & Saturday Nights Complete [Box set] [Import]
- Integrale Django Reinhardt, Vol. 8: 1938-1939
- It Just Got to Be [Import]
- Jazz Corps Featuring Roland Kirk
- Jim Ridl's Door In a Field
- Joe Venuti 1930-1933
- Joel Forrester & Illustrious Others: Pre Microscopic Music Circa 1980
Jazz Music
Mi Vida En Un Fin De Semana [Import]
Oops (Oh My) [CD-single] [Import]
Maxximum [Limited Edition] [Import]
Moments [Original recording remastered] [Import]
Pieces of Eighty-Eight [Import]