“ZWERV Live” it’s the newest album played by Amsterdam free Jazz quintet “ZWERV” and released last week by “Creative Source Recordings”. “ZWERV” is a avant-garde jazz ensemble which members are talented and experienced jazz improvisers – that’s Raoul van der Weide (bass, objects), George Hadow (drums), Henk Zwerver (guitar), Ziv Taubenfeld (bass clarinet) and Luis Vincente (trumpet). All musicians have their own and unique sound and original playing style which is also based on different music styles and various Europe countries music. The musicians had been improvising with other great avant-garde jazz masters such as John Dikeman, Goncalo Almeida, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Evan Parker, Chris Speed, Jonathan Hafner, André Fernandes, Joost Buis, Marco Franco, Steve Heather, Mette Rasmussen and many others. The “ZWERV” musicians also have their own jazz ensembles and are participating in many other projects with other musicians. Their music is live, original, creative and very dynamic. The sound is full of innovative playing techniques, sound experiments, special effects and other modern music elements.
The album has 6 compositions which is based on avant-garde jazz. The avant-garde jazz elements are combined with various modern jazz styles such as bebop, post-bop and others. Their collective improvisations have original and interesting sound which is created with many different music elements and styles. Monotonic or dynamic rhythmic, sharp or very soft harmony, colorful and interesting instrumentation, special effects and sound experiments – these are the main elements of compositions. The musicians try to search new and strange timbres – that’s why their improvisations are full of various sound experiments. They also try out new and modern playing techniques and musical expressions. Free, active and expressive melodies are integrated with slow and soft episodes which have no melodic basic just singular sounds and timbres. This contrast between two very different improvisations is heard in all compositions. It effects original and interesting sound of all compositions of this album.
