"It is really to be hoped that Suzan Veneman will be heard a lot more with the Undercurrent Trio of reed player Iman Spaargaren, who last year released the equally exciting and sparkling album Cloud Song" (Gijsbert Kamer, de Volkskrant).
JAZZ
★★★★☆
It is really to be hoped that Suzan Veneman will be heard a lot more with the Undercurrent Trio
The trumpeter always followed Iman Spaargaren's melody lines neatly, but when she was given some space, she showed what a great performer she is.
Gijsbert Kamer
writes for de Volkskrant about pop music and jazz.
January 5, 2025, 3:37 PM
The New Year's concert with which the Amsterdam Bimhuis kicked off the jazz year 2025 on Thursday was exactly right in tone and content. The program included the Undercurrent Trio of reed player Iman Spaargaren, who last year released the equally exciting and sparkling album Cloud Song with trumpeter Suzan Veneman.
Spaargaren played tenor sax and clarinet, Veneman always followed his melody lines neatly, but when she was given some space, she showed what a great performer she is. Lyrical and powerful, she found a way out in every composition by Spaargaren with sometimes astonishing solos.
Veneman has her own album (Zinder) to promote with her band and can therefore not play with the Spaargarens Undercurrent Trio as often as we would like. Because she also formed a strong combination with this rhythm section. The Argentine guitarist Guillermo Celano and his compatriot Marcos Baggiani have been accompanying Spaargaren for years, and it was also impressive in the Bimhuis how light-footed and rich the often South American rhythms sounded. From cumbia (Spaargaren introduced a composition in this new style for him) via reggae to a bit of funk. And all that without bass.
That gave the music a pleasant tingle, richly accentuated by Celano with sometimes solid solos on the electric guitar. And Baggiani kept playing wonderfully smoothly around the beat, giving all the space to the interplay of Spaargaren and Veneman.
The frivolous twists in the broad selection of Spaargaren's compositions sometimes tended towards the absurd, but it always remained easily digestible. It is really to be hoped that Veneman will be heard a lot more with the Undercurrent Trio. There is still a lot of potential in this quartet.
UNDERCURRENT TRIO & SUZAN VENEMAN
Jazz
★★★★☆
2/1, Bimhuis, Amsterdam.
