Undercurrent Trio & Suzan Veneman - Cloud Song
Zennez Records
For the new album ‘Cloud Song’, Iman Spaargaren went into the studio with his highly qualified musicians Guillermo ‘Rusty’ Celano (guitar) and Marcos ‘The Marx’ Baggiani (drums).
With his previous Undercurrent projects in trio and orchestra, Celano and Baggiani were already exemplary participants.
Now he also invited the talented Suzan Veneman. She is making a strong impression in the Dutch jazz scene with her release ‘Zinder’, among other things.
As Iman Spaargaren himself states, in ‘Cloud Song’ he wants to merge both the rich jazz tradition and many other musical influences in a spirit of freedom in harmony and composition.
‘Cloud Song’ opens spherically but quickly turns into free improvisation and catchy grooves, characteristic of the narrative nature of the album. The powerful drive in ‘Wat Nu Weer’ and ‘En Toen’ is strongly opposed by the trumpet. ‘Couleur Locale’ is dreamily subdued with beautiful interaction of clarinet, trumpet and guitar. Nostalgic feelings arise in ‘Voors en Tegens’ and ‘Kattenbel’. Iman Spaargaren enters into a beautiful interaction with each of the band members in ‘3 to 4’.
‘Buenos Aires Revisited’ has a clear Latin playfulness with clarinet and sax over nervous drum accents. Southern influences are also to be found in ‘Lonesome Gaucho’ and perhaps our favorite track ‘El Compadre’ (beautiful solos by Suzan Veneman and Guillermo Celano).
The album ‘Cloud Song’ can easily be set to ‘repeat’ to discover the intensely colorful sound contrasts and playful interactions. © Bernard Lefèvre
Musicians:
Iman Spaargaren (tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, compositions)
Suzan Veneman (trumpet, flugelhorn)
Guillermo Celano (guitar)
Marcos Baggiani (drums)
