What drives a bunch of young Belgian jazz musicians, especially in
a country where outlets for jazz musicians are limited in time and space,to
get together in the wee hours to study fastidious scores of big band music? Even more so when they easily could pursue their own profitable diver bread-and-butter trios and quartets.

Mentioning only a handful of musicians, who have already had the
opportunity to create a distinct profile for themselves through the release of their own CDs, why do Frank, Kurt, Laurent, Bo, Bart, Fabrice, Marc set
aside, for just a little while, their more exclusive aspirations as a soloist in
favour of the stricter discipline of a big band? The believe is that some 10,
15 years ago big bands deteriorated to uninteresting anachronisms with the disappearance of the big wheels like Ellington, Woody Herman, Basie,
Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. But this ignores the collectivity impulse which
has always been present- alongside the personality cult- through the
history of jazz. Dizzy, Mulligan, Lew Tabackin, Mingus, Gil Evans, Quincy
Jones, Clark Terry, Joe Lovano, Parker and John Faddis. All of them
derived their benefit from it.

Of course, the current shining of neo-liberal ideas also reflect on jazz
journalism. For worshippers of the artistic ego and eulogists of so-called
peculiarities like "pigheadedness"and "unruliness", to use only two outmoded expressions, skills such as higher developed technical capability on an Instrument, compositional craftsmanship and teamwork abilities are nothing but annoying concepts which do not fit into their discourse. But why should one exclude the other? Without a hitch, the ancient technique of improvisation on a theme or composition, what I would like to call referential improvisation, can go hand in hand with referentialless total improvisation. In his book"Interaction -Opening up the Jazz Ensemble Graham Collier already made interesting suggestions to that end.

What occurs within a conventional big band such as the BJO can be described as an exquisite balanced interaction between harmoniously expressed collective statements (full band episodes) and the paramount
individual comments (improvisations) on that. To a large extent,
it is this dialectic that still appeals to jazz musicians. E. g, the growing awareness of being a part of a rhythm or brass section concentratedly co-constructing a development of a theme so that it becomes a rhythmical, synchronised phrase which gathers momentum through harmonised layering. Lo and behold, here we have one of the feelings essential to a jazz musicians world experience when playing in a big band setting.

In this case, the open rehearsals, which took place since 1993 under
guidance of saxophonist Frank Vaganee at the Sounds in Brussels on
Tuesday evenings, have incubated a dynamic big band. a big band that consists of a congenial group of young musicians from the outskirts of Brussels, who are well-versed in instrument-technicality and who don't give a damn about language borders in Belgium. Initially, the BJO built up its repertoirey using the contemporary and challenging charts from, among others, Bill Holman, Bob Brookmeyer, Thad Jones and Rob Pronk. The more Belgium's Radio 3 captured live concerts of the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, the more the idea matured to release an anthology of these recordings on cd. Around this time, pcople also started to judge the BJO on its own merits. Particularly, the orchestra's much talked-about performance at the 1995 Jazz Middelheim festival in Antwerp didn't bring a blush of shame to Belgian sheeks even though they took the stage immediately after Toshiko Abiyoshi's big band. Also important during this period was the shift in repertoire towards commissioned works from talented Belgian composers and arrangers.

And it was in Spring 1997 that the Brussels Jazz Orchestra reached the hight of its powers at its final concert of a demanding tour. All of the selections included in the present anthology were recorded during this concert on May 18th at the cultural centre De Spil in Roeselare (West Flanders, Belgium) opening the door to a representative sample of the BJO's capacities.

For the 20th anniversary of the Brussels based musicians association
Les Lundis d'Hortense, saxophonist Erwin Vann was commissioned
the Brussels Jazz Orchestra to compose a suite entitled "Hortensia"
(Hydrangea). Hortensia reveals itself as a genuine odyssey for big band with rhythmical minefields, an appealing call-and-response technique, powerful unison parts and, in the final part, a Moreish relaxing theme with a South African flavour in parallel fourth/sixth harmonisation.

Manna Hatta, the name Native Americans used to describe a well-
known peninsula, is the title of Frank Vaganee's final examination
composition which he submitted at a workshop in Cologne. Initially an
exercise in fourths and fifths, the composition increases in density and reaches a climax in a series of various solo breaks between brass and percussion.

Well-represented as arranger on this anthology is trumpet player
Bert Joris. Becoming a celebrity among European arrangers, it is of course
very hard to ignore him. The compositions Nunées d'orage and Louis
Armstrong Suite are excerpts from the "You Aint Heard Nothin Yet"
project, which was performed as an attractive musical background to
silent movies from the 1920s and 1930s. But what's bred in the bone
will never come out of the flesh and these intermezzi quickly
assumed a life of their own. In the Louis Armstrong Suite
Bert Joris utilised his extensive repertoire of tricks such as
hoquetus techniques, time contrasts and humoresque style
anachronisms. Django's "Nuages" inspired Bert Joris to write a string of
dexterous construed episodes entitled Nuees d'orage (Storm Brewing). As
far as I am concerned though, the clouds are blowing over as "nuages dorés" in the sunset sky. Perpetual alternation and variety are the trump cards in Bert Joris deck of arranging techniques. If the influential 15th century composer and theorist Johannes Tinctoris, who sang the praises of the "varietas" (delectat) as the base component for all serious music, could be confronted with the music of the present time, he most certainly would be charmed by the feeling Bert Joris deploys for diversity: continuing adding well-considered elisions, contrasts and a superb equilibrium between elegant, tuneful themes and their ingenious harmonisation. Of that, Mr. Dodo is a classical example. The coda's clever semitone modulation adds to the orchestra's colouring, generating further expectations.

Johan Vandenbossche
(translation Hugo de Craen)