''Express Yourself'' is a 2004 (see
2004 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2004.
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*2004 in British music
* 2004 in Irish music
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Specific genres
* 2004 in classical music
* 200 ...
) album featuring a jazz trio, led by the
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
pianist and composer
Erik van der Luijt.
History
In April 2003
Erik van der Luijt decided to record a new album and within a month he had picked 15 jazz standards, most of them from the repertoire he had been playing with his trio for the past seven years. However, three days before the original recording date he changed his mind.
Van der Luijt quotes the fact that two members of the trio had recently married and all three had recently become a father as the drive behind the album. An increased sense of responsibility made them search more than ever for a distinctive style in order to draw more attention to themselves. Three days before the original recording date he decided that recording standards was not the best way to do this and began writing his own compositions.
The trio recorded them without rehearsal, but decided to wait until the new material had grown on them. In the following months Van der Luijt wrote forty compositions. These were all recorded (at Donk Studios in the
Netherlands
)
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) to be able to analyse them in the best possible way.
At that point drummer Philip ten Bosch had to drop out. He had taken a full-time job to be able to support his family. This was a major setback to the project because his original style of drumming had become an important part of the trio's sound. He was replaced by Victor de Boo, who had briefly worked with Van der Luijt years earlier.
The album ''Express Yourself'' was hailed as "a masterpiece" in the press. "Erik van der Luijt knows his
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian virtuoso jazz pianist and composer. Considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, ...
,
Tommy Flanagan
Thomas Lee Flanagan (March 16, 1930 – November 16, 2001) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He grew up in Detroit, initially influenced by such pianists as Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and Nat King Cole, and then by bebop musicians. ...
and
Bill Evans
William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block ch ...
and used their influences to create an exquisite mixture in which coquetry and adventure go hand-in-hand. At times he even comes close to Flanagan's masterpiece
Jazz Poet. Those who know this monument from the piano discography, appreciate that there is hardly a bigger compliment." - Jeroen de Valk, Het Utrechts Nieuwsblad
Track listing
#"Corleone" – 5:21
#"Keep On Walking" – 4:34
#"Havana Blue" – 3:25
#"Minor Changes" – 7:30
#"Mucho Macho" – 5:46
#"Nostalgia" – 4:51
#"Me And My Guitar" – 4:10
#"Ilse & Ellen" – 4:41
#"Land of the Triplets" – 4:52
#"Skyscape" – 4:24
#"No Guts No Glory" – 5:41
All music composed by
Erik van der Luijt
Personnel
*
Erik van der Luijt -
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
* Branko Teuwen -
bass
* Victor de Boo -
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
References
External links
Official Web Site of Erik van der Luijt
{{Authority control
2004 albums
Erik van der Luijt albums