Octurn is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

polyrhythmic Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...

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 m ...

ensemble Ensemble may refer to: Art * Architectural ensemble * Ensemble (album), ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album * Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary * Ensemble cast (drama, comedy) * Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the ...

led by Bo Van Der Werf ( baritone saxophone and clarinet). Its lineup as well as the composers are changed for every album. They always play with at least 3 saxophones and from 2002 they have been playing with two basses and two drummers.

Members

Apart from the leader, Laurent Blondiau (

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

and flugelhorn) is the only member who played on each Octurn release. Other members are, on : * saxophone: Ben Sluijs (alto), Jeroen Van Herzeele (tenor and soprano), Bart Defoort (tenor and soprano), Guillaume Orti (alto) and

Patrick Zimmerli Patrick Zimmerli (born July 23, 1968) is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, and record producer. His work has been performed at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London and Salle Pleyel in Paris, as well as at ...

(tenor); * flute: Magic Malik, Ben Sluijs and Pierre Bernard; *

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

: Ilja Reijngoud and Geoffroy De Masure; *

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 keybo ...

: Jozef Dumoulin, Ron Van Rossum,

Kris Defoort Kris Defoort is a Belgian avant-garde jazz pianist and composer. He was born on 30 November 1959 in Bruges. He also teaches at the Brussels conservatory. His brother is Bart Defoort (saxophonist and composer). He entered in 1978 the Antwerp ...

and Fabian Fiorini; *

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

: Nelson Veras, Jacques Pirotton,

Pierre Van Dormael Pierre Van Dormael (24 May 1952 – 3 September 2008) was a Belgian jazz guitarist and composer. In 1988, he played in the James Baldwin Project with David Linx David Linx (born 22 March 1965) is a Belgian jazz Jazz is a music ...

and Ben Monder; * bass: Piet Verbist,

Nicolas Thys Nicolas Thys (born 27 August 1968) is a Belgian bassist. He graduated in 1994 from the Hilversum Conservatory (in the Netherlands), where he also taught bass and double bass. Thys took private lessons with Dave Holland, Marc Helias and Mar ...

, Otti Van Der Werf and Jean-Luc Lehr; * drums: Félix Simtaine, Stéphane Galland and Chander Sardjoe; *

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

: Michel Seba.

Toots Thielemans Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known professionally as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for his chromatic harmonica playing, as well as his guitar and whistl ...

( harmonica) and

Kenny Werner Kenny Werner (born November 19, 1951) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and author. Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 19, 1951 and then growing up in Oceanside, Long Island, Werner began playing and performing at a young ...

(piano) also appeared on a track.

Discography

* 1996: '' Chromatic History'' * 1997: ''

Ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

'' * 2000: ''

Round Round or rounds may refer to: Mathematics and science * The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere * Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the number ...

'' * 2002: ''

The Book Of Hours ''The Book of Hours'' (german: Das Stunden-Buch) is a collection of poetry by the Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). The collection was written between 1899 and 1903 in three parts, and first published in Leipzi ...

'' * 2002: ''

Dimensions In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coordin ...

References

Jazz in Belgium page

Official website
Progressive big bands Experimental big bands Belgian jazz ensembles Avant-garde jazz ensembles {{Belgium-band-stub