Tony Overwater Trio and Calefax Reed Quintet
Ellington Suites — Far East Suite — The River

Jazz in Motion Records JIM 75219

by  Sjef Hoefsmit

After the very successful CD by Anthony Brown’s Asian American Orchestra (see DEMS 99/5-20/1) we have here another attempt to show the beauty of Duke’s and Billy’s "Far East Suite" in an unusual instrumentation. Tony Overwater Trio consist of Maarten Ornstein, tenor; Tony Overwater, bass and Wim Kegel, drums. It is a well known and highly respected group in Dutch Jazz circles. The Calefax Reed Quintet consist of five classically trained musicians: Oliver Boekhoorn, oboe and english horn; Ivar Berix, clarinet; Raaf Hekkema,alto saxophone; Jelte Althuis, bass clarinet and Alban Wesly, bassoon. Oliver Boekhorn wrote the charts for the "Far East Suite". He omitted two movements: Blue Pepper and Mount Harissa, being less suitable for the symbiosis between the Trio and the Quintet.

The other movements were re-written and performed very successfully. The melodies were followed respectfully and to hear this well-known music in a different instrumentation is a great pleasure. Tony Overwater showed to be an excellent bass player in his intro to Amad. The only time I missed Duke’s pep-section was in Bluebird of Delhi, but I didn’t miss it in "Ad Lib on Nippon". Since there was no piano among the instruments, the two piano-solo’s by Ellington in "Ad Lib on Nippon" had to be re-written for reed instruments. This was very cleverly done. Several instruments in line played the beautiful melodies of Fugi and Nagoya. It is worthwhile to compare Nagoya with Duke’s first attempt to play this tune in Tokyo on 1Jul64, see the Storyville CD "The Piano-Player" in this Bulletin on 05/2-30. One could in the same time compare Duke’s piano-version of several parts of "The River" on the Storyville CD with the second Suite on this Jazz in Motion CD. Without the tenor player the trio (now duo) and the quintet performed the complete "The River" suite. Not long ago I found on the Duke-LYM list a remark that Count Basie swung more than Ellington. That is correct. Basie swung more often. Duke wrote and played a lot of music without any or with hardly any swing. In the liner notes is suggested that Duke accumulated a lot of experience with writing for dancers in his Cotton Club years, but that does not make much sense in this case. "The River" is written exclusively for a ballet (choreographed by Alvin Ailey, and not Aily). It is amazing how effectual Duke could write music in another than his usual style. The recording of the complete suite on this CD is absolutely gorgeous. If comparing the "Far East Suite" with Duke’s rendition could occasionally make you prefer the original, "The River" as arranged for these seven musicians by Raaf Hekkema beats every previous rendition I have heard. The different parts have been played without interruptions, which is appropriate for a river. The recordings has been made in the new BIM house in Amsterdam on 16Feb05. I can fullheartedly recommend this CD for your collection of Ellingtonia.
 The CD is available through the web-sites <http://www.jazzinmotion.com> and <http://www.tonyoverwater.com>