Yuri Honing Trio Alive 2004 Yuri Honing - tenor saxophone Tony Overwater - double bass Joost Lijbaart - drums

In 2004 the Yuri Honing Trio record their first ever-live album at the famous Dutch jazz club, the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. And with the international release of Alive in 2004/2005, they celebrate their 15th anniversary! The material on the CD consists of five passionate, intimate and almost intoxicating jazz tracks. Besides two originals by Honing and one by Overwater, the trio also present their interpretation of Bjork’s famous Isobel and of the Brazilian piece Atrás da Porta by Chico Buarque and Francis Hime.  

Liner notes
Yuri Honing about Alive

Revealing the heart of things is what music is all about. Every concert is an attempt to do so. These past fifteen years that we've been touring I constantly felt privileged to play with two musicians who are always, everywhere, completely committed to music. During this time we've played improvised music, hard bop, pop songs, country, classical music of the Middle East and reggae. But the material we perform has never been more than just tools we use to find a way to create. Nevertheless it felt like an important moment when I left out the pop songs that we used to play for nine years. This was the repertoire that had made us famous and we felt comfortable with it. I had written some new material but was not quite sure about it yet and we had just started to explore the music from Brazil.
Somewhere between gigs in Berlin and Athens we had one booking in Amsterdam. The engineer let a tape run throughout the whole concert. We got to the heart of things. We played in a concentrated, passionate and risk-taking way.
For eighteen months we'd been talking about a new recording. I felt that what we did live was completely different from our work in the studio. I really wanted a live recording. But in most cases the sound quality was too poor, or there was simply no equipment to record with. There were many evenings that made us sigh: this should have been preserved on tape! This one lucky night in Amsterdam produced exactly what we wanted: a live recording that represents the state of our music in every aspect. I sincerely hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Yuri Honing
Amsterdam, September 2004

Alive reviewed

You will be hard pressed to find a better live jazz CD this year
- Indigoflow

The ultimate declaration of love by three natural performers who speak a unique language once they are on stage
- Telegraaf

Musik die aus dem Herzen kommt und in die Herzen der Zuhörer findet (....) dies ist dem Yuri Honing Trio trefflich gelungen
- Jazzpodium

It’s all comes together: their passion, their drive to research, their urge to travel, their love for each other’s contribution and their never ending joy in performing together.
- Parool

Nicht nur in den eigenen Titeln, auch in die Coverversionen (....) stimmt alles
- Stereoplay

It’s like the cello suites of Bach: once you have surrendered to it, the music really gets to you
- Nederlands Dagblad