Space is the Place: Joris Roelofs solo & Honest John (Oslo) & DUOT (Barcelona)

Friday, March 20, food at 18h, concerts start at 21h

JORIS ROELOFS SOLO

Joris Roelofs: bass clarinet

There aren’t that much bass clarinet players in Holland and surely not as self-possessed and omnifarious as this guy. The Amsterdam based Joris Roelofs, who also plays alt saxophone and clarinet, won a bunch of prizes when he was young. After some years of absorbing experience in New York, he now plays with different groups and musicians from The Netherlands. Also he has his Inernational Trio, with the well known Ted Poor (drums) and Matt Penman (double bass).
Joris does not often perform solo, but he will for Space is the Place. And he’s looking forward to it.

HONEST JOHN (Oslo)

Ole Henrik Moe: violin
Kim Johannessen: guitar, banjo
Ola Høyer: bass
Erik Nylander: drums, percussion
Klaus Ellerhusen Holm: compositions, alto saxophone and Bb-clarinet

Honest John was formed in Oslo in 2011 and is a quintet comprised of some of Norway’s most active and colorful musicians the field of Jazz and improvisation. Honest John gathers inspiration from many divergent sources- Dutch Free jazz, Brazilian Jazz and Samba and composers like Weberen and Sciarrino. With these different traditions well represented in the band, the result is a vital tonic of energetic compositions, with focused improvisations which issue forth from them. The music of Honest John has been described as unique, different and highly original.

Last year Honest John released their first album: Canarie. National and international press were impressed, like Peter Margasak (DownBeat): Canarie is one of the best debuts I’ve heard in a few years.’

DUOT (Barcelona)

Albert Cirera: Tenor and Soprano saxophones
Ramon Prats: Drums

It is unusual come across a couple of young graduates who decide to engage in improvisation with such a clear devil-take-the-hindmost attitude. For this reason and many more, Duot is a unique group. After five years of playing music together, Albert and Ramón have reached musical maturity with an intensity that could not have been possible to achieve any other way. Almost as if by telepathy, each knows what the other is thinking. And it shows. I’d like to believe that this intensity is an old virtue or at least one that is old-fashioned, especially given how fleeting and superficial most of today’s music is. Their music is a reflection of themselves, that is to say, it is at once physically intense and at times overwhelming, as well as sophisticated, daring, fragile, cheeky, and a breath of fresh air. If anything, their music is both free and alive. (…) Agustí Fernández, piano player and composer Duot.