Heaven On My Mind by Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet

Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet

Heaven On My Mind

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Records
UPC: 0608917356120
Catnr: CR 73561
Release date: 07 September 2023
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Label
Challenge Records

UPC
0608917356120

Catalogue number
CR 73561

Release date
07 September 2023

"... As in an impressionist painting, Honing and Brederode combine dabs of sound to create a surprisingly intense sound image that gains in size through a maximum of restraint..."

Jazzpodium, 01-12-2023

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

‘Heaven on my mind’ is the fifth album by the Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet and will be released in September 2023 for Challenge records. After the thematic albums 'True' (2012 inspired by Berlin and David Bowie). 'Desire' (2015, an instrumental opera about longing), 'Goldbrun' (2017 a homage to Europe and Honing's interest in European art music) and 'Bluebeard' (2020, a dark album mainly inspired by the 300-year-old fairy tale of the same name), there is now 'Heaven on my mind'.

An album on which the quartet's now decade-long existence undoubtedly pays off. Not only is the almost telepathic way the band members communicate with each other an important feature; this fifth quartet album also clearly shows Honing's love for Charles Lloyd, Pharoah Sanders and the freer acoustic jazz that emerged along with the 1960s hippie movement.

Anders dan de voorgaande albums heeft 'Heaven on my mind' geen link met klassieke muziek. Het bevat allemaal nieuw repertoire, geschreven tussen september en november 2022, met als rode draad het persoonlijk geluksgevoel van eenwording met de natuur. Op 'Heaven on my mind' creëert het kwartet een geluid van sprankelende beken en diepe wouden; hun pad leidt je langs oorden van blijdschap en verwondering.

Het stuk ‘Avalon Reprise’ is een vervolg op ‘Avalon’, eerder ook opgenomen op het duo album ‘Avalon Songs’ (2020) van Honing en pianist Wolfert Brederode. Het Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet kenmerkt zich door de bijna spirituele manier waarop de bandleden met elkaar communiceren.

Heaven on my mind" ist das fünfte Album des Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet und wird im September 2023 bei Challenge Records erscheinen. Nach den thematischen Alben 'True' (2012, inspiriert von Berlin und David Bowie). 'Desire' (2015, eine instrumentale Oper über Sehnsucht), 'Goldbrun' (2017, eine Hommage an Europa und Honings Interesse an europäischer Kunstmusik) und 'Bluebeard' (2020, ein düsteres Album, das vor allem von dem 300 Jahre alten gleichnamigen Märchen inspiriert ist), gibt es nun 'Heaven on my mind'.

Ein Album, auf dem sich das nunmehr jahrzehntelange Bestehen des Quartetts zweifelsohne auszahlt. Nicht nur die fast telepathische Art und Weise, wie die Bandmitglieder miteinander kommunizieren, ist ein wichtiges Merkmal; dieses fünfte Quartett-Album zeigt auch deutlich Honings Liebe zu Charles Lloyd, Pharoah Sanders und dem freieren akustischen Jazz, der mit der Hippie-Bewegung der 1960er Jahre aufkam.
Yuri Honing betrachtet Jazz nie als Stil, sondern als Sprache. Er tourte in über siebzig Ländern mit den größten Musikern, mit denen er arbeiten und von denen er lernen konnte. Sein feiner musikalischer Instinkt verleiht seinen Liedern zusätzliche Spannung und Tiefe. Und so unterhält und inspiriert er weiterhin ein Publikum auf der ganzen Welt. jazzfun.de

Yuri Honing gehört seit Jahren zur internationalen Spitze und hat mit zahlreichen Koryphäen wie Pat Metheny, Paul Bley und Charlie Haden zusammengearbeitet. Wolfert Brederode beeindruckte mit seinen Alben bei dem renommierten Label ECM, wo jetzt auch Joost Lijbaart am Schlagzeug zu hören ist.

Artist(s)

Yuri Honing (saxophone)

Honing had his first major success in 1996 with his album Star Tracks, which comprised recordings of pop songs as an alternative to the American Songbook. The album became a hit in the Netherlands and Germany, and gained significant notice in the UK as well. The album contains songs by Abba and The Police among others. Honing uses their material as a basis for improvisation; he gladly points out that jazz musicians of previous generations were doing exactly the same. The album Sequel that Honing records in 1999 is in the same vein, using material by Björk, Blondie and others.
The CD Playing (1998) finds Honing performing alongside veteran pianist Misha Mengelberg in twelve freely improvised tracks. Two years later the project gets a sequel at the North Sea Jazz Festival, with cellist Ernst Reijseger as third improviser. The recordings find their way onto the CD Lively (2000).
In 2001, Honing met Paul Bley and recorded the album Seven with Bley on piano, Gary Peacock on bass and Paul Motian ondrums. This album garnered Honing the Dutch Edison Award in 2002.[1] In The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (Eighth Edition) this CD was recognized with four (out of five) stars.
Memory Lane is recorded by Honing in 2002, together with members of the Amsterdam based Concertgebouw Orchestra. It is his first project with musicians from the world of classical music.
In addition to his activities in acoustic and classical music, in 2005 Honing starts a new electric band, Wired Paradise. It features Tony Overwater (on bass guitar) and Joost Lijbaart plus the German guitarist Frank Möbus, best known for his work with the trio Der Rote Bereich.
The saxophonist enters into a new classical collaboration with the Metropole Orchestra in 2006. With conductor Vince Mendoza at the rostrum he records the CD Symphonic with this orchestra. Just like he considers contemporary pop music to be the continuation of the Great American Songbook, Honing sees a parallel between that particular song form and Franz Schubert's lieder. He therefore decides to record a full instrumental version of Schubert's song cycle Winterreise, accompanied by the classical pianist Nora Mulder (2007). He also uses Winterreise as the title for a special concert evening with guests which the saxophonist organizes every year on December 29 at the Amsterdam Paradiso.
In 2009 Honing forms an acoustic band with a chordal instrument for the first time! In his Acoustic Quartet Wolfert Brederode is the pianist, Ruben Samama on double bass, and Joost Lijbaart once again the drummer. That same year Honing also invites dance producer Floris Klinkert for a collaboration, resulting in the CD Phase Five. On this album Floris makes use of samples from the saxophonist's entire discography to produce new compositions. The resulting songs are sung by pop singers like Leine, Sarah Bettens (known of the band K's Choice) and Lilian Vieira (of the band Zuco 103); in addition Honing himself is featured as a soloist. January 2012 Yuri Honing won the Dutch Boy Edgar Prijs.
Other career highlights

2001 Honing toured with Bley and bassist Charlie Haden.
2003 He performed with guitarist Pat Metheny and bassist Scott Colley.
2006 He recorded Symphonic with arranger and composer Vince Mendoza.

Source: Wikipedia

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Joost Lijbaart (drums)

Joost Lijbaart is a versatile drummer who uses a lot of different influences in his playing. Born in Amsterdam, he started drumming when he was seven years old. After several years of classical percussion lessons he went to the conservatory in Hilversum where he followed lessons from Cees Kranenburg, Marcel Serierse and Gerhard Jeltes. He graduated in 1991. During his study he went to Senegal (West-Africa) to take lessons in African percussion with the legendary DuDu and Ali un D’Aya Rose.
Besides jazz, pop and improvised music he worked with modern classical music and dance. In 1990 he performed with students from the National Ballet Academy, played modern classical percussion music from Xenakis, Cage, Reich and worked in different projects with Theo Loevendie and Louis Andriessen.
He formed with Yuri Honing the Yuri Honing Trio in 1989. With this group he did concerts and tours in more than 60 countries all over the world. During a tour in the Middle East in 1998 the trio was introduced to the music of the Arab world. The result was a bigger group called Orient Express with a Libanese singer and two musicians from Iraq. This group did several tours in the Middle East and the Netherlands. In 1993 he won the 15th Europe Jazz Contest with the Nicolas Thys trio. For this performance he received the “best drummer award”. In 1995 he joined the Michiel Borstlap sextet with Yuri Honing, Eric Vloeimans and Benjamin Herman. With this group they released the double CD the sextet live in 1996 and did several tours in the Netherlands. A tour in China in 1998 was filmed by Dutch documentary maker Jop Pannekoek.
From 1995 he works also with Agog a trio with guitar player Frank Wingold and bassguitar player Mark Haanstra.  With this group Lijbaart won in 2002 the Dutch jazz competition and was awarded as best soloist from the contest by American drummer Elvin Jones. From 2002 Joost started his own quartet “group of friends” with Yuri Honing, Benjamin Herman and Mats Eilertsen. For this group he is also very active as a composer. He played on the North sea jazz festival with this band in 2003. A DVD of this concert was released in 2005. Another new group is the duo with piano player Wolfert Brederode. A CD of this group will come out in Autumn 2006. With the duo they did a project with dancer and choreographer Lonneke van Leth. Also they played music on the spoken book Shadowchild from Dutch writer Frans Thomese.
This year Joost’s main groups are the Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet and Wired Paradise, an exciting electro/rock group with Yuri Honing.

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Gulli Gudmundsson (double bass)

Gulli Gudmundsson, born in Iceland in 1971 plays double bass since an early age. After attending music school in his homeland, he moved to the Netherlands and enrolled at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague in 1993 where he studied with Jacques Schols, Frans van der Hoeven en Hein van de Geyn. Graduating in 1999 he quickly assimilated into the Dutch jazz scene, playing with most prominent players and appearing on more than 40 records. He has toured to in about every European country and as well in Asia, Africa, North- and South America, and played on festivals such as North Sea Jazz Festival Rotterdam, Jarasum South Korea, Tokyo Jazz Festival, Hong Kong Jazz Festival and Belgrade Jazz Festival to name...

He has toured to in about every European country and as well in Asia, Africa, North- and South America, and played on festivals such as North Sea Jazz Festival Rotterdam, Jarasum South Korea, Tokyo Jazz Festival, Hong Kong Jazz Festival and Belgrade Jazz Festival to name a few.

In 2005 he joined Eric Vloeimans Gatecrash, whose record ‘Gatecrashing’ won the prestigious Edison awards in 2007.

Gulli also plays with the Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet and which won the prestigious Dutch Edison awards for Best Jazz Record in 2016 (Desire, Challenge Records) and Best Jazz Record in 2017 (Goldbrun, Challenge Records).

Gulli is a member of the Wolfert Brederode Trio, which recorded ‘Black Ice’ for the prestigious ECM label in 2016, which was received with universal acclaim from a global audience.

He writes and produces his own music under the name Binary Orchid. The CD ‘Radioactivity’ appeared in 2006 featuring Arve Henriksen on Trumpet.

Gulli taught main subject Double Bass at the Conservatory of Antwerpen from 2003 to 2006, and teaches at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague since 2018.

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Wolfert Brederode (piano)

Dutch pianist Wolfert Brederode (1974) earned his masters degree in both classical and jazz piano at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. His refined and focused touch, his concern for the musical flow at any circumstance and his creativity are the hallmarks of his playing and he is being recognized as a highly personal and poetic voice in the jazz scene today. Apart from his activities as a performer Wolfert writes the music for his own ensembles and he also contributed compositions to several theatre- and dance productions.With groups such as the Wolfert Brederode Trio, Nimbus, the Wolfert Brederode Quintet and Susanne Abbuehl he has been performing at jazz clubs, theatres and concert halls throughout Europe, Canada and South Africa....

of his playing and he is being recognized as a highly personal and poetic voice in the jazz scene today. Apart from his activities as a performer Wolfert writes the music for his own ensembles and he also contributed compositions to several theatre- and dance productions.With groups such as the Wolfert Brederode Trio, Nimbus, the Wolfert Brederode Quintet and Susanne Abbuehl he has been performing at jazz clubs, theatres and concert halls throughout Europe, Canada and South Africa. He appeared on major festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, JazznoJazz, Jazztage Leverkusen, Jazz à Vienne, Molde, Banlieues Bleues, Montréal Jazz Festival, Nevers, Paris Jazz Festival, Cape Town, Brussels, Le Mans, Jazz d'Or, Cully and Vicenza. Concerts have been broadcasted on radio in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Iceland. TV-appearances in the Netherlands and Germany.The latest ensembles in which Wolfert is involved are a duo with drummer Joost Lijbaart, a quartet with Claudio Puntin-clarinets, Mats Eilertsen-double bass and Samuel Rohrer-drums and 'Prompter'; a project, initiated by bassist Gulli Gudmundsson and Wolfert, that focuses on music & sound for drama- and modern dance productions.Both as leader and sideman Wolfert can be heard on various cd productions for record labels such as A-Records, Daybreak, Buzz Records, Jazz in Motion and ECM Records.Wolfert has worked with artists such as David Liebman, Jeanne Lee, Arve Henriksen, Ack van Rooyen, John Ruocco, Rachel Gould, Ronan Guilfoyle, Angelo Verploegen, Tony Lakatos, Ed Verhoeff, Harry Sokal, Trygve Seim, Hans

van Oosterhout, Stefan Lievestro, Kristina Fuchs, Michel Portal, Per Oddvar Johansen, Toon Roos, Rob Madna, Lucas Niggli, Tony Overwater, Jasper Blom, Jojo Mayer, Gerald Veasley, Wolfgang Puschnig, Cristina Branco & Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Eric Vloeimans and Yuri Honing.

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Composer(s)

Yuri Honing (saxophone)

2001 Honing toured with Bley and bassist Charlie Haden.
2003 He performed with guitarist Pat Metheny and bassist Scott Colley.
2006 He recorded Symphonic with arranger and composer Vince Mendoza.

Source: Wikipedia

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Press

... As in an impressionist painting, Honing and Brederode combine dabs of sound to create a surprisingly intense sound image that gains in size through a maximum of restraint...
Jazzpodium, 01-12-2023

... These calm compositions are like poems, with their narrative expression they contain passages and moments full of beauty, beauty that one should enjoy and make one's own while drifting along...
Musikansich, 17-11-2023

... Pianist Wolfert Brederode, bassist Gulli Gudmundsson and drummer Joost Lijbaart have merged into a single unit and have found their own sound language for the bandleader's compositions...
Jazz'n More, 01-11-2023

... When the Dutch saxophonist presents something new, it basically has the makings of something great....
Jazzthing, 24-10-2023

Arguably the most nuanced of the Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet's albums to date, this is a little piece of musical heaven.
All About Jazz, 19-5-2024

Especially the title track and Avalon Reprise make mention of thorough, deeply felt knowledge of the art of living. These men have traveled to the very end of the universe, been in conversation with the astonished Muses, and returned - especially to tell us, without words, what they saw there.
Avondnova, 01-1-2024

And the music? Yes, typical Honing. He has always had a beautifully careful and delicate tone, with which he can convey atmosphere excellently, for example in 'So Long Song'. And although Honing can certainly create powerful lines, he impresses most with his subdued playing. Something that of course also fits perfectly with this line-up, Brederode, Lijbaart, Gudmundsson, all three are extremely adept at creating atmosphere, not to mention the way they play together, which is certainly unique.
Nieuwe Noten, 17-11-2023

Yuri Honing's album, consisting entirely of ballads, is given a mysterious touch by the slowness of the ensemble's interpretations...
Fono Forum, 13-11-2023

First do you think the nine thoughtful pieces are very useful as background music for necessary work at home, then you get the idea to propagate the album as trance music at Yin Yoga - but if you really listen the music gets depth, also because of the dedication of Wolfert Brederode (piano, harmonium, vibes), Gulli Gudmundsson (bass) and Joost Lijbaart (drums).
Jazzism, 12-10-2023

“I've had some dark years. The pandemic, the problems in the world, those don't make you happy either and my wife has been seriously ill. I wanted a little sunshine again and thought it would be good to make something that is more major. Less dark, but hopeful and closer to nature. You can understand nature as nature, but also as a great all-encompassing force. When you give a good concert there is always a moment when you disappear, for two or three seconds, in the bigger picture. That you are one with everything around you. Many musicians know that. Music is the most spiritual form of art. I wanted to get closer to that.” - Yuri Honing
Jazzism, 12-10-2023

... A record that breathes calmly and tells its musical stories without any hustle and bustle...
virgin jazz face, 02-10-2023

...it sounds tasteful and superior and puts the listener in a flow or, let's use a less fashionable expression, a mood that embraces the listener like a velvet sheet. That is why it fits in well with the previous gems that Yuri released with his superior group. Another absolute recommendation from this super group that senses each other like a school of fish or a flock of birds. They respond directly to each other with Yuri's saxophone as the helmsman.
Rootstime, 01-10-2023

The atmosphere is melancholic. Who is not feeling well, should take in the album in short pieces. Which is possible; the nine renditions are short. Others should sit down for this, barricade the front door and turn off the phone. Who knows, after one or two plays they might have become slightly different, purified people.
Jazzflits, 11-9-2023

… It is not an easy album, it combines many paths, narratives and designs, it defies all attempts to pigeonhole it, it requires attention, time and concentration, but it is definitely worth the time.
jazzfun, 10-9-2023

Beautiful how Brederode with Gulli Gudmundsson on double bass and drummer Joost Lijbaart plays with the parameters of space and silence to give Honing's notes the right foundation. It's also amazing how they almost seem to be able to do it without Honing in the final piece Festina Lente, their interplay sounds so complete. But then there is that mighty Honing sound that completes it.
De Volkskrant, 07-9-2023