☰
Geert Ryssen, Jazz and Mo #9 p.57 (09/2019)
Jan Klare's multinationaal kwartet 1000 werd ter gelegenheid van het Moers Festival in 2018 een sextet en omgedoopt tot 2000. De groep heeft een aantal ongewone referentiepunten voor de grotendeels op improvisatie gebaseerde stukken: Bach, Ravel en Monteverdi of Gregoriaanse gezangen. Van de 12 composities is de helft van de hand van Klare, 1 van Bart Maris en 5 zijn de door groep geïmproviseerde stukken. De algehele sfeer van Plant is er een van ingetogen communicatie tussen de muzikanten, maar ook soms chaotisch, hevig of sterk harmonisch en één keer swingend. Vrolijk klinkt het zelden, eerder dreigend, desolaat en zoekend, maar nooit zwaarmoedig. Daarvoor zorgt dan weer de pakkende spannende interactie tussen het zestal.
Steven Loewy, The New York City Jazz Record (29/06/2019)
... Swell, who has established himself as a versatile performer in his homebase of New York City and throughout the U.S. and Europe, is haracteristically patient and modest throughout, letting his slide and embouchure do the talking while disdaining flashiness and adapting to the moment. As a sideman, he is analogous to the perfect houseguest, acclimating to changed environments.
On 2000, the group Plant features the quirky compositions and tight arrangements of saxophonist Jan Klare (with one by trumpeter Bart Maris), interspersed with improvised selections. Comprised of three horns, cello, bass and drums, the group shines on "Rott", a brilliantly conceived work that sparkles with sputtering trumpet and oddly syncopated melodic thrusts, which continually switch perspectives and velocity, thanks to the magnificently complex writing, mirrored and underpinned by the focused drummer Michael Vatcher. Swell fits in admirably and while most of the performance focuses on the collective, he is a perfect addition to the horns, his speed and dexterity adding splendidly to the mix. The entire studio recording is further bolstered by the contributions of cellist Elisabeth Coudoux and bassist Wilbert De Joode, whose underlying pulse anchors the group sound. Not all the pieces are intense, as, for example, the opening "Garden" begins at a snail's pace, but the album is marked by considerable variety and serious musicianship, with no wasted time on these dozen utterly engaging and deceptively simple ditties.
Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery, New York (14/06/2019)
2000 with JAN KLARE / BART MARIS / WILBERT DE JOODE / MICHAEL VATCHER* + STEVE SWELL* / ELISABETH COUDOUX – Plant (El Negocito / Umland Rercords 19; EEC) Featuring Jan Klare on alto sax, Bart Maris on trumpet, Wilbert DeJoode on bass and Michael Vatcher on drums plus Elisabeth Coudoux on cello and Steve Swell on trombone. 1000 began in 2004 as a quartet with Mr. Klare, Maris, DeJoode and Vatcher. This quartet went on to record five discs, the last one included Eugene Chadbourne as their guest. Although they are an improvising unit, they have played pieces by classical composers like JS Bach, Ravel, Monteverdi and Gregorian chants. Formerly American drummer Michael Vatcher moved to New York in 2017 and has been helping out at DMG this year. 1000 expanded with two guests (Steve Swell & Elisabeth Coudoux) to become 2000 and play at the Moers Festival last year (2018). This disc features the six piece version of 2000 and was recorded in a studio in May of 2018.
Since I am only mildly familiar with the music of Bach and Ravel, I couldn't tell you which composers inspired which pieces on this disc. All the pieces were written Jan Klare or Bart Maris with one piece as a group improv. Starting with "Garden", there is an enchanting series of drones provided by the sax, trumpet, cello and bass with Mr. Vatcher's subtle small percussion used as selective sonic spice. "Shells" sounds free yet there is much more going on below the surface, it sounds as if the center is constantly shifting, with different waves rising and falling. I love the sound of those shifting harmonies, the sax, trumpet, trombone and cello work well as one united sound mass. On "Toss", the several currents shift around one another, keeping us all off balance, like balancing on raft in the ocean. The sounds of multiple horns is most triumphant, as if there is something important to take place. No matter how free things sound at times, there is a number of directed or written sections which emerge from the more chaotic moments. There is a good deal of unexpected magic going on here, sections that seem to come out of nowhere and bring together different subsections of the sextet. Longtime favorite of mine, Michael Vatcher is a perfect choice as he knows when to lay out and only contributes when it is necessary. Without a doubt, this is my favorite CD of the week!
Ken Waxman, Jazzword (21/04/2019)
Proving once again his adaptability and the welcome he gets from European-based bands two of New York trombonist Steve Swell's newest CDs highlight his contributions to ostensibly German-based combos. ... With low-pitched exploration an apt metaphor for the affiliated sextet Plant, the other CD demonstrates the re-imagining of the sextet sounds from a band that started as a trio in 2004.
With more textures available with extra instruments, Plant's tracks range from the amiable to the agitated to the atonal. For instance the set begins with "garden ", a cultured slice of harmonized then splintered horn parts that ends with broken chord climaxes from plunger trombone and shrill reeds. A lively rhythm tune, the penultimate "more shells" mixes savory plucks from the bassist, souped-up cello slices, and horn parts ranging from mid-section harmony to whistling alto saxophone bites. The preceding "teasy venus" however presages a detour into foot-tapping pseudo-Dixieland. It includes rumbles, splatters and pops from Vatcher that solidify into a march to blend with de Joode's walking bass, Maris' trumpet whinnies and Swell's tailgate smears. Still other tracks portray this blend of dynamics and delights by keeping the interaction resolutely 21st Century. For instance "rott" is defined by how the theme sneaks out after mixed bellows and growls from the low-pitched trombone and the high-pitched trumpet, evolves into a stop-time march and climaxing at steeplechase speeds. Most crucially, de Joode's intermittent double-timed bass plucks and a swelling pizzicato exposition from Coudoux on "wobble" ignore the title to become intense as ring-modulator-like gonging and buzzing reed timbres fill the sound field.
Jean - Michel Van Schouwburg, orynx improvandsounds blogspot (14/01/2019)
Après 1000, soit Jan Klare saxophone Bart Maris trompette Wilbert De Joode contrebasse et Michael Vatcher percussions), voici 2000. Le quartet 1000 est devenu 2000, un sextet avec la violoncelliste Elisabeth Coudoux et le tromboniste Steve Swell. 2000 fonctionne à l'empathie, l'écoute et l'imagination. Une musique qui emboîte des structures subtilement consonantes et minimalistes en sonorités recherchées, suspendue et dont le souffle s'enfle dans des crescendos de notes tenues, drones jazz vibrantes. Les deux cordistes ont trouvé une belle complicité en phase avec l'esprit de corps des souffleurs. Des fanfares de deux notes en carillon naissent des tuilages invisibles. Tout cela, et encore beaucoup d'autres choses, font de 2000 un groupe de jazz réellement d'avant-garde à nulle autre pareil. Vatcher semble jouer à peine ou alors mène la danse comme dans chills où chaque intervention individuelle se télescope avec celles des autres alors que grogne la contrebasse. Cette pièce est d'une légère subtilité rythmique sursautant dans les harmonies. Pas de « solos », mais un arrangement simultané de l'improvisation qui évolue au fil du disque. Chaque morceau de musique apporte son plaisir propre : les musiciens ont beaucoup travaillé cette musique à six qui allie une grande simplicité à la plus profonde subtilité. Quand le swing s'invite on a droit à des surprises. Un excellent travail qui a le mérite de démontrer aux amateurs de jazz moderne qu'une autre musique est possible qui échappe aux lieux communs. J'apprécie beaucoup leur véritable originalité qui repose sur un son collectif qui entraîne le rêve.
Le Vif Focus (03/01/2019)
Né en 2004 sous le nom de 1000, ils se sont produits d'abord en trio (Jan Klare, saxes, Bart Maris, trompette, et Michael Vatcher, percussions) puis en quartette lorsque Wilbert de Joode (basse) les a rejoints en 2007. Rebaptisés les 2000 après l'arrivée d'Elisabeth Coudoux (violoncelle) et Steve Swell (trombone), ils se produisent désormais en sextette comme en témoigne de façon éloquente Plant. Délaissant les emprunts faits à la musique classique dans leurs précédents CD, 2000 offre, en douze titres portant des noms de plantes, une profession de foi écologique dont la structure favorise (sous le regard d'Ornette Coleman) une improvisation libre dominée par le subtil saxophoniste allemand et l'énergique trompettiste belge.
BAZE.DJUNKIII, Nitestylez.de (04/12/2018)
Put on the circuit as a label collaboration between Umland Records and El Negocito Records is "Plant", the first ever album released by 2000, a new evolution of Jan Klare's former band outfit 1000 which is now revived as a six member group - mostly due to the demand of bookers and festivals wanting them to make a return to the live circuit after one of their members left for New York city in 2017. Now, serving a bundle of twelve new tunes on this longplay piece, we see the sextet explore a deep, intimate feeling resembling the warmth as well as a live-and-direct touch usually provided by Chamber Music and stripped down Contemporary Classical arrangements whilst musically gravitating more towards a feeling of autumnal, late night Jazz Noir that gives room for sequences of Free Improvisation, large scale drama like in the epic "Toss", violent Free Jazz in "Rott" or even High Speed Funk affairs in the 125 second of "Shill" whilst "Teasy Venus" catches quite an easy, positive vibe on a classic Jazz standard note just too pick a few tracks out of this album that surely sets out to please quite a lot of Modern Jazz lovers out there.