C o n c e p t i o n - J a n H u y d t s T r i o (recorded may 12 1971)
This is actually the second studio recording of this democratic trio, and fortyfive years after it was recorded, it is now finally being released. By the end of the 1960’s percussionist Leo de Ruiter and I were tired of playing standards, and fed up with bebop. We’d had it with the Dutch jazz scene, which only
adhered to two schools of practice – good or bad. We wanted something else, something different. In Germany we encountered a vacuum. Bass player Alfred “Ali” Haurand had built up a fantastic network of contacts, which provided us with lots of concerts. Often we were on the road for several weeks, sometimes up to a month, and frequently arriving home with a good chunk of change.
I suppose we played a kind of free jazz, but nevertheless we paid strict attention to what the three of us were playing. Free jazz at that time was very “in”.
Although we had little or no success back home in The Netherlands, our music took off in Germany. We were always up for practical jokes. Leo, for example, would attach clockwork toy monkeys to his drum kit, and Ali would often play his double bass with the help of a vibrator (bought in a sex shop) added to the strings, and would suddenly and spontaneously burst into song in a passionate vocal tribute to his mother Louise. Childish perhaps, but things were not always without function. Leo had a garden hose with a trumpet mouthpiece
on one end that he swung round to give a stunning audio effect. Perhaps we lacked the seriousness and the fighting spirit of some other free jazz groups of that era, but we did have an awful lot of fun. Before a concert, we would stand for five minutes with our foreheads touching each other in the form of a pyramid,
to gather our “concentration”. In reality, we were nearly always stoned.
We travelled many miles on those German autobahns in Leo’s old Chrysler station wagon filled to the brim with our musical paraphernalia. The first thing we did on arrival, and before unpacking any of the equipment, was
to light up an enormous joint and share it between the three of us. Only then did we start the stage building in preparation for the show. In 1970 we recorded our debut LP ‘Brown Taste’ released on the JG record label....
(excerpts from the original liner notes) |
