The butterflies that routinely congregate in the gut as the calendar turns to September result from a lifetime of school beginnings, a resumption of adult responsibilities at summer’s end, and the looming melancholy of another cold and dark New England winter. One antidote to that early fall apprehension is the start of another Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares season. The Jazz Shares tip-off produces a jolt of anticipation, built on the prospect of dozens of the world’s best creative musicians visiting our neck of the woods over the next 10 months.
Season 13 of Jazz Shares got off to an auspicious start on September 5, as trumpeter Eric Vloeimans and accordionist Will Holshouser filled the elegant marble music room at the Wistariahust Museum with mellifluous music full of heartfelt melody. Their 75-minute performance had the hallmarks of a proper European recital: sturdy compositions played with impeccable technique and executed with brio. There were short bursts of improvisation, but in the main every hair was in its proper place. With the exception of “I Wish You Love”, the program consisted of originals by Vloeimans and Holshouser, who collectively harnessed elements of European formalism, homey country music, and indeterminate folk traditions to create music that, while composed by the performers, sounded like classic tunes.
“I Wish You Love”, written by Charles Trenet in the early 1940s and made popular in the U.S. in 1957 by vocalist Keely Smith, featured the most jazz-inflected playing of the evening. Vloeimans swung in spurts with fleet, well-articulated runs straight out of the Clifford Brown playbook. The trumpeter became interested in jazz while at the Rotterdam Academy of Music before moving to New York to study with Donald Byrd. He later cut his teeth in the big bands of Mercer Ellington and Frank Foster. Vloeimans’ sound was round, burnished and as bright as his outfit (colorful floral shirt, loud yellow pants and pointed red boots). His tone and approach was a perfect fit with the dazzling venue.
During the intermission that was the COVID pandemic, Vloeimans turned to composing and wrote a body of work he numbered and grouped under the heading “Innermissions”. We heard a few of them. “Innermission # 1” had a gorgeous plaintive melody with a delicate oom-pah waltz rhythm that I’ve been humming for days. “Innermission # 12”, an up tempo romp that highlighted the (seemingly) effortless facility of the instrumentalists, ended with a slow hymn-like exhale. As with many of the pieces we heard in Holyoke, both are found on their recent disc, the excellent Two For The Road. Everybody loves melody, and the entire program was full of strong, memorable lines. The crowd of 50 seemed pleased.
The Duo recorded Holshouser’s “The Light Quick Bones” on their first collaboration, Eric & Will (2018). The piece had a playful, spritely quality with short bursts of craziness. “Deep Gap”, also written by Holshouser, paid homage to the great guitarist Doc Watson, who was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina in 1923. It had the feel of a good mid-twentieth century country tune, and highlighted the deep, reedy resonance of Holshouser’s chosen instrument.
The accordionist is a graduate of Wesleyan University, where he studied with Bill Barron and Anthony Braxton. It’s no surprise, given the versatility and universality of the squeezebox, that Holshouser’s career spans musical worlds, and bands led by David Krakauer, Suzanne Vega, Han Bennink and Martha and Loudon Wainwright III. His fondness for the early 20th century Paris musette tradition (explored in depth with his band Musette Explosion), his experience working with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the NYC Opera, and his affinity with jazz and country traditions, were all brought to bear on Thursday. The results were transportive, and removed all fear and worry from my end of summer.
Susana Von Canon, Vloeimans’ manager and a long-time champion of Dutch jazz on both sides of the Atlantic, accompanied the band to Holyoke along with subsequent gigs in Cambridge (The Lilypad) and New York (Drom). She was instrumental in helping me organize a UMass Magic Triangle concert in 2006 featuring Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink’s legendary 10-piece Instant Composers Pool Orchestra. I met her then, and it was great to see her 18 years later. It was inspiring to see her continued perseverance on behalf of musicians and the music despite current punitive visa restrictions and diminished state support.
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