‘MODERN STANDARDS’ // SEPTEMBER, 2023

In the Fall of 2022 a spectacular supergroup of musicians came together for a European tour based on the idea of renewing and updating the jazz standard repertoire. Saxophonist Bill Evans, pianist Niels Lan Doky, bassist Darryl Jones and drummer Harvey Mason took on the challenge of delivering convincing jazz takes on songs by contemporary pop icons such as Nirvana, Seal, Soungarden and Patti Smith and blended them seamlessly with a few of their own originals as well as a classic by Miles Davis, proving the viability of the concept.

While the creative task is complex, the concept is simple: Interpreting broadly known songs through the lens of jazz. But why? The repertoire commonly referred to as “Jazz Standards” consists mainly of pop songs from the 1930s and 1940s reworked by jazz musicians of that time, to offer the general public a radically different perspective on widely popular songs. But the jazz renditions eventually outlived the original versions and jazz musicians continued to play and record these same songs over and over and eventually began creating renditions of each other’s renditions, instead of exploring and embracing brand new songs. Ultimately everyone forgot about the original versions and decades later these 80+ year old pop songs became permanently identified as the classic repertoire of jazz.

This album marks the first official release of a recording of this material. It was recorded live on 11.11.22 at the Leverkusener Jazztage in Germany, one of Europe’s most prominent jazz festivals, founded over 40 years ago. Niels sums up “The creative chemistry as well as the camaraderie in this band was fantastic and we had the best time and are very happy to document it with the release of a double LP of an entire live concert from the tour, which we sincerely hope you will enjoy”.

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