Tobias Delius, Wilbert de Joode, Dylan van der Schyff
The Flying Deer
 
 
 

Tobias Delius, tenor saxophone and clarinet
Wilbert de Joode, bass, bio at All About Jazz
Dylan van der Schyff, drums
 
 

Recorded live in Amsterdam at Zaal 100 in September 2001.
 

What the Critics are Saying:
 

The all-improv affair opens with "A Good Idea,"  so abruptly that it seems we're catching the band in mid-piece (and the fact that it only lasts 4 minutes, when the remaining 4 tracks run between 9 and 15, further arouses such suspicions).  Right off the bat, Delius sprinkles and splashes on clarinet before switching over to his main axe.  The drummer hits a kind of churning groove that could easily mislead people into believing that Master Han (Bennink, of course) is actually behind the traps.  Jazzy and earthy it is as well: one can't help but hear echoes of vintage-Impulse Shepp in the reedman's gruff tone.  Moreover, De Joode's use of gut strings gives him a fat, rubbery sound  strikingly reminiscent of Mingus.  Apart from the closing cut, "Zaal 100,"  where the band hits quite a swinging groove when the bassist locks into the drummer's brush strokes, the trio eschews fixed tempos for the most part.  But that doesn't prevent them from being discursive.  Forget harmonic structures or catchy melodic turns of phrases, but expect plenty of jagged phrases thrown about with reckless abandon.   This is more jazz in spirit than by the letter.  It breathes with the gusto of past times without any of the stylistic conventions that would eventually straightjacket it into what is now known, for better or worse, as the Mainstream.