Reviews

CD CHANCE AND CHANGE - Casco 008 - 2022

Moors Magazine, february 2024

"I have always had a soft spot for the classic jazz trio – piano, bass and drums, especially when they are adventurers like the Blue Lines Trio, which beautifully combines improvisation with composition and surprisingly also with swing and humor.
We are talking about people in their sixties and seventies - pianist Michiel Scheen, 1963; contrabassist Raoul van der Weide, 1949 - while the British drummer, George Hadow, is just thirty. But together the three have an exceptional click, and an energy that bounces in all directions.
Wonderful music that doesn't really require a lot of words - it swings, it's exciting and surprising, you hear the fun radiating from all sides and you can laugh about it. Pure enjoyment!"
(Holly Moors)

Jazzword.com, july 2023

Expanding a well fit garment of tripartite expression and whimsical humor are the 15 (!) selections performed by the Amsterdam-based Blues Lines Trio. Most selections were composed by the two Dutch members, pianist Michiel Scheen and bassist Raoul van der Weide, with Australian-in-the-Netherlands drummer George Hadow contributing to them and the nine improvisations which make up the rest of the disc. Veteran members of the city’s advanced music gestalt, the trio begins with the kinetic and near-honky-tonk bounce of “Diddleville” and keeps up the dynamic all the way through. This piece like others centres around the bassist’s spiccato sluices, the drummer’s springy shuffles and the pianist’s emphasized chords and stop-start pulsations. Like Thelonious Monk, whose unexpected angular asides he sometimes emulates, Scheen also brings puckish humor to the selections. It’s reflected in some tracks where the group fools the ear by seeming to settle on one tempo, then suddenly detours to another. This is also reflected in the final untitled selection, 37 seconds of silence followed by three seconds of piano-led swing. While tracks distinguish among composition titled with words and improvisations designed by four numbers, the group brings the same sort of propulsive energy to all. So a droning bass line and squirmy keyboard patterns balanced on drum smacks and press rolls, with some electronic crackles thrown into the mix, may characterize an improv. Yet compositions such as “Clouds And Sunny Chunks” and “Vacuumville”. evolves with the same power. On the first, hard drum smack introduce bright piano patterns that turn back onto themselves before moving forward. A walking bass line begins the oblique “Vacuumville” which then slides down the scale as it’s joined by percussion pops. Meantime the pianist squirms bent notes into a stop-time interlude that completes the piece with staccato snaps and pedal pumps. Probably the most effective demonstration of the group’s strategy appears on “Improvisation 2159” where the pianist knits kinetic chords into plinking variations, followed by col legno bass pressure from van der Weide and Hadow’s slaps and pops. Just when it appears the definitive narrative has been established, Scheen vibrates his solo into a semi-ragtime diversion that balanced the initial linear motion until the ending.
(Ken Waxman)

Jazzbulletin, june 2023

The Blue Lines Trio exists for ten years and celebrates this with a second CD after their debut in 2014. In various combinations, veteran bassist Raoul van der Weide (1949) has often worked with the slightly less veteran pianist Michiel Scheen (1963). With drummer George Hadow (1992), three generations are now united in a wonderfully and suprisingly fitting way. Compositions by Scheen and Van der Weide alternate with free improvisations that sound coherent like pieces. It is clear, transparent music, with an ear for each other. They sometimes swing unabashedly but remain inventive in themes, solos and ensemble playing. Chance and change: it is not a big change compared to the first CD, but it is a great opportunity to listen to this trio again.





Downbeat, February 2023

The jazz-sound of multi-cultural Amsterdam has changed a lot over the last few decades, but 'Chance and change' (Casco 008, 62:50, ****), the second album of the multi-generational Blue Lines Trio, harks back to the golden era of New Dutch Swing. More than half of the tracks played by pianist Michiel Scheen, bassist Raoul van der Weide and drummer George Hadow are full improvised, but that doesn't mean the group forsakes its abiding love for swing. In fact, the gap between pithy originals like the rollicking opener "Diddleville" and spontaneous excursions bearing deceptively descriptive titles like "Improvisation 2155" is much smaller than one might expect at times thanks to a seriously locked-in rapport. Hadow evokes the relentless springy propulsion of Han Bennink, while Scheen's granite-tough attack reinforces the trio's fierce rhythmic drive, unleashing chords that splinter and sparkle. The lines warmly intoned by Van der Weide root the music in something innately human and melodically irresistible. The trio does go out, too, but it all happens along an unflappable continuum.

(Peter Margasak, on Euro Jazz)

Jazzism - december 2022

The Blue Lines Trio of pianist Michiel Scheen, bassist Raoul van der Weide and the still youthful-looking drummer George Hadow seems to have reached a new plateau. Scheen seems to swing harder with age, but not in the stolid way that does so well in hotel lobbies. Rather, his timing is an extra parameter in the tension spans that are kept nicely short in almost all pieces here. More than on the previous Blue Lines Trio album from 2012, the three musicians form a unit in which the individuals seem to operate in more and more dependency of each other. The short pieces composed by Van der Weide and Scheen are interrupted by spontaneous improvisations that are not inferior to the fixed themes in terms of intensity and logic. The themes of the written pieces are pleasantly transparent and straightforward without artificial begging for attention. The three musicians also seem to know their place in the whole without having to hold back in the group process. The groupsound is the musical counterpart of the clear line without being strict. An exception is the last improvisation, Improvisation 2161, which does not sound as transparent as the other pieces. The fact that this piece changes into the warmly Home is a nice conclusion to the album. A hidden fifteenth track after a considerable silence with the last phrases of a piece is a kind of humor I don´t really grasp.

(Ken Vos)

International Piano Magazine - fall 2022

The sleevenote asks, 'Free music: is it okay if it swings?' Blue Lines Trio's answer is totally affirmative: they aim to broaden the possibilities of freedom. Often plangent, groove-based thematic material is juxtaposed with passages or tracks of free improvisation. Thus the opening 'Diddleville', one of the four compositions by pianist Michiel Scheen, has a catchy theme and infectious groove, with the pianist coruscating and springy. It's followed by 'Improvisation 2153', a scintillating piece of free improv – one of several. Raoul van der Weide's 'Iggy Abdul' is a haunting, misterioso vamp-based delight. On the melancholic 'Culture Boy' – a play on Nat Cole's hit 'Nature Boy' – the melody is mostly on bass. 'Traces' evolves into a joyful 6/8 feel, while 'Vacuumville' is based on another memorable riff.  

Scheen, who joined Blue Lines Trio in 2012, studied with Dutch master Misha Mengelberg at Amsterdam's Sweelinck Conservatory. His playing is tart and brilliant, with an aptitude for quicksilver changes of mood and style, and a rhythmic ability to turn on a dime. As the trio's British drummer George Hadow comments, they're inspired by the anarchistic, absurdist, theatrical ethos of Dutch music. For instance, quixotic typewriter rhythms are tapped into 'Improvisation 2155'; on the same track, a large dried Gambian bean-pod wedged between bass strings creates West African rattling. A superb release by a trio in need of further recognition.  
(Andy Hamilton)

Squidco.com - november 2022

The free swinging Dutch piano trio of Michiel Scheen on piano, Raoul van der Weide on contrabass, cracklebox & objects and George Hadow on drums, in a set of buoyant and ebullient improvisations, a mix of composed and collective works that bring together tradition and freedom, melody and abstraction, while clearly enjoying their playful approach to creative jazz.

(Phil Zamora)

CD BLUE LINES TRIO - Casco 002 - 2014

Jazzism Magazine - december 2014 - ****1/2

This trio is the new vehicle for the post-Monk improviser, pianist Michiel Scheen. Double bass player is the spaciously articulating Raoul van der Weide, drummer is the young George Hadow. The young Englishman is a good dosing and especially original phrasing drummer who undoubtedly will have a great future. Scheen has brought together seven, in form exciting compositions, from himself, Paul Termos, and Van der Weide. They are clear, often somewhat bare patches, in where Scheen builds strong contrasts, sometimes smooth, sometimes jerky. The five spontaneous improvisations are also effective because the musicians complement each other and keep a single, common direction without solving the tension. The live album recorded at the Bimhuis is a fine collection of pieces which never have predictable endings.

(Ken Vos)

www.enola.be - October 20, 2014

And suddenly, from Amsterdam this gem arrives. Three generations of improvisers, with a handful of sparkling compositions and tingling free improvisations, rooted in the Dutch tradition, but with plenty of spunk and inventiveness. The Blue Lines Trio has its own style and has made a beauty of a debut album.

The trio joins pianist Michiel Scheen with bassist and graphic artist Raoul van der Weide, both musicians with an extensive history, and the young British drummer George Hadow, who since 2012 is active in the Dutch capital and recently with just about everyone, like with Terrie Ex and Andy Moor to John Dikeman, Yedo Gibson and many others. Van der Weide also playes with Dikeman, is a musician who shows up in a variety of contexts and is known to organize intriguing concert-series in his city.

Scheen is not really known in Belgium (or have we missed something?), and also in the Netherlands remained under the radar. That’s strange, because he has a lot of experience with past working relationships with Maarten Altena, Ab Baars and Ig Henneman. With Tobias Delius he forms a duo. On this first CD, professionally recorded at the Bimhuis by Arnold de Boer, the band combines different insertions and influences in an eclectic blend of, as well as catching jazz, provocative improvisations. The wide variation and generally compact pieces provide a very digestible and animated plate, that doesn’t collapse under its weight and remains having an air of playfulness throughout.

Scheen signs for a third of the pieces, that form a pretty strong line of compositions. Opener "Solid" is exuberant and with an almost festive start, it combines blues and Mengelberg on a bed of delicious clattering drums. A little later it seems as if the spirits of Monk and Jaki Byard take over, with accelerations, bouncing rhythms and contagious, quivering dynamics.

The nervous clashing "Idols" with Van der Weide’s singing bass, is a compact piece of energy within a clever ménage-a-trois.

The remaining compositions offer a beautiful contrast: "Stumble" is, despite the title, quite a stately piece, on a rolling and rumbling rhythm section, while the ultra short ballad "Sigh" is brushed forward by Hadow and notably is irony-free. The pieces are nicely complemented by two compositions by Dutch saxophonist Paul Termos. "Kop op" initially resembles Monks "Well You Needn’t," but later explores its own colourful places, full of patter and stomping, while "Dark Goeree" relies on a languid soul groove of an almost childlike simplicity. But it works, especially since Scheen playfully does beautiful things within that relatively small frame.

Van der Weide’s "Not Yet" departs from repetitive patterns, only to get caught in lonely piano chords and resonating metal. It’s more sound-oriented and related to the five trio improvisations that showcase a comparable wealth. There’s a neurotic stinging musical game ("Improvisation 538"), a piece that resembles a jazz-trio ("539"), and a plunge into the world of Van der Weide’s sound objects and his crackle-box ("536" and "541"). This constant back-and-forth movement between grip and lack of it creates a particularly successful, teasing effect, which in turn, leads to an album that equally thoughtfully fits together like Van der Weide’s collage cover-design. In short: a little jewel to discover.

(Guy Peters) 

Weblog Jazz Music Reviews - October 13, 2014

Sometimes, CD-releases of new Dutch jazz and improvised music can really surprise one. The Amsterdam based Blue Lines Trio seems to be a very good working unit, a collaboration between three generations of musicians. Michiel Scheen, for several years worked within the Maarten Altena Ensemble, and besides this trio, he now regurarly works as a duo with saxophonist and clarinetist Tobias Delius and with the Jan Nijdam Quartet. Raoul van der Weide has worked with Guus Jansen, and currently works in a trio with John Dikeman and Klaus Kügel, furthermore he jams with a lot of the new generation of improvisors that visit or live in Holland.  George Hadow is a young British drummer who works with the Galm Quartet and many improvisers of all generations in and around Amsterdam.

The debut CD of this trio is remarkable. There are pieces, musical theme's that generate improvisations, but there are also freely improvised sequences. In general, what all the tracks show, is that the three musicians carefully listen to, and give room to each other.

A lot of free improvised music has such a density that the listener could lose focus, on this CD however, the improvising is crystal clear. The players spontaneously seem to pick a musical motive and elaborate on it carefully. The process doesn’t get boring: they sometimes intuitively throw in contrasting material to ‘refresh’ the flow. And that offers the possibility to repeat things they have played before, which provides a structure to the improvisation, not to be heard often. Might this maybe be a new form of what we call ‘instant composition’? That initial musical motive defines the character of the piece, so no track resembles others, every track is an entity and has a character of its own.

The rhythmic concept of the trio is exceptional: themselves, they call it  ‘throbbing swing’ or ‘dribble-swing’, a curious mixture of jazz-swing and free-pulsating movement. Like three horses on a span, not in a military rhythmic unison, but a clopper-de-clop-stay-as-close-as-can-be fashion. Three individual and separate, but closely related, ‘lines’.
Another feature of the music from the trio is their melodic and harmonic alertness. They seem to catch each others pitches perfectly, also not to be heard often in freely improvised music.
All of which makes the CD a very diverse and colorful ‘contemporary improvised music’ album.

The pieces, the theme’s, seem to be written down and arranged for the ‘cast’. They sound like bop and soul-jazz (in the case of the two compositions by the late saxophonist and composer Paul Termos), post-bop, post-free-jazz, and sometimes like contemporary academic music. One could identify influences by Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor, Olivier Messiaen, Oscar Pettiford, Charles Mingus, David Izenzon, Paul Motian and Han Bennink.
“Solid” starts as a post-boppy-blues-free-motion-indefinite-swing piece, but then breaks up in a staccato improvisation that leads to free Monkish-piano variations. It’s got a funny ‘Salt Peanuts’ reference.
“Improvisation 538” starts with arco bass with tonal references, piano and drums match this with their variation of a similar kind of ‘sonic production’: plucking snares on the inside of the piano and brushes on skin and cymbals.
Paul Termos’ piece “Kop op” is a brickwork bebop-like theme leading to a drumsolo that get’s ‘attacked’ by Cecil Taylor-ish interventions. Not quite a ‘logical’ approach and maybe prefabricated (so this track convinces me the least), but the return to the theme out of fortissimo free-jazz is very well executed and ‘a sound of surprise’.
“Idols” contains piano-chords that I cannot decipher (well, I’m an amateur pianist), but they’re certainly not the standard II-V-I jazz-changes or free-jazz clusters. It’s seems to be an idiom in itself. The rhythmic unison by Hadow’s drums is magical! The way he varies the composition is a link to the the improvisation after the theme. I like that approach!
“Not yet” by Van der Weide is a peaceful haven, the theme is a continuous variation of four notes, but has nothing to do with so called ‘minimal music’. It is more like a clockwork that leads into spacious and time-stretched improvisations with overtones on bass and cymbals and Messiaen-like harmonies on piano.
In “Ingredients 539” the trio-members have a grab at the mainstream jazz idiom, but the grab really is a child’s play with conventional elements. The ‘way-to-long’ bass line-solo by Raoul van der Weide is hilarious! This music is a preposterous out-of-proportion jazz-pastiche, but never tasteless.
“Stumble” is an emotional heartfelt cry, bluesy free-jazz, with a touch of South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim’s left hand playing. Exceptions excluded, the Dutch improv scene is not really known for this kind of direct speaking from the heart.
The CD closes with “Sigh”, a ballad with Ellingtoneske chords and warmth. A closer listen reveals a little musical joke: the melody is all chromatic, except for a ‘gigantic’ leap of a minor third (!) at the end of each section.

Careful and repeated listening sessions reveal more intelligent musical jokes throughout the album. But they are more hidden than outspoken. The maybe typical Dutch irony is less on the foreground, I would say raised to a higher and more abstract level and to be discovered only by attentive listening.

All in all a good time and money’s (only €10,-) worth!
The Blue Lines Trio add a new branch to the improvised music family tree!

(Chris Naat)

Weblog Cloudsandclocks.net - October 12, 2014

A fine album, which I found - completely out of the blue - waiting for me in my mailbox. It got here at the right moment, too, one of those days when one almost starts believing that by now all good music is only to be found in the past, and that the time has come to listen to those old records all over again.
A fine album, mind you, not a masterpiece or this year's Change Of The Century. But an album that will keep one interested for its duration, and that - though it can be said it moves inside a framework that's definitely familiar - will offer listeners some unfamiliar moments.
"What framework?", I hear you say. Well, if I say "jazz piano trio" I know I'll run the risk of raising expectations that can't be met, on one hand, and provoking uninterestedness, on the other. I'll just say that here the great heritage of US jazz gets cooked in Dutch sauce, and leave it at that, hoping the rest will become clearer when I discuss the pieces in detail, below.
The line-up features Michiel Scheen on piano; Raoul van der Weide on double bass, crackle box, and "sounding objects"; and George Hadow on drums. Looking at the picture that appears inside the CD cover, the drummer looks in his early thirties, while the piano player looks in his late forties, and the bass player looks in his late fifties. At first I thought I was unfamiliar with all three, but on impulse I had a look at some old CDs I own by Dutch double bass player and composer Maarten Altena released in the late eighties/early nineties (Quotl, Cities And Streets, and Code), and here he was: Michiel Scheen, looking quite young indeed.
The trio has a fine sound, the piano often played in the middle part of the keyboard, the bass work almost never to the fore but never sounding banal, the drums inevitably reminding me of Han Bennink (only when it comes to the sound of the instrument, not its role in the music).
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Arnold de Boer, who also co-produced the album with the trio. Recorded at the well-known Bimhuis, Amsterdam. The only thing I didn't like is the way most improvised tracks end: while it makes sense on a musical level, it's just too abrupt.
Ugly cover.
The repertory features original compositions penned for the most part by the pianist; a series of improvisations, for the most part non-idiomatic but not as "free" as the modern meaning of the word could lead some to believe; and the cover of two compositions (Kop op and Dark Goeree) by the late sax player Paul Termos.
Let's have a look at the tracks.
Solid has a nervous, Mingus-like start, à la Blues & Roots, with a fragment that definitely sounds as being Monk-influenced appearing at 34", 1' 03", 1' 34", with a fine surprise effect. It swings! There's a long middle part played unison, start & stop, with a thematic development that's not impossible to see. Then it's back to the Monk-like motif, the Mingus-like theme, then Monk again, then close.
Improvisation 538 starts with arco bass, quite lively. There's a piano ostinato, the drums highlighting the snare.
Kop op, by Paul Termos, starts with a "Be-Bop"-sounding theme, with a fine use of the ride cymbal and the rimshot. Then, a drum solo based on the melody played by the piano, then it's time for the piano and the double bass to come to the fore, the whole reminding me of the music of Cecil Taylor. Then it's time to go back to the piano motif, with a fine surprise effect (maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought that here the listener is not the only one who's surprised!).
Improvisation 536 has the piano playing arpeggios, snare, a pinch of double bass, the drums played with brushes.
Dark Goeree, by Paul Termos, starts with a bass ostinato, a Latin-sounding rimshot, and a piano theme that reminded me of the world-famous Herbie Hancock composition Watermelon Man. The middle part definitely sounds Monk-influenced, with strict tempo, and two-hands chord development. The end of the track has the trio back to the "Watermelon" theme.
Idols has a brief, clear theme. Piano and double bass traveling parallel, the drums having a solo at a louder volume. Then it's back to the theme, start & stop.
Improvisation 541 features "sounding objects", percussive drums, the piano sounding with "muted strings". For me, the weakest moment of the album.
Not Yet is the only composition penned by the bass player. It starts with a brief, simple, "ethnic"-sounding theme, acting as an intro. Then, a long episode featuring the piano with the "hold" pedal down, cymbals played arco, just like the double bass. The brief, "ethnic"-sounding theme acts as a close.
Ingredients 539 breathes a fine "Be-Bop" air, the rhythm section to the fore. Nice development, then it's time for a fine drum solo, quite à la Art Blakey (I waited for the "Yeah!"). Very traditional-sounding, but fine.
Stumble has a melodic introduction, two hands parallel, playing chords. In a way it reminded me of Anthony Davis at the time of his album titled Lady Of The Mirrors, elaborating on "Ellington-like" material.
Improvisation 537 is a svelte, agitated, fragment.
Sigh is the closing ballad, with brushes, hi-hat, chords, quite "hesitant"-sounding, à la Monk, it definitely reminded me of the Monk classic Ruby, My Dear.
(© Beppe Colli 2014)



Webmagazine Jazzflits - October 6, 2014

Bassplayer Raoul van der Weide has a good ear for finding wayward pianists. One of them, of course, is the well known Guus Janssen, but besides Frank van Bommel (As If Trio), now he stumbled upon Michiel Scheen. And just as Van Bommel, Scheen is also that musician that, inexplicably, never got to be known by a broader audience. From time to time Scheen initiated his own ensembles and projects, but never got beyond the status of ‘musician’s musician’. That’s all right, but it doesn’t pay the bills.
"Blue Lines Trio’, the debut cd (with young British drummer George Hadow as subtle third man), however, won’t be able to reach the mainstream jazz-charts. It is full of music for connoisseurs. Besides compositions from Scheen and one of Van der Weide, the album contains five improvisations and two pieces by Paul Termos. Scheen and Van der Weide both are advocates of the oeuvre of the saxophonist and composer, who deceased in 2003. How justly that plea is, is evident in the fact that his pieces fit the trio as gloves. The Misha Mengelberg-like ‘Kop op’ and the souljazz-pastiche ‘Dark Goeree’ perfectly match the compositions by Scheen, such as the Leo Cuypers-inspired ‘Solid’ and the beautiful ballad ‘Sigh’. They are convincing proofs of his craft. I hope this CD of the Blue Lines Trio will mean the breakthrough they deserve.
(Herman te Loo)

Weblog Vera Vingerhoeds - October 9, 2014

Unexpected turns, dribbling swing & unsettling jazz
The Blue Lines Trio was formed in 2012 by pianist Michiel Scheen. It brings together three generations of improvisers. With great belief, the group plunges into situations where there is not necessarily direction and guidance: musical adventure it is. To start somewhere not knowing where you end up. The trio is very evenly matched. All three musicians can handle the musical freedom; they keep listening very carefully to each other in free improvisations.
The music on this first album is a selection from the wide repertoire of the trio, which is full of musical twists, unexpected turns, unsettling music, dribble swing and sound explorations.
Michiel Scheen very clearly is indebted to the angular swing of Thelonious Monk and unsettling improvising jazz of Misha Mengelberg. It can be heard in a number of pieces, such as Solid.
In the years 1986 to 1999 Michiel Scheen worked with many musicians in the free improvisation department. He played with Ab Baars, Han Bennink, Jaap Blonk, Anthony Braxton, Tobias Delius, Cor Fuhler, Gerry Hemmingway, Wiek Hijmans, Guus Janssen, George lewis, Misha Mengelberg, Roscoe Mitchell, Butch Morris. After a reteat of several years Scheen formed a quartet in 2004 with Ab Baars, Han Bennink and Ernst Glerum. At the moment he regurarly plays in duo format with saxophonist and clarinettist Tobias Delius and in the Jan Nijdam Quartet.
(Vera Vingerhoeds)