Boy's Big Band - 1966 - Finch Eye

Boy's Big Band

1966

Finch Eye

01. Black Sea 4:50
02. Plain Blues 7:15
03. 2128 6:05
04. I Remember Vienna 9:20
05. Finch Eye 9:35

Alto, Baritone, Tenor & Soprano Saxophone, Clarinet – Herman Schoonderwalt
Alto, Tenor & Soprano Saxophone – Piet Noordijk,
Alto & Soprano Saxophone – Theo Loevendie
Alto Saxophone – Tinus Bruyn
Baritone & Tenor Saxophone – Joop Mastenbroek
Baritone Saxophone – Leo Gerritsen
Baritone & Tenor Saxophone – Toon Van Vliet
Bass – Dick Van Der Capellen
Bass – Jacques Schols
Drums – John Engels
Flugelhorn, Trombone – Cees Smal
Flute – Chris Hinze
Mellophone – Wim Kat
Piano – Cees Slinger
Tenor Saxophone – Harry Verbeke
Trombone – Eric van Lier
Trombone – Marcel Thielemans
Trombone – Rudy Bosch
Trumpet – Ado Broodboom
Trumpet – Jan Van Hest
Trumpet – Jan Vleeschouwer
Trumpet – Wim Kat
Trumpet – Wim Kuylenburg

Recorded September 7 and 8, 1966 in Amsterdam

Finally a CD reissue of what were undoubtedly the first truly original Dutch jazz works -- the legendary Boy Edgar's Big Band's Now's the Time from 1965 and Finch's Eye from 1966. These two albums gave Netherlands jazz the boost it so sorely needed to emanate from underneath the American shadow and forge a jazz identity of its own. With his influences ranging from Duke Ellington and Count Basie to Stan Kenton and the classical musician of Jean Sibelius, composer, arranger, and medical doctor Boy Edgar created a band comprised of all the elements of the Dutch jazz world in the early '60s. That included equal parts older players who were still reading swing charts from the '30s, bebop connoisseurs from the '40s, hard bop and cool jazzers from the '50s, and a host of young lions who had heard the large group "free jazz" works of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. Now's the Time showcases them all together playing tasteful, innovative charts with lush harmonies and killer soprano solos from Piet Nordjik, a young player who has never gotten his due as a stylist on the instrument though he truly deserves to be widely recognized for his bluesed-out wailing found here. He is the only player featured as a soloist on all six of the former album's selections -- and in a saxophone section of seven horns, no less. Now's the Time has stood the test of it well, sounding fresh, even, and wonderfully arranged 36 years after its first appearance. There is a weakness in the trumpet section, as the fire of the rest of the band leaves them in the shadows most of the time, but compared to everything else that's here -- swing, hard bop, free jazz, Ellington, modal music, and so on -- it's easy to forgive. Standout cuts are Parker's title track, Coltrane's "Blues Minor," with its velvety smooth and dark textures, and a positively wild reading of "Blue Monk," with horns blaring all over the piano lines and loving every minute of it. Finally there is Theo Loevendie's "Return," a true composition of the new Dutch jazz with its outlandish counterpoint and stacked harmonies all strung together in a mass of elegant yet emotional sonic pathos. Finch's Eye fares less well for its time because it was simply trying too hard to be of of its time, as well as taking into consideration many of the changes in pop and jazz. Still, there is the debut appearance of Willem Breuker and his melding of his composition "28" with Edgar's "21" for "2128," making for his first appearance as a soloist in any context, and the stock-in-trademark humor was there right at the beginning. Listen to him bend those fifths during his solo and you'll swear you are listening to a Raymond Scott arrangement. Finally, Loevendie's title track, the first formally "new" or "free" Dutch jazz, showcases Breuker blowing in the breaks as the band swirls around him in an oddly dissonant tone poem. In all, a revelatory reissue, giving listeners a picture of how the Dutch gained their strong, individual identity as a jazz region; these two LPs were no doubt the inspiration for many Netherlands musicians to come.

Boy's Big Band - 1965 - Now's The Time

Boy's Big Band

1965

Now's The Time

01. Now's The Time 7:28
02. Solitude 6:29
03. Competitive Challenge 8:49
04. Blues Minor 6:31
05. Blue Monk 7:05
06. Return 4:26

Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet – Herman Schoonderwalt
Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Piet Noordijk
Alto Saxophone – Tinus Bruyn
Baritone Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Joop Mastenbroek
Baritone Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Toon Van Vliet
Bass – Jacques Schols
Bass Trombone – Eric Van Lier
Drums – John Engels
Mellophone, Trumpet – Wim Kat
Piano – Cees Slinger
Soprano Saxophone Theo Loevendie
Tenor Saxophone – Harry Verbeke
Trombone – Marcel Thielemans
Trombone – Rudy Bosch
Trumpet – Ado Broodboom
Trumpet – Jan Van Hest
Trumpet – Jan Vleeschouwer, Wim Kat,
Trumpet – Wim Kuylenburg
Valve Trombone – Cees Smal

Directed by George Willem Fred Edgar
Recorded in Amsterdam, on 19-20 October 1965

Boy Edgar, pseudonyms of George Willem Fred Edgar (Amsterdam, 31 March 1915 – Aldaar, 8 April 1980), was a Dutch jazzconductor, pianist and Trumpeter. He was also a member of the resistance who saved Jewish children during WW2 and was promoted as a doctor after the war on an investigation into multiple sclerosis.

Boy Edgar grew up in Amsterdam as the son of a merchant in Indian products. His father was of Armenian descent and his mother was Indian. Initially, the Edgar family was doing well. During his childhood, Boy Edgar was able to visit the Dutch East Indies several times. However, during the economic crisis in the 1930s, the Edgar family's company went bankrupt. His father died in 1935 and left the family in poverty.

Boy Edgar first came into contact with jazz in high school. Despite the fact that he had not received any musical training, Edgar succeeded in teaching himself arrangements and how to play the piano and the trumpet. In 1932 he started his medical training at the University of Amsterdam. He performed a lot to pay for his studies. In 1935 Boy Edgar recorded a number of songs in the GTB studio in The Hague, including "In the mood for love". In 1936 he won a prize for amateur soloists in Brussels and a year later he became a member of the Hague ensemble The Moochers. In 1939 he became leader of this ensemble, which he remained until the German occupier banned jazz music.

During the war he married Mimosa Frenk (1942-9-30), the Jewish daughter of Eli Frenk and Agnes Bushnach, and together they participated in the underground resistance to save Jewish children from deportation. During the war he did his medical exam. Edgar also composed music for orchestras that were allowed to perform.

Edgar was briefly imprisoned after the Second World War because he refused to go to the Dutch East Indies as a soldier. The first years after the war he continued to act as a pianist in various European countries.

In 1950, Edgar obtained his PhD with a thesis on processes in the nervous system of multiple sclerosis, a disease that his wife was already suffering from at that time. To fully focus on his scientific career and the care of his wife, Edgar stopped making music for some time. His wife died on 3 December 1958. On the fifth of Juli, 1960, he remarried Ida Jannie Lengtat.

In late 1960 Boy Edgar performed again for the first time. Initially this was a one-off, but the reactions were so enthusiastic that the VARA decided to broadcast a monthly concert by Edgar and his Boy's Big Band. During this period, Edgar was the director of the neuropathology laboratory Meer en Bosch in Heemstede.

Edgar made several full-length records during this period, won an Edison and regularly performed with international stars on radio and television. In 1964 he received the Wessel Ilcken Prize. The pinnacle of his artistic career was in the mid-60s, when Boy's Big Band recorded the LPs Now's the time (1965) and Finch Eye (1966). In October 1966 Edgar left for the United States to teach at a number of universities and conduct further research. He stayed in the United States for three years and returned in 1969.

Back in the Netherlands he became a doctor in Duivendrecht and the Bijlmermeer, but Edgar could no longer properly combine his work as a doctor and jazz. His Band, which had already fallen apart during his absence, was finally dissolved in 1971.

At the end of 1979 he quit his job as a general practitioner. A short time later he died at the age of 65. As a tribute, the Wessel Ilcken Prize, which he had won in 1964, was renamed to the VPRO/Boy Edgar Award in 1980; since 1992 it has been called the VPRO/Boy Edgar Award. This prize can be considered as the most important in the Dutch jazz world.

In 2018, Boy Edgar was posthumously awarded by Yad Vashem for his help to Jews during the Second World War.