Hubert Nuss

The Dutch jazz trumpeter Ack van Rooyen has a sound is so unmistakable that it only takes a few seconds, a few notes, to identify him. A sound full of warmth and a touch of melancholy - something, by the way, that also characterises the man Ack van Rooyen, who turned 90 last year and celebrated his birthday with this production! '90' presents a bi-national sextet - with three musicians each from the Netherlands and Germany. In addition to Ack on flugelhorn throughout, is tenor saxophonist Paul Heller, who was in charge of the production, guitarist Peter Tiehuis, pianist Hubert Nuss, Ingmar Heller on bass and drummer Hans Dekker play on this wonderful album with Rooyen in top form!

The idea for this album had been planted ten years earlier, taking saxophonist Christof Lauer that long to develop this project focusing on American jazz pioneer Sidney Bechet and his French-Creole-inspired compositions. Together with the NDR Bigband, Lauer looks at Bechet in an entirely new way, interpreted by someone from a free jazz background who developed his unmistakable sound playing with legends such as Stan Getz. Recorded in only four days, Petite Fleur presents these unmistakable Bechet classics in a new light thanks to Lauer's distinctive tone and the multilayered arrangements.