YURI HONING / Memory Lane

Songs

For this album, Yuri Honing (born 1965) recorded compositions that for some reason were important in his teens, hence the title. It’s a selection of eight pieces, or in Yuri’s words: ‘The time-span of one set’.
“Keith Jarrett is and always has been my ‘kitchen sink’: after a nights playing I clear my head with Jarrett. Together with Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock he presented a fresh view of the piano trio and –starting from the Bill Evans tradition- they added some things of their own.” Yuri was always particularly fascinated by Jarrett’s compositions and especially admired the trio before they started playing standards. ‘Prism’ is from that period. “It is well constructed, it’s fresh and it contains sensible changes. Jarrett illustrates his fine sense of voice leading.”
Yuri always preferred Stan Getz’ version of ‘Infant Eyes’, written by Wayne Shorter. It helped of course that he heard and saw Getz playing the tune on the balcony of a Montreux Hotel where he stayed in the adjourning room, together with his parents. Getz of course was there for the jazz festival. Yuri and his parents planned to go mountain hiking, and that Yuri got to see his “hero-to-be” playing in a bathrobe, was pure coincidence. “I love Lester Young’s school. Young and Johnny Hodges were the greatest before the second world-war, and it was Getz who carried on their tradition.”
Not many people know that Herbie Hancock composed his ‘Chan’s Song’ with Stevie Wonder. “As far as I could track it down, Wonder never recorded the song himself either,” Yuri adds. “Hancock is important to me, and always has been. Especially in my teens with all that hip stuff from Headhunters to V.S.O.P.: the old Miles band with Freddy Hubbard on the horn.” Yuri still marvels at that fantastic rhythm section of Tony Williams, Ron Carter and a fabulous playing Hancock. But it was singer Bobby McFerrin, sitting in at a Steps Ahead concert, that led him to this song. “I was amazed by McFerrin who could sing along with this complicated tune by Steps Ahead after hearing only one line. He could immediately sing harmony, clear-cut, no fuss. Later, I remembered his name when I saw the movie ‘‘Round midnight’ in which he sang ‘Chan’s Song’: no words, very high, very exact. Finally I got the opportunity to use this song.”
‘Together’ was Yuri’s first serious composition, back in ’84. He wrote it for no particular reason, other than that he assumed he had to try this too. “This melody slipped out and I added some harmonies that were characteristic of those days. Back then I believed in the complexity of misleading bass notes and hidden melodies that were actually very obvious. Funny thing is that I still like this tune after all these years.”
Yuri recorded Pat Metheny’s ‘Hermitage’ simply because he loves Metheny’s unique sense of melody. And like all good guitarists, Metheny avoids the trap of fast licks. And this tune has a melody you won’t ever forget after a first hearing. “Plus you think it has always been around!” Yuri hastens to add. “What I call the Mozart effect: you hear it and think: ‘God, I know this!’”
“Back in high school I had a friend who had a Billy Joel album and the song ‘Just the way you are’ contained an impressive alto sax solo by Phil Woods which I just couldn’t execute myself. I still played alto in those days and was impressed.” Yuri discovered that Joel was a fine songwriter and learned to like what he feels is his most gutsy song: ‘New York state of mind’. “It really reflects the feel of New York and I like the lyrics too. Even though some harmonies are a bit spineless, it is very convincing to me and that’s pretty rare when it comes to pop songs.” Initially it seemed a bit difficult to translate it into a jazz-composition, but arranger Rob Horsting came up with the brilliant idea of putting it into 3/4.
‘Sands’, the second original, does not refer to the famous Sinatra album with Count Basie, although Yuri too knows all the Sinatra jokes by heart. It’s just a title. And while writing it, it never occurred to him that the opening melody somewhat resembles ‘Miles Ahead’, the famous Miles Davis/ Gil Evans composition. “That was something subconscious. The piece is from a period in which I wrote out every single part for everyone, even the drummer, because I was involved in rhythmic variations and alternate melodies.”
Charlie Haden’s ‘For Turiya’ was recorded for the album ‘Folk Songs’ with Jan Garbarek and Egberto Gismonti: three crucial musicians for Yuri in his teens. “Even though I’m not a religious man, to me it smells like religion and I keep hearing it as if it were a chorale. Henk arranged it as a chorale too. It is a good piece to end the record with.” (RB)

“There’s only one time… the first time.”

This album is a stranger in the discography of Dutch saxophone player Yuri Honing. Usually, Yuri is seeking out new possibilities in jazz repertoire or jazz saxophone playing, and records albums that due to their rather provocative content, present questions rather than just answering them, like this cd does. Perhaps therefore, ‘Memory Lane’ is an unusually pleasant and accessible album, which doesn’t mean this music was easy to perform. The compositions and arrangements demand the utmost control and care in dynamics, tone quality, phrasing and ensemble playing.
Yuri didn’t want to make a ‘Honing with strings’. “We’ve got ‘Parker with strings’ and Wynton Marsalis’ ‘Hot House Flowers’ and that will do,” he claims. “I really created this particular line up one voice at a time. Strings are only one aspect of a large ensemble. I longed for wood. And I wanted something special. So I started with the French horn.” From there, Yuri tried to avoid cliché’s and forced the arrangers into new and ingenious forms by inventing a compelling instrumentation. He thought about using a bassoon, a sound he considers one of his personal favorites, but chose the less dominant clarinet instead, also blending better with his horn. Blending actually is a crucial aspect of this ensemble. Even though the combination appears to be rather rare, the flute merges exceptionally well with the saxophone. Together with Honing’s own jazz quartet, these additional colors make a very comfortable whole.
Making up the sound is one thing. Arranging the music within it is another ball game. Yuri chose one of the key figures in the trade. Henk Meutgeert, assisted by Rob Horsting, labored to get this form right, and showed a great understanding of the possibilities and boundaries of this particular kind of instrumentation. “This music only works if you do it perfectly right. If you perform this repertoire only reasonably well, it is messed up. You can’t do it without excellent musicians, excellent arrangements and a meticulous conductor,” explains Yuri. “Henk is a very serious and strict man who, regardless of age and status will give anybody a good stripping-down when necessary. With Henk, it is never personal and always about the music. That’s why I wanted him to direct.” Not to mention that he could conduct his own arrangements which were written ‘the Ellington way’. For instance, Henk advised Yuri to ask Emily Beynon to play the flute. He knew what she’s capable of, gave her a crucial role in the ensemble, and wrote scores with her playing in mind. Same thing with horn player Jacob Slagter, like Emily and both string players, a member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. It is well known he’s one of the best on the instrument worldwide, and the plan of working with him had been somewhere waiting in a drawer for years. Both Yuri and Henk were very pleased to have him on the album; Henk writing an essential part for him, steering the dynamics of the ensemble that at times gives it the feeling of a large symphonic orchestra.
On the day of the recording, the music was new for everybody. “I like that pressure,” explains Yuri. “The more the better: I am a true ‘Take-one guy’. There’s only one time: the first time.” Just two days prior to the recording Henk handed Yuri the scores, who only read through them thoroughly, not wanting to play the music before the recording. “I only practiced my soprano. I hadn’t played it for over three years and needed to blow out the dead spiders.”
Although all musicians were very capable of playing from first reading, Henk and Rob had kept the arrangements reasonably simple in order to give them enough room for musicality. As a big band director, Henk knows that good playing demands a lucid and transparent arrangement. “Think of all the classic Neil Hefti scores in the Count Basie days,” Yuri clarifies: “You could play them on sight. You really need a damn good reason to use complexity, which tends to get in the way of the music, unless of course your name is Ellington, or Stravinsky.”
‘Memory Lane’ is the first album in which Yuri gives way to the lyrical, romantic corners of his personality. “I wanted hot tears, tremendously beautiful at every moment, striving for a certain poignancy. This music is to move people, and not just those who know a thing or two about music.” Yuri admits that there was a time when he was a little embarrassed to be so outspoken. “This is new for me. I’m getting older and wiser and am less and less ashamed of who I really am. That’s very important in music, although you must choose the right moment to express that, so that it’s worth listening to. While people often ineffectively hide behind complex improvisation, the importance of credibility increases if you play music that has a foundation that everyone can understand. With this music there’s no way out, and I am so happy that the right people showed up for the right construction, and that it all worked out.”
Musicians

Yuri Honing is first and foremost a musician. Being a saxophone player is almost secondary. Therefore it is very comfortable for him that he no longer ‘feels’ the instrument while playing. He dives into a direct conversation with what’s happening around him, without thinking about which chord, or a good or bad reed. “It’s like leaving without luggage and being able to move around unbounded,” he explains.
Yuri jumped out of his seat when he heard Emily Beynon play for the first time. She was interested and enthusiastic when he asked her to join him for this recording, but he never knew she was this good. “You never hear her changing registers when she goes to the next octave! Uncanny. Her sound is so pure and full, I was really baffled by her playing.”
Maarten Ornstein is someone Yuri mainly knows through playing together on several projects and recordings of bass player Tony Overwater. He was the right man for the job, not only because he’s very much at home in today’s composed music, but a fine reader and player on clarinet and bass clarinet. Plus, he can really carry a solo.
French horn player Jacob Slagter never misses a note, which is really something, considering he’s playing “A fifteen meter pipe, put into a curl: a bloody awful instrument,” as Yuri puts it with great admiration. “Jacob has an excellent sense of dynamics and never plays too soft or too loud. He provides both depth and bass to the music.”
Keiko Iwate is one of the first violin players of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and has an excellent reputation. “Even though she plays an accompanying role and Henk did not use the violin for leading parts of the arrangements, I was thrilled that she joined us,” Yuri emphasizes.
Cellist Fred Pot is an old friend of Yuri’s parents. A true musician, always eager to play, anytime, anywhere, with anyone, even when playing a smaller role than he is accustomed to. His experience with the renowned Concertgebouw Orchestra, “is clearly audible on the album,” Yuri adds. “He plays a couple of great lines. And the cello is one of my favorite instruments. It is related to the saxophone: it has the same register. At the conservatory, I actually studied Bach’s cello suites on tenor and they fit! You can even mimic the stroke of the bow with the muting of the saxophone. Unfortunately I’ve never had the time to really dig into these suites. It would cost me a year of my life.”
Frans van der Hoeven is a true virtuoso professional. In quartet line-ups with Joost Lijbaart and Achim Kaufmann, Yuri has been playing with him for two years now. “On this cd you hear him playing sort of tiny solos through the arrangements all the time. In this way he adds movement to the ensemble during moments where it tends to get a little stationary.”
With drummer Joost Lijbaart, Yuri traveled and played all over the world for almost thirteen years. A true companion and friend, but that’s not the reason Yuri likes playing with him. “He’s simply the best drummer around. At least I don’t know of any other who can play the variety of music he can. He hits hardcore free jazz very well, knows his chops in straight ahead jazz and pop music, is a good reader and a very decent and versatile classical percussionist, well at home with complex Indian, African and modern classical rhythms. You can tell him to play near-miming silent, and make it sound great too. Which is exactly what he does on this cd.
“It took me a while until I found an accomplished piano player. Then reed player Michael Moore told me that Achim would be my man,” says Yuri. Achim is from Germany and when he came to play in Amsterdam for a week, Yuri was convinced immediately. “Apart from having a fine ear, a great touch and great musical knowledge, he is seriously influenced by Paul Bley and very fond of Misha Mengelberg, both pianists I personally deeply admire and recently worked with. So I put great trust in Achim.”

As we at Turtle Records do in Yuri Honing and this ensemble.
I’ll be seeing you,
Rob Becker

Tracks :
01) Prism
02) Infant Eyes
03) Chan’s Song
04) Together
05) Hermitage
06) New York State of Mind
07) Sands
08) For Turiya

Yuri Honing soprano and tenor saxophones
Emily Beynon flute
Maarten Ornstein clarinet and bass clarinet
Jacob Slagter French horn
Keiko Iwate violin
Fred Pot cello
Frans van der Hoeven double bass
Achim Kaufmann piano
Joost Lijbaart drums
Henk Meutgeert conductor

Production: Turtle Records/ Edison Production Company bv
Producer: Harry van Dalen
Balance engineers: Bert van der Wolf & Fir Suidema
Editing: Bert van der Wolf
Design and photography: Rob Becker
Assistant recording engineer: Michael van Polen
Recorded at the Doopsgezinde kerk, Deventer,
the Netherlands on june 18 & 19, 2001
c & p 2001 Turtle Records / Edison Production Company bv