Big Band concerts with Oliver Nelsons music

The Metropole Orkest Big Band will perform a total of four concerts ‘Abstract Truth & Blues’ between 14 and 18 March with a new version of a classic jazz album by Oliver Nelson. Guest conductor and arranger Jörg Achim Keller will lead the orchestra in reviving this wonderful music on stage.

• Saturday 14 March – LantarenVenster, Rotterdam
• Sunday 15 March – Theater Maitland (Landgoed de Horst), Driebergen-Rijsenburg
• Tuesday 17 March – North Sea Jazz Club, Amsterdam
• Wednesday 18 March – Jazzpodium de Tor, Enschede

The album ‘The Blues & The Abstract Truth’ was recorded in 1961 and is an important piece of jazz history and without a doubt the best known work of composer/saxophone Oliver Nelson (1932-1975). The album was the breakthrough of Nelson as a jazz composer and 50 years later it still sounds remarkably fresh. It holds a personal and unique approach to the blues in the context of the post be-bop era.

This new version of ‘The Blues & The Abstract Truth’ is much more then a re-creation of the original recordings, the arrangements and concerts are a tribute to one of the prematurely deceased greats of jazz history. To paraphrase our trombone player Bart van Lier:
Deze nieuwe versie van ‘The Blues & The Abstract Truth’ is zoveel meer dan een recreatie van de originele opname, de arrangementen en de concerten zijn een eerbetoon aan een te vroeg gestorven grootmeester uit de jazzgeschiedenis. Om trombonist Bart van Lier te parafraseren: “Not many jazz musicians get the chance to play the music of Oliver Nelson (…) I feel very grateful to be part of this.”