Caspar van Meel Quintet

The title ‚On the Edge‘ of the new album by the Caspar van Meel Quintet is no coincidence; this is energetic, modern jazz by musicians who dare to take risks and inspire each other to explore new musical spaces. 

Swinging with a hard-bop attitude, African rhythms, odd-metres and grooving like a funkband;  bandleader and bassist van Meel provides us with his original interpretations of familiar forms in jazz - and goes beyond. As John Goldsby (WDR Big Band) once said about van Meel: ‚Although he is grounded in the jazz tradition, he plays with an ear to the future.‘ 

The compositions of van Meel organically fuse clear melodies, complex horn-arrangements, grooving, repetitive bass-lines and collective improvisations while leaving enough space for the musicians to express themselves: ‚I want to write music that is equally appealing intellectually and emotionally.‘, says van Meel about his music. He is inspired by such legendary bass players as Charles Mingus and Dave Holland: musicians who were not only masters of their instruments but also great bandleaders in their own right with a personal compositional style. 

What you will hear on this album is a real band with some the best german musicians on the scene: Denis Gäbel (Tenor Saxophone), Tobias Wember (Trombone), Roman Babik (Piano) and Niklas Walter (Drums).The group played this music live intensively before going into the studio and developed their own interpretation, interaction and style for every piece. The musicians are united by a strong sense of time, feel and adherence to tradition, but all bring their own individual form of madness to the mix.

The title ‚On the Edge‘ reflects the goal of this group and the individual musicians to evolve artistically and push their boundaries. At the same time it is a clear comment on the political, social and environmental insecurities of the age we live in. The most recent crises function as a catalyst that confront us with the potentially fatal weakness in the fabric in our society. We are on the edge and should choose direction.