Some words on the music of Interzone ...

Some words on the Interzone music

Jean Paul Steeghs at Grasland, April 2006 - photo (c) 2006 - Klaas Koopman

JP on the music of Interzone:
"Describing your own music is usually a risky business. The risk involved here is mainly due to the fact that at this place I can not refer to the musical perspective or experience of the listener. Nevertheless, it's only fair to give you an idea, on how we interpret or intend our music ourselves.
Interzone is foremost a jazz band. Through their musical experience and studies, the musicians of Interzone are all firmly rooted in the North American jazz tradition. There's no way for any serious jazz performer not to acknowledge the influence of the major individual North American jazz instrumentalists and styles on their own playing.
With regards to writing jazz music for larger ensembles, the same thing applies: any contemporary jazz composer has to acknowledge the influence of people like Billy Strayhorn, George Gershwin, Charlie Mingus, Oliver Nelson, Gil Evans and more recently Gerry Mulligan, Thad Jones, Bob Brookmeijer, and Maria Schneider on harmonization, instrumentation, melody and form issues.
That means that hearing Interzone perform original compositions, you'll definitely perceive hints and echoes of different styles and disciplines, both instrumentally and compository. It implies also that labeling Interzone within a fixed frame with regards to a certain jazz style is not applicable.
Interzone is also an European jazz band. In my view, there's an obvious and substantial difference in cultural, intellectual and political concept between the old and the new world, that reflects also in music as an expression of art. The European tradition and development of classical music over the past seven centuries, is closely related to the overall historical development of Europe and European culture.
Just as stated before, it is not possible for any serious European instrumentalist or composer not to acknowledge the influence of this development on his or her own art. Within the jazz context of Interzone, this means that you'll certainly hear hints and echoes of this tradition, roughly from Obrecht, Palestrina, Bach or Mozart to Weil, Messiaen or Boulez.
Finally, Interzone is a contemporary European jazz band. For me this means that we take on the challenge of bringing music as an expression of art forwards. It implies that we have an open mind towards new and old developments within the arts, and in music in particular, and try to incorporate these developments into our own music. These may be developments in pop, underground or dance scenes, music for films, ballet or theatre, studies of ethnic classical or religious music, anything goes actually.
You shouldn't be surprised to hear us perform as a jazz band, together with a modern ballet group, a string quartet or a contemporary classical ensemble in the near future ..."