Jef Neve, the brightest young star of the Belgian jazz scene, has had his hands full lately.

Coming back to his roots – Neve was trained as a classical pianist and composer – he ventured into religious choir music. The mass that he authored was performed by the Flemish Radio Choir in a series of concerts last winter. In April Jef was in Leuven twice: to perform his first piano concerto with the K.U.Leuven Harmony Orchestra, and to play a pop-rock concert with Gabriel Rios. On the 25th of April Neve stepped on the small but congenial scene of Ancienne Belgique in a more familiar role, at the keyboard of a jazz ensemble, but even this was an experiment. For Groove Thing, an ad-hoc quartet, Neve traded the piano for a Hammond to make groovy fusion jazz instead of the softer music he plays with his trio.

Apart from Neve, The Groove Thing owes its existence to three other renowned musicians. Saxophonist Nicolas Kummaert is another standout of the new generation of Belgian jazz musicians. Like Neve, Kummaert has turned out a versatile artist, also playing world music and collaborating with Djs. Bassist Nicolas Thys and drummer Lieven Venken began their careers in Belgium but are now US residents, big on the New York jazz scene. The four of them joined efforts in what became The Groove Thing – a program of funky jazz recorded a year ago on the very same scene of Ancienne Belgique. That recording is now being released as an album -Groove Thing – of which this concert was a presentation.

Most of the pieces for Groove Thing were composed by the band members: some individually, others co-written. The set-list covered all the songs on the record and included several other numbers, most notably ‘Monk’s Dream’. The title of the show was by no means false advertisement: groove infused the performance. There was plenty of contemporary danceable jazz, some raggae inflections, and robust ballads. At times there was enough groove to qualify the music as energetic post-rock (‘Song 41’). The Hammond launched into jocular solos, then stepped into the background to support Kummaert’s brisk sax. Neve’s lyrical passages were sometimes reminiscent of choral polyphony, perhaps an echo of his recent work. Kummaert’s solos were executed in a funny technique which combined blowing into the sax with a form of scat singing verging on squealing, all in the same breath.

As anyone who’s head their share of jazz knows, sometimes solos go beyond the listener’s capacity to enjoy creative craze (let alone follow it). At times there’s too much undirected energy that simply bursts out, defying all structure that could facilitate comprehension. I’m guessing that hard-boiled jazz fans frown at such complaints, and I’m ready to concede that it takes some background to learn to appreciate free-wheeling solos. For what it’s worth, a vigorous rhythm section helps dose the exuberarance of a jazz solo, providing it with a backbone and a pulse. This sums up the most salient virtue of Groove Thing. I don’t mean to suggest that Groove Thing is dumbed-down jazz. While this program is more likely to appeal to mainstream audiences, it does not fall into the sin of simplifying what’s best savored in its complexity. |