"Sometimes, CD-releases of new Dutch jazz and improvised music can really surprise one. The Amsterdam based Blue Lines Trio seems to be a very good working unit, a collaboration between three generations of musicians. Michiel Scheen, for several years worked within the Maarten Altena Ensemble, and besides this trio, he now regurarly works as a duo with saxophonist and clarinetist Tobias Delius and with the Jan Nijdam Quartet. Raoul van der Weide has worked with Guus Jansen, and currently works in a trio with John Dikeman and Klaus Kügel, furthermore he jams with a lot of the new generation of improvisors that visit or live in Holland. George Hadow is a young British drummer who works with the Galm Quartet and many improvisers of all generations in and around Amsterdam.

The debut CD of this trio is remarkable. There are pieces, musical theme's that generate improvisations, but there are also freely improvised sequences. In general, what all the tracks show, is that the three musicians carefully listen to, and give room to each other.

A lot of free improvised music has such a density that the listener could lose focus, on this CD however, the improvising is crystal clear. The players spontaneously seem to pick a musical motive and elaborate on it carefully. The process doesn't get boring: they sometimes intuitively throw in contrasting material to 'refresh' the flow. And that offers the possibility to repeat things they have played before, which provides a structure to the improvisation, not to be heard often. Might this maybe be a new form of what we call 'instant composition'? That initial musical motive defines the character of the piece, so no track resembles others, every track is an entity and has a character of its own.

The rhythmic concept of the trio is exceptional: themselves, they call it 'throbbing swing' or 'dribble-swing', a curious mixture of jazz-swing and free-pulsating movement. Like three horses on a span, not in a military rhythmic unison, but a clopper-de-clop-stay-as-close-as-can-be fashion. Three individual and separate, but closely related, 'lines'.

Another feature of the music from the trio is their melodic and harmonic alertness. They seem to catch each others pitches perfectly, also not to be heard often in freely improvised music.

All of which makes the CD a very diverse and colorful 'contemporary improvised music' album.

The pieces, the theme's, seem to be written down and arranged for the 'cast'. They sound like bop and soul-jazz (in the case of the two compositions by the late saxophonist and composer Paul Termos), post-bop, post-free-jazz, and sometimes like contemporary academic music. One could identify influences by Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor, Olivier Messiaen, Oscar Pettiford, Charles Mingus, David Izenzon, Paul Motian and Han Bennink.

"Solid" starts as a post-boppy-blues-free-motion-indefinite-swing piece, but then breaks up in a staccato improvisation that leads to free Monkish-piano variations. It's got a funny 'Salt Peanuts' reference.

"Improvisation 538" starts with arco bass with tonal references, piano and drums match this with their variation of a similar kind of 'sonic production': plucking snares on the inside of the piano and brushes on skin and cymbals.

Paul Termos' piece "Kop op" is a brickwork bebop-like theme leading to a drumsolo that get's 'attacked' by Cecil Taylor-ish interventions. Not quite a 'logical' approach and maybe prefabricated (so this track convinces me the least), but the return to the theme out of fortissimo free-jazz is very well executed and 'a sound of surprise'.

"Idols" contains piano-chords that I cannot decipher (well, I'm an amateur pianist), but they're certainly not the standard II-V-I jazz-changes or free-jazz clusters. It's seems to be an idiom in itself. The rhythmic unison by Hadow's drums is magical! The way he varies the composition is a link to the the improvisation after the theme. I like that approach!

"Not yet" by Van der Weide is a peaceful haven, the theme is a continuous variation of four notes, but has nothing to do with so called 'minimal music'. It is more like a clockwork that leads into spacious and time-stretched improvisations with overtones on bass and cymbals and Messiaen-like harmonies on piano.

In "Ingredients 539" the trio-members have a grab at the mainstream jazz idiom, but the grab really is a child's play with conventional elements. The 'way-to-long' bass line-solo by Raoul van der Weide is hilarious! This music is a preposterous out-of-proportion jazz-pastiche, but never tasteless.

"Stumble" is an emotional heartfelt cry, bluesy free-jazz, with a touch of South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim's left hand playing. Exceptions excluded, the Dutch improv scene is not really known for this kind of direct speaking from the heart.

The CD closes with "Sigh", a ballad with Ellingtoneske chords and warmth. A closer listen reveals a little musical joke: the melody is all chromatic, except for a 'gigantic' leap of a minor third (!) at the end of each section.

Careful and repeated listening sessions reveal more intelligent musical jokes throughout the album. But they are more hidden than outspoken. The maybe typical Dutch irony is less on the foreground, I would say raised to a higher and more abstract level and to be discovered only by attentive listening."-Chris Naat, Jazz Music Reviews