The influence of South African jazz made itself felt on Jorrit Dykstra's saxophone playing and composing on an earlier collaboration with guitarist Stuart Hall (Whistle). That same influence is firmly entrenched as a method on European Echoes, which features Benoit Delbecq playing prepared piano. The trio of Dykstra on saxophone, clarinet, and tin whistles; Steve Arguëlles on bass; and Mischa Kool on drums was still intact in 1996 when this album was issued. The funny thing about the South African jazz influence on Dykstra's music, especially the playing of Johnny Dyani, is that it makes itself felt on the title cut, which is an Ornette Coleman tune based on his impressions of European music. The entire world is contained in this first piece, holding three different harmonic scales between its teeth and lyrically strolling through all the territories on the globe. When it gives way to Delbecq's own Brushes, the other-worldliness is what shows itself first in the shape of odd-timbre chords from Delbecq's piano, full of mutes and pads. It almost feels like a vibraphone but the higher register is untampered with and holds its own sound. Dykstra and Kool make the most of the tonal shifts and shapes. Kool uses only tom toms and rim shots with brushes in counterpoint to the piano's rhythmic whirl, as Dykstra offers color and microtonal sonic palettes for a larger improvisational language to emerge between the piano and his horn. There are two "blues" jams on European Echoes as well, both of which were written by Dykstra: Peanut Blues and Cashew Nut Blues. Both are attempts to create blues without a 12-bar structure. They come off more as sambas than blues, though. Funny thing is, while Dykstra is trying to make an argument for a European blues in his liner notes, the modern-day Mississippi Delta bluesmen, such as Paul Wine Jones, the late Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, and CeDell Davis liberated the blues from the 12-bar structure long ago. In jazz, Coleman did it decades ago, so why is he messing with it here? As broken samba, or "creative" samba, it works like a charm and even Antonio Carlos Jobim would like these pieces. They also work as post-bop Latin numbers, but neither of them cut it as blues. The most impressive thing about them is Delbecq's pianistic lyricism that reveals the influence of both Bill Evans and Teddy Wilson -- on an avant player. Also, Arguëlles has a gorgeous solo in Peanut Blues. In all though, this collaboration is not as successful as the set with Hall from two years before. Mainly because there is nothing fierce in the front line here; it's pleasant and even compelling in some places, but compared to some of the height-scaling, fire-breathing intense encounters Dykstra's been involved in, this one just simmers. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi

1		European Echoes
2		Brushes
3		Peanut Blues
4		Dalant
5		Lijnen IV
6		Helix (Teacosy)
7		Geste
8		Native
9		A Lack of Dreams
10		Cashew Nut Blues
11		Buzz
12		Julia