When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That was precisely the mindset that jazz guitarist Teun Schut took when gigs slowed down and he found an abundance of time and space to create music. A year later, he’s now celebrating the release of a new album entitled, “Half Full” which features ten original compositions and a who’s who of Vancouver’s finest jazz musicians including Brad Turner on flugelhorn, Cam Wilson on violin, Rene Worst on bass, and Bowen’s own Buff Allen on drums. They are launching the disc into the world with a Sunday afternoon CD Release concert at Tir-na-nog on September 24th, at 3:30pm.
“Half Full” is a beautiful and interesting collection of songs with the addition of Cam Wilson’s lithe strings calling to mind the Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappelli recordings. The muted bell quality of the flugelhorn combined with the violin and guitar also suggest the tight, noodley melodies of Dizzy and Bird’s iconic bebop recordings.
“That era of songwriting is what I love to play and to solo over,” says Teun. “The songs write themselves, they are a vehicle for the melody, and thereby the solo. Different chord changes present new pathways for the melody to travel and that is what is interesting to me.”
Teun was inspired to write for the eclectic collection of instruments for the love of the sound.
“I always loved the flugelhorn,” he says. “When I was studying in Holland, there was a flugelhorn player there that affected me greatly. And I love the violin. It has so many colours and is such a versatile instrument. It’s an unusual combination.”
Teun’s process for writing music usually starts with the chord changes. Then he experiments with singing or playing melodies on top and adjusting the harmony as needed.
“Initially, I wrote the melody in two-part harmony for the flugelhorn and violin, but soon realized it was more interesting to have the guitar participate and create three-part harmony.”
Luckily being the engineer, he was able to use various plug-ins in his studio to get a simulation of the sound before bringing it to the band.
The album was recorded entirely in his home studio with him engineering and mixing. It was mastered by Bowen’s own Rob Bailey, which makes it a true Bowen production from start to finish.
“I wanted to write music that is pleasant to listen to,” he says as we listen to the album together. It certainly is so, though not at the expense of sophistication or intricacy. “Half Full,” the title track, is one of these tunes, with a time signature in ¾ while the bass and guitar suggest 4/4.
“Depending on how you hear it, the glass is half full. It does really represent how I look at life,” Teun says.
For the CD release party, it will be a rare treat to see Brad Turner, Rene Worst, Buff Allen, Cam Wilson, and Teun come together on stage.
“Everyone in the band is coming and we’ll play the album, although we can take a bit more time with our solos,” Teun says.
After the concert, look for Teun’s project on stages in Vancouver and beyond. When asked if he’d consider performing this material in Holland, he seems excited at the idea. ““If I can find that old flugelhorn player again...” he says jokingly.
Above all, this has lit a fire under Teun’s compositional side and he hopes to keep the momentum going. “That is a dream, to make an album every year or two,” he says. It looks like the glass will soon be more than half full for Teun’s fans, and we’ll all be drinking lemonade indeed.
