E.S.P. Quintet

Short biography

“Pieter Bast ESP Quintet”

A few years ago, the drummer Pieter Bast got the idea to provide European jazz with a standard-status too. The famous American Songbook and numerous Real Books contain very little European, let alone Dutch material. For him to implement this plan, he established the European Standards Project (E.S.P.) and asked trumpet player Bert Lochs to contribute ideas and create arrangements. Eventually it turned out that only the material of Bast en Locht were enough to record a first album in mid 2011. Trumpet / trombone en electronics, synth, double-bass and drums: a fresh sound in modern jazz.

Occupation:
Michael Rörby – Trombone / elektronics
Bert Lochs – Trumpet / Flugelhorn / elektronics
Paul Maassen – Fender Piano / Synth / elektronics
Jasper Somsen – Double-bass
Pieter Bast – Drums

Long biography

“Pieter Bast ESP Quintet”

In the period 1985 – 1988, Pieter Bast was leader of his first quintet.

“PB-5”, with which he had won the 1986 het NOS – Meervaart Jazz Concours, not to forget he also won the prize for best soloist. In that period, the quintet played at various venues and festivals in the Netherlands and Belgium, including the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1987.

Pieter Bast worked the last 25 years as much in demand sideman, among others: Paul van Kemenade, Eric Vloeimans, Dick de Graaf, Martin Fondse, Mike Mainieri, Charlie Mariano and many others. In that same period of time, he felt it was time to return to write pieces with the intention to play those with a new, own band.

Through his years of working with these musicians, it stood out that there was little to no European material in the Real Book (the“bible” of jazz music), whereas he knew, from personal experience, that in Europe lots of beautiful music is written with a completely unique tone to it.

These two ideas formed the basis for the emergence of the E.S.P. Quintet.

E.S.P. stands for European Standard Project and is intended to play music from various European composers and perhaps to join later a European Real Book. Trumpet player Bert Lochs, with whom he played for many years in various compositions (among others: Jeroen Pek Band and the Jasper Somsen Group) was approached to work together on this project. After several concerts (including: Scheldejazz and Jazz in Duketown), the band was given a solid form and appeared to have created a completely self-penned repertoire and ditto sound. Lochs wrote the arrangements, which resulted in a fantastic album (entitled “Midnight Song”) that allows itself to sound like a journey through various musical continents with influences from the past and present which entails a tremendous amount of energy.

A fresh mix of acoustic and electric jazz in which strength, optimism, but also emotion are important elements.