Rob Agerbeek is a Dutch pianist who has worked with the
Dutch Jazz Orchestra and also American tenor saxophonist
George Coleman, though he has had relatively little exposure in North America. This trio date features his regular band with bassist Harry Emmery and drummer Ben Schroeder.
Agerbeek approaches the session as a jack-of-all-trades, delving into hard bop, bop, soul-jazz, and Latin, along with standards. His enthusiastic arrangement of
Leon Russell's often placid "This Masquerade" blends influences from
Red Garland,
Harold Mabern, and others, while his dreamy take of
Django Reinhardt's "Nuages" is understated with a small degree of playfulness.
Agerbeek's driving hard bop setting of
Dizzy Gillespie's "Birks Works" features a superb solo by Emmery, while his take of the trumpeter's "Tin Tin Deo" crackles with energy as well. Yet one of the best tracks is his buoyant setting of pianist
David Hazeltine's "Waltzing at Suite One," with Schroeder starting with brushes and switching to sticks as the performance gains steam. Producer Tetsuo Hara obviously saw potential in the veteran pianist's music, so expect to hear more from
Rob Agerbeek on the Venus label. ~ Ken Dryden