Back and Forth
This new CD by Dimami is subtitled “15 Years of Adventurous Music.” It’s the trio’s fifth, this time featuring recordings from previous years. The eight pieces offer a good cross-section of Dimami’s musical talents and also demonstrate how the trio has developed over the past three anniversaries of its existence.
The three members of Dimami met in Nijmegen in 1998 and immediately agreed on one thing: to give the traditional saxophone trio its own unique perspective. The three have captured this on four CDs, each one a key document in the history and development of Dutch improvised music.
Dimami sees an opportunity to capture the tradition of African-American music within its own unique concept, and in doing so, to transcend the boundaries of what once formed the foundation of jazz music. Dimami doesn’t shy away from influences, as evidenced by the quotes borrowed from other musical styles: pop, world music, funk, contemporary composed music, and improvised music, especially improvised music. While you can’t, of course, draw from the latter form, because you have to create it yourself.
At times, Dimami sounds harmonious, with the utmost efficiency in note use. Harmony carries the melody, you might say. But Dimami’s palette is infinite: the free and collective improvisations deserve a capital “H.” They are a feast for the ears, as the players mesh their instruments like cogs. Pure excitement is the result!
Dimami (short for the first names Dion, Makki, and Miguel) has, in its fifteen years of existence, benefited from the musical developments of that period. For simplicity’s sake, you could say that the music has matured as a result. That’s only partly true: Dimami’s music has elevated the trio to ever-higher levels, as Dion Nijland, Makki van Engelen, and Miguel Boelens have become giant instrumentalists. They are, at least within the collaborative group known as Dimami, unparalleled.
And that alone is a remarkable achievement. Many groups have experienced wear and tear within their lifetimes, through routine and/or laziness—it’s all a given. Dimami is still as fresh as it was fifteen years ago. A guarantee for much more new music in the coming fifteen years.