When I finished the interview with NPO Soul& Jazz in Hilversum the other day, I ran into Mr. Defunkt Joseph Bowie himself! (Defunkt is a musical group founded by trombonist/singer Joseph Bowie 1978 in New York, United States, and still active. Their music touches on elements of punk rock, funk and jazz.) I gave him my new single and I got his latest cd in return! Thank you! Listening to it in the car today, I totally became funked by his typical Defunkt sound...Very cool project. The booklet is extraordinary, with a lot of information given about the backround of the music. The cd is really something every Defunkt fan must have. Here's a video clip of a song of the album:
This is the title track called Dark Horse. Just as in the album version it features sax and piano solos. It's a pretty wild performance, matching today's start of the Chinese New Year: THE YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE!Live at Bimhuis, we added a drum solo. Afterwards, I decided to seperate it from the song and post it as an extra video below. Why not in one video?Because the video would become very very long and experience shows that people will not stick around for longer that 6-7 minutes. Yoràn's free drum solo is actually really great and in this seperate video, the true drum lovers can watch and learn from his drum story telling. Sometimes people ask me; What are drummers doing in their solos? To give you an idea of what Yoràn is doing in his solo: He starts with a pattern, an idea. He keeps the pattern going and plays variations over it. Then he combines it with soloing over it with call and reponse phrases and slides in new patterns. Technically it's interesting because he demonstrates a lot of independence and speed, as well as dynamics and sound colours, while telling a story, which means in musical context that the solo has certain elements which can be recognized by the (trained) listener. Many people in the Western part of the world miss the melodic and harmonic context during a free drum solo. It's fair to say a free drum solo without any accompaniment is like an abstract painting. Within the given context you can hear and see what you can manage, depending on your own frame of reference and expectations. In the end, it's about: does it resonate with you? Because both, the painting and the free drum solo, they lack a clear subject (no lyrics, no recognizable image), both forms are highly subjective and open to the interpretation of the audience. They function as a conversation between the artist's feeling and the viewer's/listener's perception.But you also can listen to it with a pure analytical drum ear and try to follow the patterns and phrases. As a musician and human I (try to) do both :-) Enjoy!More info:Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij. - When I finished the interview with NPO Soul& Jazz in Hilversum the other day, I ran into Mr. Defunkt Joseph Bowie himself!(Defunkt is a musical group founded by trombonist/singer Joseph Bowie 1978 in New York, United States, and still active. Their music touches on elements of punk rock, funk and jazz.)I gave him my new single and I got his latest cd in return! Thank you! Listening to it in the car today, I totally became funked by his typical Defunkt sound...Very cool project. The booklet is extraordinary, with a lot of information given about the backround of the music. The cd is really something every Defunkt fan must have.Here's a video clip of a song of the album:Check out his website!
