Bassist Teun Creemers is one of the most important bass guitarists of the new generation in the Netherlands. In addition to his work with the well known festival band De Raad van Toezicht, West African music is his great specialty. He has collaborated with many greats of the style and his new project Naamu is entirely dedicated to the mix of West African sounds and contemporary jazz. The recording has generated exceptionally positive reviews with JazzNU writing about Creemers and the project: “His phrasing is tightly measured, polyrhythmic, punctuated and is often woven through the total product like a melody. The overall sound on Naamu is orchestral, but in the middle of it Teun Creemers’ bass guitar forms a crater in which lava blasts out of the speakers with waves.” De Bassist writes: “Music that sounds like Salif Keïta’s best records, with bass playing that uniquely takes the lines normally played on the Moroccan guembri or the Malian bass-n’goni. Frighteningly virtuosic and rhythmically complex, but oh so beautiful.” Trouw: “It is often the case that band leaders put their own instrument prominently in the mix. Something that can be annoying, but the fact that Teun Creemers’ bass is quite loud here is genius. It’s impossible to sit still because Creemers and the many fantastic musicians who accompany him have an immediate swing. The African rhythms in combination with wonderful sax and clarinet solos by three furiously playing jazz wind players are simply not to be missed. The fact that Creemers also writes strong pieces makes Naamu an irresistible record.”
The cherry on the cake for this concert at Dutch Double Bass Festival is the presence of balofon phenomenon Mamadou Diabate as special guest.
