MUSIC | Amsterdam Jazz Connection gig tomorrow

Amsterdam Jazz Connection, a Dutch project founded by Joost Swart, Sebastiaan Kaptein, and Jeroen Vierdag, are performing in Macau’s Casa Garden tomorrow. Invited by the Macau Jazz Club, they will be presenting their new album “Travelling East”.
The trio has worked together in the Netherlands on different projects, performing in renowned venues such as the Bimhuis, a concert hall for jazz and improvised music located in Amsterdam. They have also performed in several festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival.
According to the group’s Facebook page, after “a successful tour in Japan in 2010,” the trio recorded their first album “Live in Jazz Café Alto,” with guest Benjamin Herman on alto sax. The album was released by Tokyo based record label ’55 Records’ in 2011. Another tour of Japan took place the same year with Amsterdam Jazz Connection, featuring Benjamin Herman. They performed at the Tokyo Jazz Festival and other locations across Japan.
Their second album was recorded in March this year with trumpet player Rik Mol. He is an award-
winning trumpeter and composer, whose journey as a jazz musician began when he was eight years old, “on the very day he found a trumpet in an old blue suitcase,” his profile on the Conservatory of Amsterdam website says.
“Travelling East” is about this collaboration between Amsterdam Jazz Connection and Rik Mol, who have joined forces to use production methods from the 1950s, like resorting to old microphones and metal-plate echoes.
Joost Swart (piano) said in a statement that this album was intended to “mirror the way they did ‘old school jazz records’… right down to the very last detail.”
Rik Mol said “Travelling East is an entirely distinctive project for us, an excellent chance to explore the area of straight-ahead jazz, and bring it to a new audience.”
Amsterdam Jazz Connection is a Dutch project founded in 2010, by Joost Swart, a young pianist; Sebastiaan Kaptein, who now lives and performs as a freelance drummer based in Tokyo; and Jeroen Vierdag, who plays the bass and currently teaches at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Conservatory of Rotterdam.
The concert will take place tomorrow at 9:30 p.m. at Casa Garden.