Did someone say ‘walking bass’?
Arguably synonymous with the epitome of Dutch bebop bass, Marius Beets (Rein de Graaff, Houdini’s, Eric Ineke) is famed for his rock solid sound. At Amersfoort World Jazz Festival this year, he presents a lesser known, but equally fascinating talent as composer, arranger and theorist with Slonimsky Meets the Blues.
Commissioned by the Dutch Performing Arts Fund (FPK), his six-piece suite is based on the Russian-American composer, conductor, pianist and musicologist Nicolaus Slonimsky (1894-1995), who was an important trailblazer and source of inspiration to John Coltrane.

Dividing an octave into equal parts, as Slonimsky does in his Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, was Beets’ starting point for both melodic and harmonious elements. Combining these ideas with the blues, “the root of all Western, non-classical music” in Beets’ opinion, is what makes this suite unique.
The bassist aims to blend the rhythms and colors of the blues with intellectual principles of composition, creating an organic and accessible suite, with Beets at its front and center on double- and acoustic bass.
On piano, he will be accompanied by Sebastiaan van Bavel, and on (bass)clarinet and tenor, Beets welcomes Sjoerd Dijkhuizen.