For many JazzWax readers, this blog is a resource that happily turns them on to jazz musicians and recordings they didn't know previously. But every so often, that wow sensation happens to me. My own discovery happened a few weeks ago while posting about singer Joy Marshall (here and here). In the latter post, I featured a video of pianist Rob Madna playing solo on Yesterdays and then Marshall joining with the orchestra on It's Alright With Me. Madna was completely new to me and a big suprise, and I wasn't alone. I must have heard from a couple dozen readers who had never heard his name or his piano but wanted to know and hear more. Among them was saxophonist Bill Kirchner, who, believe me, knows a ton of jazz. [Photo above of Rob Madna]
Madna was born in the Hague, the Netherlands, in 1931. Like Dutch trumpeter Rob Pronk, Madna was of Indonesian heritage. What's astonishing is that Madna was self-taught. A busy high-school math teacher dedicated to his students and academic position, Madna rarely toured outside of the Netherlands. As a growing number of American musicians turned up abroad in the 1950s and '60s with the proliferation of European jazz festivals, Madna turned down offers from Thad Jones, Freddie Hubbard and Lucky Thompson, among others to play behind them at concerts and on recording sessions. If the gig wasn't in Holland, Madna was often a pass. After his retirement, he taught at the jazz department of a music conservatory. [Photo above of Rob Madna]
Growing up, Madna was a musical child who instantly picked up whatever was on the family turntable and radio, from Teddy Wilson to Duke Ellington. Struck by the jazz bug early, Madna and his friends—the brothers Ack and Jerry van Rooijen—absorbed as much live jazz as possible. Both van Rooijen brothers would become famed Dutch jazz musicians. Once Madna began to play professionally in the early 1950s, he was deeply revered by fellow musicians in Holland, who listened to him in awe.
Madna's first recordings in January 1955 were two tracks for Jazz From Holland, a 10-inch Columbia compilation of Dutch jazz artists. Ten days later, he began recording songs that appeared on several albums between '55 and '56, in a trio, quintet and 11-piece ensemble. They were used on the Dutch Philips Jazz Behind the Dikes series. He then recorded often as a sideman in multiple groups, including the Rhythme All Stars and The Millers.
By the early 1960s, Madna was recording with American expatriates such as Don Byas and Dexter Gordon (In the Cave). In the 1970s, Madna recorded more frequently but disappeared on disc during most of the 1980s, returning in the 1990s with several important trio albums and a spectacular orchestral album for which he wrote the arrangements—Dutch Jazz Orchestra Plays the Music of Rob Madna, with Madna on trumpet, flugelhorn, piano and synthesizer. In 2000, he recorded his last two albums, Live at Cafe Hopper and En Blanc Et Noir #6.
What made Madna spectacular were his ears. An enormous natural talent, he began as a bebop player akin to Bud Powell, but over time his attack evolved through a range of styles. This was unusual for even the best players and is an indication of his sharp ear and how he acclimated to jazz's shifts. Madna was also a sterling arranger, as evidenced on the Dutch Jazz Orchestra box set. They were lovely, airy and sophisticated charts along the lines of Thad Jones and Gerald Wilson. But without any formal education in scoring, another astonishing fact.
As Dutch educator Walter van de Leur wrote to Bill Kirchner earlier in the week...
Dear Bill, Madna is one of the well-kept secrets of European jazz, a phenomenal player with phenomenal time. Tremendously admired by his colleagues and students, he always kept a low profile. Madna met Thad Jones when Thad recorded in Hilversum with the Metropole Orchestra in the late-1960s or early-1970s.
Madna's ears were awakened and carried him into fabulous orchestral writing. Rob Madna died in 2003.
As always, the best way to appreciate an unfamiliar artist is to hear him or her in action:
Here's the full Rob Madna Trio album from 1955-'56...
Here's the full Rita Reys with the Wessel Ilcken Combo, recorded in January 1955 with Ack Van Rooyen (tp), Herman Schoonderwalt (bs), Rob Madna (p), Dick Bezemer (b), Wessel Ilcken (d) and Rita Reys (vcl)...
Here's Thad Jones's Quietude, the first track from the The Rob Madna Trio Featuring Ferdinand Povel. (1976), The rest of the album's tracks are at YouTube...
Here's the complete I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good Album from July 1976...
Here's Lush Life from Rob Madna, Solo Piano: Jazz at the Pinehill (2000). The rest of the album's tracks are at YouTube...
Here's Midsummer '84, the first track from Dutch Jazz Orchestra Plays the Music of Rob Madna in October 1994. The rest of the box's tracks are up at YouTube...
Here's the Rod Madna Trio playing Wayne Shorter's Footprints from En Blanc Et Noir #6 in October 2000...
Bonus: Here's the Dutch Jazz Orchestra playing Rob Madna's composition and arrangement of Daydream, in 2008, featuring Simon Rigter on the tenor saxophone solo. A special thanks to Bill Kirchner for sending along the link...
And here's Madna's A Song for BE, written in tribute to Bill Evans...