One of the earliest jazz uses of the Fender Rhodes electric piano was in 1968, when Herbie Hancock played it on Miles Davis's Miles in the Sky. He may have come to the instrument through the Columbia record label. CBS bought the Fender Rhodes company in 1965 and began manufacturing a full-size keyboard. By the early 1970s, the Rhodes was ubiquitous, especially among pioneering fusion players such as Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, George Duke and Joe Sample. Even acoustic players like Bill Evans, Bob James, Harold Mabern and Les McCann recorded on the bell-toned instrument.
Abroad, one of the masters of the Fender Rhodes in the early 1970s was composer-arranger Frans Elsen of the Netherlands. Influenced by Herbie Hancock's use of the keyboard on his sextet album Mwandishi (1971), Elsen set to work on The Norwegian Cycle, a suite inspired by his July 1970 trip to Norway. The songs in the cycle were named after towns Elsen had visited: Harpefoss, Ringebu, Skabu and Otta. The music was melodic and funky, and recorded and performed by Elsen's septet in 1972 and '73 before the concept and band were folded. [Photo above of Frans Elsen, courtesy of the Netherlands Jazz Archive]
All of this music can now be heard on a new Netherlands Jazz Archive import release entitled Septet Frans Elsen: Norway, Featuring Piet Noordijk. The previously unreleased material was recorded in four different settings. The septet featured Elsen on Fender Rhodes, Piet Noordijk on alto saxophone, Eddie Engels on trumpet and flugelhorn, Wim Overgaauw on guitar, Rob Langereis on bass guitar, Eric Ineke on drums and Wim van der Beek on percussion.
The first session was held at NCRV Studio in Hilversum in May 1972. The second session was recorded during a radio concert in Hilversum in June 1973. Ferdinand Povel joined the group on tenor saxophone and flute along with Victor Kaihatu on bass guitar, while Overgaauw and Langereis were out. Next on the release are two live tracks, one recorded at a jazz festival in Loosdrecht in August 1972, with Langereis out and Kaihatu on bass in. The other was recorded at Theater Pepijn, in The Hague in April 1972, with Overgaauw and Langereis out and Kaihatu in. [Photo above of saxophonist Piet Noordijk and Frans Elsen in the rear]
This album as a concept listen is fusion moody, rhythmic and wonderfully lyrical. It's really meant to be consumed from start to finish, as an adventure with Elsen's Fender Rhodes as tour guide. His playing is deeply rooted in the American jazz-funk expression on the instrument, letting the electric notes ring and creating expansive textures with chords. Discovering albums like this one once again reminds me how much great jazz there is out there in countries all over the world. One almost wishes for multiple lifetimes just to consume it all. Hats off to the Netherlands Jazz Archives for releasing this music.
Frans Elsen died in 2011.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Septet Frans Elsen: Norway, Featuring Piet Noordijk (NJA) here (CD) and here (vinyl).
JazzWax clips: Here's Frank Jochemsen of the Netherlands Jazz Archive in a mini-doc talking about the music. Activate English subtitles by clicking on the "CC" icon along the bottom of the YouTube screen...
And here's Ringebu from the album...
Bonus: Here's Elsen on piano playing The Best Thing for You backed by the Metropole Orchestra playing his arrangement of the song in 1993...
Wait, there's more. The Netherlands Jazz Archive found Elsen's original arrangements and has started a new group in cooperation with the septet's original drummer, Eric Ineke. The project is "Norway Revisited," and the label recorded the Norwegian suite with Eric Ineke & the Frans Elsen Factor in January at a small church in Holland. Go here...
This project will be featured at the North Sea Jazz Festival this summer, and at several other jazz festivals. To learn more, go here.
And lastly, here's the original Frans Elsen Septet in 1972...
