From the start of www.jazzandsoul.eu , we’ve had quite some great discoveries and revelations in European urban music. A new band in this expanding list is The Big Four, a quintet consisting of Belgian and Dutch musicians who have just released their debut album, The Congregation Sessions. The Big Four stand for fresh ideas and a mixture of diiferent ‘roots’ music styles … a quality that makes the album intrigueing and ingenious. Fourteen tracks of pure skill form The Congregation Sessions in a well balanced jumble of own work and covers. A special mention by the way for the fantastic make overs of Less McCann’s Compared to What and Henry Mancini’s, Pink Panther Theme, both sculpted into, still very recognizable tracks, but with a compelling contemporary injection. The Big Four’s own babies vary from sexy, rainy day jazz in the instrumentals Honey Tongued and A Big Chunk, to greasy intelligent blues in Early in the Morning or ‘straight ass’ rock in Sweet Lover. Describing the tracks however as ‘one styled’ would be completely wrong. Listening to The Congregation Sessions, snippets of New Orleans, bebop, rock ’n roll, latin, … pop up frequently. As mentioned before, this is one of the elements that makes this album so gratifying. Add a sauce of originality and the pluck to experiment (like the 6/8 time in Carlos Rilla Chihuahua) and you have a winner. A huge advantage for The Big Four, I think is the wide range of coverage. They would easily fit in on any Jazz event, Blues Festival, etc. If these guys manage to handle their business in a professional and reasonable matter, The Big Four will be a band that will gain visibility and tons of fans in a very short time. Fantastic work.

A Teach review

The Big Four Linxxx

> The Big Four Official Website
> The Big Four on Myspace