On 24 April, 2012, a sold-out Paradiso witnessed the premiere of a ground-breaking programme featuring classical, jazz and folk styles, and written vs. improvised music. Here is an impression. This concert called ‘Temperaments’ will soon be on offer for upcoming seasons, NL and UK. Details: get in touch.

DVD Tim Kliphuis and Friends – Live at Iford Manor

Iford Manor is a gorgeous, strawberries and cream kind of venue, a classically styled cloister and lush garden which is the perfect setting for Kliphuis’ band. The fiddle man naturally defaults to a sweet swinging Stephane Grappelli style, and kicks off with a high stepping ‘This Can’t Be Love’. However, he also has an impressive classical technique, and the heart of the DVD is a complete rendition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons while other well known classical compositions – notably a stomping ‘Fanfare For the Common Man’ and a poignant ‘Dido’s Lament’ – are also stand outs if jazzed up classics are your bag.
It’s down to Dave Newton (ah, the much under-rated Mr Newton) to salt affairs with his blues inflected keys and he rightly steals the show with a roistering ‘Stompin’ At The Savoy’. Splendidly shot with multiple cameras, this is a fine ad for Iford Manor, seducing us that all must be well with the world as the sun slips slowly below the horizon to the gentle chords of ‘Moonlight in Vermont’ – Andy Robson, Jazzwise May 2012

On 19 April, the Tim Kliphuis Trio and a string quintet from the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra will preview the 24 April Paradiso concert on ‘VIRUS’ with host Giel Beelen: 22:00 live in Rotterdamse Schouwburg, 00:00 broadcast on Radio 4.

Courtesy of the wonderful Music & Vision Daily, the following interview:

Tim Kliphuis at Iford Manor – reviewed by BILL NEWMAN
’
… very much music for relaxation …’

This came to me courtesy Derek Warby Management. Tim plays jazz fiddle in the style of Stephane Grappelli. His friends are Nigel Clark, guitar, Roy Percy, double bass and David Newton on a Kawai GM-10 grand piano, on loan from Mickleburgh Pianos of Bath. This is very much music for relaxation, a kind of casual seance of classical jazz for the lads and lasses,young and old, who wish to make an instant departure from the trammels of gory city life, go down into the country instead, and make hep!
In other words, a DVD full of good taste and intentions where Bach, Purcell, Vivaldi, Pachelbel, Paganini, Grieg, Vaughan Williams and Copland exchange gestures with Rodgers & Hart, Suessdorf, Grappelli and Goodman.
When it comes to the actual music making, I have to be careful, due to the fact that arranging music of such world wide universality cannot be adequately talked about in general terms. Those who know Grapelli’s Art — and I heard him several times on his London visits — will grasp the idiom immediately. But each group has its own individual sound palette. When Tim starts playing, the others — grasping the metre and harmonies automatically — join in with their sound dynamics allied to structures. The more you perform together, the more give and take. Musicians often admit that the more intricately subtle, the more spontaneous and architectural are the end results. These musicians know each other’s style intimately, and that makes it all a delightful sound experience.
Whatever the buildup, the original is instantly recognizable, and the DPA 4099 microphones, sponsored by Sound Network UK, London, bring it to you in all its purity.

Copyright © 7 March 2012 Bill Newman,
London UK

Tim Kliphuis & Friends: Live at Iford Manor (Iford DVD01)
The Strad, James Crel

A midsummer evening in the inner courtyard of a Wiltshire stately home:
perfectly suited to Tim Kliphuis’s finessed brand of chamber music in which Grappelli, folk and Baroque meet. The violinist’s previous recording with this string trio and pianist signposted his fluent swing playing and ability to marry a variety of genres through deft arrangements and an accomplished technique worn lightly. This 90-minute live DVD allows the group to stretch out a little more on each tune, and is a great way to watch good jazz violin articulation – a rarity – in action. There’s some brave matchmaking, including a nicely loose Solveig’s Song (Grieg) that morphs into Pachelbel’s Canon – a classical crossover cliché that is saved by bass player Roy Percy’s assured walking and Kliphuis’s strident folk cameo.
The DVD’s centrepiece – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – is a little hit-and-miss stylistically, with a Latin foray in Autumn compensated for by the taut energy of Winter. But as a whole the performance is carried off by a group in which all four players share a nimbleness of touch suited as much to finely crafted textures as to moments of calculated exuberance. And in this live encounter, this is topped by a sense of freshness captured by the cameras as much as the microphones.

Tim Kliphuis & Friends: Live at Iford Manor (Iford DVD01)
Alison Kerr, Scotland on Sunday, ****

Over the last six years, Dutch jazz and classical violinist Kliphuis has become a regular visitor to Scotland and has forged strong musical relationships with three of our top jazz musicians – Nigel Clark (guitar) and Roy Percy (bass), with whom he often works as a trio, and London-based David Newton (piano) with whom he works as a duo. They all play together in different line-ups on this DVD, recorded at a live, acoustic, concert during the summer – and it’s a perfect introduction to their unique blend of jazz, classical and folk music, including the singlemost perfect version of Moonlight in Vermont this side of Billie Holiday’s.

Always wanted a holiday with good music? Here is your chance. I’ve been asked to lead a long week’s outing which features gypsy jazz tuition, with my friend the renowned gypsy guitarist Paulus Schäfer. It is near Valence in a beautiful location, and has days off to visit wine cellars etc. Here is the link: http://www.muziekvakanties.nl/aanbod/view/id/11

Now confirmed: Tim returns to Django in June festival, 12-17 June. An extensive workshop week which features 2-3 workshops a day. Tim will teach and also perform in concert with Paulus Schäfer.

This year, Tim will be making an appearance at Djangofest Mill Valley, 9-10 June. He performs with the Rosenberg Trio and Paulus Schäfer, as well as hosting Grappelli workshops.

Now confirmed: Youth Classics Masterclasses at Hallenburg Castle in Hessen, Germany. Dates are 26-28 April.