Eric Vloeimans

V-Flow
Challenge Records

2010

Still on the shy side of fifty, but looking considerably younger—in no small part due to a distinctive image with colorful clothing and funky shoes—it might appear premature to be releasing a five-disc box set that takes a retrospective look at the career of Dutch trumpeter Eric Vloeimans. But as the trumpeter begins to gain international stature through touring with his two main projects—the quirky chamber jazz of Fugimundi, heard in Ottawa, Canada in March, 2010, and his electrified Gatecrash quartet, which performed a brief but exhilarating set at Dutch Jazz & World Meeting 2010—and when looking back at his own discography, which now numbers a lucky thirteen, it's clear that while Vloeimans has plenty left to say, there's a lot to catch up on for those who are relatively new to his work.

V-Flow is a limited distribution (but still readily available) box that compiles some of the trumpeter's best work as a leader, alongside significant sideman sessions. Even those who have his twelve Challenge releases, from 1994's First Floor through to 2009's Heavens Above! will likely find a few previously unheard gems on V-Flow, most significantly the more than half of his debut as a leader, No Realistics (Art in Jazz/Via, 1992), previously out of print and now remastered for a chock-full collection that's clocks in at just under six hours.

Since graduating from the Rotterdam Conservatorium with honors in the late 1980s, in addition to time spent at the prestigious New School in New York, Vloeimans has gradually but inexorably and inevitably become one of the best-known of Holland's next generation of jazz musicians, a small but potent collective that also includes guitarists