With this second quintet opus, double bass player Gaëtan Casteels affirms himself evermore as a determined leader, full of well defined ideas and energy. Surrounded by a strong team, free to do as they please, Casteels offers a jazz as energetic as it is inventive.
Very much like the greats – Mingus, Haden or Holland among others – Gaëtan Casteels likes to push his band members to their limits, to test their ideas to the very core. Turns out, they like it too and know their leader won’t let them down. With this quintet’s second round, the double bass player fills his jazz with texture, struggle and energy. The wind instruments are called in all aspects of the game. No rest for the wicked! And so they play ablaze, invent exchanges that they probably did not suspect themselves capable of. The audience is all in, and, instead of getting trapped, they become the sixth member of the band. And their sense of urgency and freedom multiplies itself. An Ozaín concert and its original configuration can only be thrilling. Get ready, you’ll feel like coming back to life.
New album : ‘Playground’ (Mogno Music, to be released on 07.02.2025)