Secret Exit to Another Dimension

The Belgian double bassist Piet Verbist, in bed with the guitarist Hendrik Braeckman and the drummer Lionel Beuvens, produce this great album, of very swinging jazz, very fair and very exciting. Ten pieces, due to Verbist, to Braeckman and Beuvens, plus a cover of Charlie Parker (Cheryl) and one from Thelonious Monk (Pannonica). It's the guitarist who leads the dance, around which the bassist winds passionately and on which the drummer sings inventively with his percussion. A guitar without effects, without electronics, bare and beautiful, which returns jazz guitar greats like Jim Hall (of which the track "Ji Ha" is dedicated) or Joe Pass. It sounds magnificently good, it takes us, carried by the strings of the bass, the skins and the cymbals, in the clouds where one can daydream & feel comfortable, even when the pace picks up. It's only in Secret Exit that Braeckman gets loose and plays with electricity and effect, and that is so much more successful that it is a bit of an exception, with a very beautiful double bass solo then an equally successful drum solo.

Translated from French