Jesse van Ruller is being praised for his bright, fluent guitar playing, even by famous colleagues such as Pat Metheny, Jim Hall and John Scofield. He recorded his album Circles and Views with Canadian tenor and soprano saxophonist Seamus Blake, known from John Scofield’s Quiet Band. Both have received the prestigious Thelonious Monk in the past: Jesse as guitarist and Seamus as saxophonist. Now they will perform new works alongside compositions from Circles and Views.

Seamus Blake played on no less than six albums of the Mingus Big Band, which all have been nominated for Grammy Awards. He was a member of drummer Antonio Sánchez’s Migration Band. In recent years, Jesse van Ruller has played with Benjamin Herman and with the trio Chambertones featuring Joris Roelofs and Clemens van der Feen. The quartet is completed by Swedish double bassist Daniel Franck and the young Latvian drummer Ivars Arutyunyan.

‘Seamus Blake is a contemporary jazz artist firmly rooted in the mainstream, but he likes conversations with people who aren’t’ (The Guardian).

‘Alluding to funk, soul, as well as a number of modern jazz styles, guitarist Jesse van Ruller’s quartet functions in a space of its own making that is outside of any familiar category. Despite the presence of the leader’s electric guitar, the band maintains an essentially traditional acoustic jazz sound. Van Ruller and tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake are virtuosos who never try to show off or stand out’ (All About Jazz).

Seamus Blake tenorsax, Jesse van Ruller gitaar, Daniel Franck bas, Ivars Arutyunyan drums