And yes, with Jeroen D'hoe, this time as the arranger. That was the assignment he received from the choir. He is a – admittedly disciplined – all-rounder: musicologist, composer, teaches jazz and pop at KU Leuven, composition at Luca School of Arts, is a pianist and this time is touring with quite a special concert series. A "Great American Songbook" concert. But from the "Next Generation Songbook", that of the sixties. Cole Porter, that was for a previous edition. But now with hits from the "golden sixties" and especially from the man who wrote the "easy listening" soundtrack of those years, Burt Bacharach. D'hoe arranged all those songs for the Flemish Radio Choir and for musicians of the Brussels Philharmonic. " That music is full of chromaticism and delightful jazzy and 'blue harmonies'. Jeroen is a master at bringing all those chords to life and stacking them together into a sparkling whole" says Joris Derder. Harmony, melody and melancholy in abundance. By now we are used to "classically" trained musicians stepping outside the boundaries of their normal domain, but this was quite a special excursion. And in that setting! The premiere took place in an intimate event hall in the heart of Brussels, La Madeleine. Cosily furnished for that special Valentine's evening: welcome drink at the entrance, and depending on your ticket you could reserve a place in the "groove zone", book a "swing table" for two or a table as a "Big Spender", including a tapas board and a glass of wine. Once installed at your table it was cosy and delicious waiting for the real start of your Valentine's evening, with an intro from pianist and bassist, as if you were in the lobby of a chic hotel.
And then eight singers descended stylishly and seductively down the stairs to the stage, dressed in pastel-coloured dresses, just like in the twenties musical films of director and choreographer Busby Berkeley. An equal number of men join them and soloists from the Brussels Philharmonic. Guest conductor Joris Derder is the maestro of the spectacle. First golden '60s song': "Fever".
The amorous audience likes to be charmed by the lyrics on such an evening: "… fever when you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight…."
Why do all those evergreens sound so cheerful and happy? " That was the music of post-war optimism, that was the spirit of the times then, pure feel good music " says Jeroen D'hoe. And then came another such hit, by singer-songwriter Carole King: A Natural Woman, unrivalled in 1967 sung to the top by Aretha Franklin. But almost half of the show was for songs by the sixties entertainment composer Burt Bacharach, including Close to You, best known in the version by The Carpenters, the film theme for Alfie, that unforgettable Raindrops keep falling on my head and of course that Dionne Warwick goodbye song Walk on By from 1963. Let's not forget I am Home , by D'hoe himself, written when he was sixteen, entirely in Burt Bacharach style.
Sometimes there were purely vocal arrangements, and when the choir had to sound like a big band it could effortlessly imitate a missing rhythm section. But D'hoe also arranged for the discovery of the evening, Dutch-Surinamese lead vocalist Ibernice Macbean, a tremendous presence and voice. In the arrangement of the originally French jazz standard Autumn Leaves (Les feulles mortes!) there was a slight hint of Piazolla in the violins, I thought. Almost perfect, those arrangements. All those blockbusters offered the arranger a playground of possibilities which he eagerly exhausted. In that whole, a Frank Sinatra certainly could not be missing, it became his nostalgic It was a very good year which earned him a Grammy in 1965. And towards the end a singalong of great stature (and an encore) from the Motown record label: Ain't no mountain high enough. At such moments you wished there was also a dance floor next to the seating. For a Valentine's evening you were unhesitatingly, but with class, delivered to and immersed in pure nostalgia.