Simon Rigter - Growing Up

"The music is a warm, mellow, familiar ballads given a distinctively new breath of life. It's passion with controlled emotion combining melancholy, tenderness, compassion and warmth. Just lovely"
– Positive Feedback

Simon Rigter – tenor saxophone
Vincent Koning – guitar (2, 6)
Karel Boehlee – piano (3, 4, 5)
Cas Jiskoot – double bass (3, 4)
Joost van Schaik – drums (3, 4)

Total time: 33:26

Original recording format: DXD 352 kHz.
This is partly a One Mic recording.
All other formats are offered at NativeDSD.

"I hope we left you with something to put under your pillow."
– Dexter Gordon

From the opening of "Things We Did Last Summer" to the closing "Chelsea Bridge" the sound of Simon Rigter's tenor saxophone on these carefully selected compositions awakens a wealth of feelings: melancholy, tenderness, compassion and warmth. It's passion with controlled emotion, a sound somewhere between a smile and a tear, a sound that touches your heart.
The amiable comping of Vincent Koning, Karel Boehlee’s superb interplay, and the compassionate rhythmic foundation from Cas Jiskoot and Joost van Schaik make the required arch form—solo–duo–quartet–duo–solo—feel like a spontaneous ballad suite.

"Since I was a child music has been fascinating to me. I'm on a never-ending quest searching for the essence. I have realized that you don't have to come up with something new all the time. What’s important is that you play spontaneously. I prefer playing in small clubs where I can seek freedom and take risks, where music can be spontaneous and intimate at the same time. Jazz is 'up close & personal' music. In that respect, Studio 2 is ideal for recording. The hall’s warm and intimate sound as well as its special historic vibe practically compels spontaneous creation."
– Simon Rigter

Frans always says: "The art of recording is a question of listening and the more you listen the better you get at it."
I was curious to see how all the completely phase-coherent listening Frans had been doing creating the masters of our critically acclaimed One Mic and One Mic+ series would affect his decisions when, following the rules of The Arch Manifesto, he would have to return to a multi-mic setup for the quartet pieces. I was not disappointed.
His great knowledge of mic placement and phase manipulation seemed to have grown even further. Frans has a second life as an engineer and sound-scape specialist for radio plays. He has received several awards for his work, the prestigious Prix Europe 2020 being the latest.
I believe that the Frans de Rond "Visual Sound" signature—great depth, clear placement, and an almost physical presence of the musicians—is a cross-pollination from his excellent work with radio plays.
– Peter Bjørnild

The Arch Manifesto

Each recording starts and ends with the main artist alone in the hall, the only interplay being the acoustics of the hall and his mind.
No audience is present except the ghosts from the past.
The music must create an Arch: from single-instrument performance to more complex band performance and back.
The same principle goes for the engineering: each recording starts out with only one Josephson C700S three-channel stereo microphone. As the music gains complexity, more microphones may be deployed—the only limit being the imagination and technical skills of the recording engineer.
The producer and engineer must aim to give the album a unifying sound, despite the different recording techniques employed.

The recording took place in the now legendary Studio 2, situated in the building of the Dutch Music Center of Broadcasters (MCO). The studio has remained in its original form since it was built in 1929. Together with Abbey Road, it is the oldest active recording studio in the world. It has hosted a wealth of prominent artists: Django Reinhardt (1937), Jazz at the Philharmonic with Lester Young, Oscar Peterson, Roy Eldridge, and Ella Fitzgerald (1953); in the 1960s Wes Montgomery and Clark Terry among others all recorded in the studio — and somehow their presence is felt.

Growing Up was recorded on February 14 and May 5 2021.
Recording, mixing and mastering: Frans de Rond
Recorded at MCO, Studio 2, Hilversum, The Netherlands (December 6 2020).
Produced by Peter Bjørnild and Simon Rigter.

Used Equipment

• Microphones
  • Simon solo: Josephson C700S
  • Simon & Vincent: Josephson C700S
  • Simon & Karel: 2 × Josephson C700S
  • Quartet:
  – Simon: Josephson C700S
  – Karel: Josephson C700S
  – Cas: Josephson C700A
  – Joost: Overheads 2 × Josephson C617; bass drum Josephson C715; snare Josephson E22
• Mic preamps: Merging Horus
• Cables: AudioQuest
• Speakers: TAD Compact Evolution One
• Power amp: Moon 760A
• Mixing headphones: Hifiman HE1000se / Sennheiser HD800S
• Photo of front cover: Ruud Breuls
• Photo of Simon: Ranjani Nirosha

Catalog Number: SL-1059A