« Mapping Roots… I dreamt then wrote, following my imagination, as if on a journey that blended all the wonderful music I had heard together, paying tribute to all the people who in one way or another make the world a brighter place. They are an endless source of inspiration to me and I feel immense gratitude towards them. » Michel Vrydag
« Play me a song that tells me about the place you come from » is the starting point of the compositions of the Belgian jazz trio « Mapping Roots». « Mapping Roots» presents lively, organic, luminous music, open to the world, nourished by improvisation and at the borders of many styles: a jazz universe with rhythms inspired by traditional music from several continents.
After concerts in Belgium and abroad, « First Daylight », the first album is released on January 28, 2022 by Unit Records. This double album contains 14 compositions of the bass player-leader of the band, Michel Vrydag. Alongside inventive and experienced musicians, Bram Weijters (piano) and Daniel Jonkers (drums), the trio delivers surprising and bright music. The epic and cinematic themes of the compostions open doorways to vivid improvisation: interaction, groove, rhythmic feel, abandon and harmonic colors paying lip-service to the collective purpose of narration.
Allow yourself to be surprised by the pulse of the story that this trio tells you with great complicity!
Mapping Roots Line up :
Michel Vrydag : Bass and Compositions
Bram Weijters : Piano
Daniel Jonkers : Drums
10 Belgian jazz records not to be missed in 2022 – Bx1 100%Jazz – Fabrice Grosfilley [Two musicians have thrilled us in contemporary and very different registers: the virtuoso bassist Michel Vrydag with a very successful double album « Mapping Roots », the best tracks of which are reminiscent of the trio EST…] «Deux musiciens nous ont fait vibrer dans des registres contemporains et très différents : le véloce bassiste Michel Vrydag avec un double album très réussi « Mapping Roots » dont les meilleures plages rappellent le trio EST… »
23 best Jazz Releases 2022 – Journalists picks Jazzfuel – Robin Arends Jazz Halo «The Brussels bass guitarist Michel Vrydag made a great effort to put down a hell of an album with his project, the trio Mapping Roots. It has become a double CD that does not bore you for a minute.» « De Brusselse basgitarist Michel Vrydag heeft zich in 2021 flink ingespannen om met zijn project, trio Mapping Roots, een dijk van een album neer te zetten. Het is een dubbel-cd geworden waarvan geen minuut verveelt. »
✭✭✭✭ concerto.at. – meissl […There is a very refreshing piano trio in Belgium. Although it should be called a bass trio…Straightforward, transparent, precise and expressive.] « Ein sehr erfrischendes Klaviertrio gib es da in Belgien. Wenngleich es Basstrio heiben müsste…Schnörkellos, transparent, präzise und ausdrucksstark. »
✭✭✭ Le soir – Jean-Claude Vantroyen […all the vitality of a very colorful, very powerful, very energetic trio… Roots of swing, world, jazz : Michel Vrydag has digested them and gives them back to us with a beautiful vigor and, on some pieces, a real tenderness.] « …toute la vitalité d’un trio très coloré, très puissant, très énergique… Racines swing, world, jazz : Michel Vrydag les a digérées et nous les rend avec une belle vigueur et, sur certains morceaux, une vraie tendresse. »
