It was a Sunday night in November when I took a trip with Donny McCaslin. David Bowie’s saxophone player on Blackstar: the last album of the Thin White Duke that was both a comeback and a requiem. 

It was on a Friday evening and I saw my plans - to let the week softly crash with Netflix on the couch - in a pleasant way crossed by fellow JAS-member Jurgen van Loenhout who invited me to attend a performance of Thomas de Pourquery & band. 

​No electronic devices will win a music battle from musicians of flesh and blood who take their music to the max. So much is clear after the concert from The Bad Plus in which the band played music from Ornette Coleman’s album Science Fiction. For this occasion the band was extended with a three-piece brass section and a laptop that double bass player Reid Anderson used to release some soundscapes and beats. Good for us that happened only occasionally because it wasn’t much more than “playing around” in the two fabulous sets the sextet played in the Bimhuis.