May 2000

Eric Vloeimans
Bitches and Fairy Tales
Challenge Records

By Chuck Berg

Dutch trumpeter Eric Vloeimans is a warm-toned modernist whose inside-outside trajectories unfurl with brassy abandon. Recorded in New York with the superb backing of pianist John Taylor, bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron, Vloeimans' program of striking originals shuttles freely across a broad spectrum of moods, sometimes, as in the case of "Midnight Child," within the compass of a single track.