Making it to New York City by way of The Netherlands, bassist/composer/arranger Joris Teepe is a student of old school jazz and a purveyor of modern chamber-inspired jaunts. His 17-piece ensemble Big Band delivers a classic jazz palette with orchestral overtones and bouncy ballroom swing on their latest CD, We Take No Prisoners from Challenge Records. Displaying intricately raveled harmonies fringed with eclectic flails and brisk panting in their rhythmic strokes, Teepe’s Big Band packs quite a delectable choice of jazz cuisine in their picnic basket.

The nimble thrusts of the horns powering the engines of “Flight 643” keep the track moving swiftly while clearing space for the strips of dazzling, crinkle-cut furls in the piano keys. The keys turn to toe tapping slides in the title track and rhinestoned in a glaze of flashy horns and rumpled sprawls, which simmer down to a warm eclectic lather in “Peace On Earth” as puffy fumes spill out of the tooting horns. The soaring swirls of “Almost Lucky” are hub-capped in wavy horns which flare up through the “It Is Peculiar” adorned with rows of massive splashing before ending the party with the glassy ripples of “The Princess And The Monster” as horns linger over the grooves and stretch out their flutters producing an appealing ballroom waltz.

Teepe is adept at racking up contrasting characteristics in his tracks moving from bustling romps to a languid coasting, or going from eclectic dressings to classic jazz sweeps. He is a student, a missionary, and an advocate of chamber-jazz, and feels confident entrusting his music to the whims of his imagination, which succeed at setting Big Band’s tracks ablaze. He is a strategist who knows how to line up his melodic layers to produce optimal impact, and he continually does so through We Take No Prisoners.