In essence, music is the act of applying form to the formless. Guided by spirit and emotion, music seeks to articulate the intangible things that we can’t touch, but can most certainly feel. These are the essentials and with these compositions, producer/multi-instrumentalist, Reinier Thijs a.k.a. Thysenterprise applies jazz virtuosity to a hip-hop sensibility to thrilling effect, but more importantly, the music here acts as a conduit for something deeper.

A singular work born out of collective effort, ‘ESSENTIAL’ combines all of the deep interplay and communication required of improvising music with the formal and textural experimentation of hip-hop and electronic production. The spirit of important jazz giants such as Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Coltrane permeate the music here. At times throughout the album, Reinier, his guests and ensemble meld the influence of the great jazz cannon with the rhythms of hip-hop.

While the improvisational heights that Reinier and crew reach throughout the album owe a debt to hardbop and the avant-garde, there are beats and textures here akin to the work of Karriem Riggins or A Tribe Called Quest. The result is a truly contemporary sound that plays freely within the depths of human feeling.

What are the essential things that music requires? Not the mechanical specifics by which music is defined: melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, etc. What is music really and what does a musician have to do to get to that core? Above all else, music is an expression of the inexpressible that requires that we pour our everything into it. We play for pleasure, we play to understand ourselves and the world around us, we play to celebrate and remember our loved ones. Of course, the performance and execution require years of study, practice, contemplation and analysis, but memory, feeling, spirit must also be present. Full of joy, sorrow, and perseverance, ‘ESSENTIAL’ shows us the value of music as a ritual for the veneration of life.

—John Morrison