Criss Cross Records

Criss Cross Records is one of those jazz labels where the personality becomes clear very quickly once I start listening across several decades. The name used on the releases is Criss Cross Jazz, and although the company is based in Enschede in the eastern Netherlands, much of its musical identity was built around New York jazz. Founder Gerry Teekens started the label in 1981 after years of bringing American musicians to Europe and organising tours around his work as a college professor. He was also a drummer, and I think that background matters because rhythm, swing and strong ensemble playing became central to the catalogue. What interests me most is that this was never simply a Dutch record label documenting local jazz. Teekens used his position in Europe to create a remarkably direct connection with American musicians, first recording established players who were touring there and later travelling regularly to New York to record younger generations.

The first Criss Cross sessions grew naturally out of Teekens’ relationship with guitarist Jimmy Raney, whom he had already brought to Europe several times during the 1970s. Other early recordings involved musicians such as Warne Marsh, Chet Baker, Johnny Coles, Clifford Jordan and Slide Hampton. During the 1980s the emphasis increasingly shifted toward musicians active on the New York scene, and that decision gave Criss Cross Records the character that I associate with it today. The label became particularly good at catching musicians relatively early, sometimes before their wider reputations were established. Benny Green, Mark Turner, Peter Bernstein, Chris Potter, Bill Charlap, Brian Lynch, Orrin Evans and Eric Alexander are among the musicians whose debut releases appeared in the Criss Cross catalogue. For me, that ability to recognise players before everyone else did is one of the strongest arguments for exploring the label chronologically rather than simply searching for familiar names.

A New York sound with Dutch roots

Benny Green’s *Prelude*, recorded in February 1988 at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, is a good example of the quality Teekens was already assembling. Green leads a quintet with Terence Blanchard, Javon Jackson, Peter Washington and Tony Reedus, mixing compositions of his own with music by Duke Ellington, McCoy Tyner and John Coltrane. I hear plenty of tradition here, but not the feeling of musicians carefully recreating an earlier period. The rhythm section moves with real purpose, Green’s piano has weight without becoming heavy, and the horns remain clearly separated when the ensemble becomes busier. Rudy Van Gelder engineered the session, which gives this particular recording another interesting connection to the history of American jazz recording. It also shows something that became typical of Criss Cross: put serious musicians in a strong small-group setting and give them enough room to play.

Peter Bernstein’s *Signs Of Life* from 1994 pushes that idea into another generation. Bernstein is joined by Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride and Gregory Hutchinson, which looks extraordinary with hindsight, but the pleasure for me is hearing these musicians before their later careers had fully unfolded. The recording was made in New York City with engineer Max Bolleman, who became closely associated with the Criss Cross sound. Bernstein’s guitar sits naturally in the group rather than dominating it, Mehldau has plenty of space around the piano, and McBride and Hutchinson give the music both definition and movement. On good speakers or headphones I particularly enjoy the way the instruments remain individually easy to follow without the performance being pulled apart into artificial audiophile pieces. There is stereo information and detail, certainly, but the musical conversation stays more important than the production.

Mark Turner and Seamus Blake illustrate another side of the label especially well. Turner appeared on twelve Criss Cross albums, including his own *Yam Yam*, while Blake appears on more than thirty recordings in the catalogue. Their paths cross on Blake’s *Four Track Mind*, recorded in New York in December 1994 with Tim Hagans, Kevin Hays, Larry Grenadier and Billy Drummond. This is exactly the sort of session that makes me understand Teekens’ reputation for spotting combinations of musicians rather than merely collecting individual stars. The tenor saxophones have different characters, but the recording gives both enough tonal information for those differences to remain obvious. Cymbals have attack without becoming thin, bass notes retain body, and when the horns become more forceful the sound does not collapse into one dense centre image. For an audiophile listener, that combination of energy and separation is much more useful than exaggerated spaciousness.

Swing first, polish second

Eric Alexander and David Hazeltine became especially important to the Criss Cross identity. Alexander’s *New York Calling*, recorded in 1992, already places his tenor saxophone alongside John Swana, Richard Wyands, Peter Washington and Kenny Washington in a setting that is firmly connected to hard bop but never feels like museum jazz. Hazeltine subsequently appeared throughout the catalogue as both leader and sideman, and the two musicians became part of the cooperative sextet One For All with Jim Rotondi, Steve Davis, Peter Washington and Joe Farnsworth. Their recordings make clear why Criss Cross developed such a recognisable profile. There is plenty of blues language, strong melodies and straight-ahead swing, but the playing is too accomplished and too individual to reduce it to nostalgia.

One For All’s *Wide Horizons*, recorded in Brooklyn in December 2002, is a particularly useful introduction. The three-horn frontline of Alexander, Rotondi and Davis creates much of the colour, while Hazeltine, Washington and Farnsworth keep the music moving underneath them. Originals sit beside Wayne Shorter’s *Infant Eyes* and Jackie McLean’s *A Calling*, placing the group’s own writing directly inside the modern-jazz tradition it came from. What I like through a revealing DAC and a transparent amplifier is how easily I can move my attention from the front line to the rhythm section. Farnsworth’s drums have snap and presence, the bass provides a firm centre, and Hazeltine’s piano remains harmonically clear even when the horns are active. These are not recordings that ask me to admire silence between notes or a spectacularly oversized soundstage. They succeed because the musicians sound connected.

That consistency can also be the catalogue’s limitation, depending on what I am looking for. Anyone wanting radical changes of genre every few albums may find stretches of Criss Cross remarkably focused on acoustic small-group jazz, strong rhythm sections and musicians who understand the language of bop and post-bop extremely well. I do not hear that as a lack of imagination, because players such as Mark Turner, Orrin Evans, Chris Potter and later generations clearly expanded the harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary. Still, the label usually values musical coherence above studio experimentation. For me that makes it especially dependable as reference music for judging timing, instrumental tone, midrange transparency and the relationship between individual players. It also means I can listen for pleasure without feeling that every record was produced primarily to demonstrate high-end audio equipment.

After Gerry Teekens died in 2019, his son Jerry Teekens Jr. eventually reestablished the label, which gives the story an important continuation rather than a simple ending. David Hazeltine’s *Blues For Gerry*, recorded in December 2022 with Peter Washington and Joe Farnsworth, makes that continuity almost tangible. Hazeltine had worked extensively with Gerry Teekens, and the album reconnects musicians who had already become part of the label’s history. More surprisingly, the 2023 recording *Solid Jackson* reunited Mark Turner, Peter Bernstein, Brad Mehldau and Larry Grenadier, with Bill Stewart on drums, decades after these musicians had appeared in the Criss Cross world as much younger players. Hearing musicians who were once part of the label’s future become established masters gives the catalogue an unusual sense of perspective.

For somebody discovering Criss Cross Records today, I would begin somewhere in the 1990s with *Signs Of Life*, *Four Track Mind* or one of Eric Alexander’s early sessions, then move forward to One For All and David Hazeltine before exploring the newer recordings. That route quickly reveals what Gerry Teekens was building from Enschede: a Dutch label with an exceptionally close ear on New York, a preference for musicians who could really swing, and enough trust in those musicians to let their individual identities remain intact. The recording quality matters to me because good stereo imaging, believable instrumental size, clean dynamics and natural midrange make these sessions easy to assess on serious speakers or headphones. But the engineering never becomes the main reason I listen. What defines Criss Cross Records for me is the combination of intelligent artist choices, strong rhythm sections, direct recording and modern jazz that respects its roots without being trapped by them, and I think that makes its large catalogue well worth the time it takes to explore.

HiFi’ve, Ronald – Your EarFluencer