The founder in 1981 of the Netherlands-based Criss Cross records, Gerry Teekens, died at the age of 83 on the last day of October.
Teekens was well known for his trips to the US to record at Rudy Van Gelder’s in New Jersey and in Brooklyn. His work ethic was relentless and the label counted more than 400 titles in its catalogue. Criss Cross was firmly grounded in hard bop and styles derived from an essential bop or imaginatively swinging core and had a very pronounced and defined remit although Teekens was always willing to take on new cohorts of players to inject their own ideas shaped by his outlook on where the heart of jazz resides.
Read David R. Adler's piece on the WBGO site.
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