Remembering Gerry Teekens - 1935-2019

© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Criss Cross releases have a certain standardized and simple look, each one accompanied by lengthy liner notes reflecting a fastidious house style. I wrote more than 30 of these, starting in 2002. Teekens would sometimes invite me to Systems Two — where I witnessed recording sessions by pianist David Kikoski and guitarists Adam Rogers, Lage Lund and Mike Moreno, among others — before commissioning me to write.

He wasn’t especially chatty between takes, and hard to read at times, but out of the blue he could start reminiscing about seeing Bud Powell live in Europe in the early ’60s. Inscrutable, he might cease contact for years, only to end the silence with a sudden voicemail, in that unmistakably gravelly high-pitched voice: “This is Gerry Teekens. I need some liner notes. I’m in a terrible hurry.”

In an email, Orrin Evans remembers Teekens as “an opinionated dude with strong views on what was ‘swinging’ or not.” Evans adds: “Most times we fought about my sidemen and the material I chose for my record dates — but he helped me pay my rent with those dates at least once a year, and by watching him run a label I learned what to do and what not to do when I started my label.””

David Adler WBGO Live Stream Jazz November 6, 2019

“When Bruce Lundvall asked me to join him in reviving the Blue Note label in 1984, we had, as part of a major label, many considerations and expectations to deal with from reissues to crossover artists. During those early years, I kept thinking that if we were to function in the spirit of the original label, we’d be doing just what Gerry Teekens was doing with Criss Cross at the time. David Adler’s well-researched obit captures Gerry and his accomplishments perfectly.”

-Michael Cuscuna, Mosaic Records

This posting is a tribute to the memory of Gerry Teekens, a man who, like me played drums, but, a man who, unlike me, lived his dream to become an independent producer of Jazz recordings.

And what a producer - 400+ recordings over a 40 year period from 1981 until his passing in 2019!

That may not seem like a big number but considering that this output emphasized straight ahead, swinging Jazz during a period of time when this approach to the music had a very small following, this yield was prolific in the extreme.

To add to the significance of Gerry’s accomplishment, he funded these recordings himself and most of them featured young artists not widely known among fans of this style of Jazz.

In this regard, Gerry was continuing the tradition of independent Jazz producers that dates back to Milt Gabler of Commodore Records, Norman Granz and the various labels that combined to create Verve Records, Ross Russell at Dial Records, Bob Weinstock at Prestige, Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff at Blue Note, Orrin Keepnews ar Riverside and Jazzland [later Milestone and Landmark], Richard Bock at Pacific Jazz, Lester Koenig at Contemporary and the Weiss Brothers at Fantasy Records.

Here’s more background about Gerry and his achievements on behalf of the music and its makers as drawn from the Jazz literature.

The following appeared in the November 7 edition of the JazzTimes.

Gerry Teekens, Head of Criss Cross Jazz, Dies at 83

For almost 40 years, the Dutch producer and label owner made it his business to put out music with “some fire and some blood”

“Gerry Teekens, a record producer and label owner who was passionate in his embrace and promotion of straight-ahead jazz artists (especially in the United States), died on October 31 in Enschede, the Netherlands. He was 83.

His death was confirmed by his son, Gerry Teekens Jr., and by Criss Cross Jazz, the record label Teekens founded in 1981 and operated until his passing. Cause of death has not been disclosed.

Teekens’ passing unleashed a torrent of reactions from jazz musicians and fans on social media. “It’s hard for me to overstate the impact that [Teekens] and his label #crisscrossjazz have had on my life,” wrote violinist Zach Brock on Instagram.

“Criss Cross Records was THE label for me growing up,” said bassist Paul Sanwald on Twitter. “I’d buy as many new releases as I could afford and I knew they’d all be great.”

Himself a veteran drummer, Teekens was also a tour producer and promoter in the Netherlands. He founded Criss Cross Jazz as a means to record one of his clients at the conclusion of a European tour. Over the course of nearly four decades, he would oversee a prolific and beloved recorded legacy of over 400 albums—nearly all by American artists, whom Teekens would seek out and record on his biannual trips to New York.

His output was almost entirely “inside” mainstream jazz, though in his last years he made space at Criss Cross Jazz for some denser, more experimental releases. “There are never any restrictions on my dates; I just let the musicians play their music,” Teekens told jazz journalist David R. Adler in 2003. “As long as the music has some fire and some blood, I’m happy.”

Geert Teekens was born in The Hague on December 5, 1935. He became a fan of jazz at about the age of 12, when the music was reaching a zenith of popularity among Dutch music lovers. “Even the girls in the street knew Kenton and Konitz,” he recalled in a 2005 interview.

Teekens became a professional drummer in the 1960s, playing jazz throughout Europe for much of the decade. He was also fluent in German, and when he left the road he was offered a position as a college professor in that language, a job he retained for 25 years. However, he never lost his affection for jazz, and in the late 1970s he began booking Dutch and larger European tours for American jazz artists. When guitarists Jimmy and Doug Raney concluded one such tour in February 1981, Teekens made arrangements for them to record in the Dutch city of Hilversum with a European rhythm section. The resulting album, Raney ’81, became the first release on Teekens’ new recording imprint, Criss Cross Jazz—named for the transatlantic travel that the musicians and their music undertook in order to make the records.

Thus began a series of releases that numbered 404 as of May 2019. With a single exception — Back on the Scene, a 1985 album by Dutch saxophonist Joe Van Enkhuizen — Teekens’ releases were made by artists based in the U.S. and Canada. The Criss Cross catalogue included a wide swathe of musicians that crossed styles and generations, from post-World War II legends Chet Baker and Warne Marsh to 21st-century arrivals Lage Lund and Matt Brewer.

He had a particular soft spot for up-and-coming young musicians, telling Adler that “I’d rather record guys who are really eager to play than feature big names who have recorded many times already. There’s a lot of fire among the younger musicians.”

Criss Cross’ earliest releases were recorded in the Netherlands, but in 1984 Teekens began making twice-yearly trips to New York in search of new additions to his roster. “He asks everyone he meets the same question: ‘What have you heard recently that you like?’” wrote Peter Watrous in a 1996 New York Times profile. “And like the most successful record companies of the past, he has relied on musicians as his talent scouts.”

As the sole proprietor of Criss Cross, Teekens kept it a resolutely small operation, albeit one with a reputation for high-quality production and packaging. This allowed musicians to escape the corporate atmosphere of promotion and marketing that was associated with larger domestic labels. The flip side, however, was that they had to reckon with Teekens’ notoriously spendthrift ways — a source of both amusement and bemusement for the artists with whom he worked.

Teekens and Criss Cross continued putting out music at a regular pace, with a handful of new releases coming approximately every four months until the 404th, saxophonist Noah Preminger’s After Life, in May. Even then, however, there was no indication that the schedule would cease any time soon. “I’m still here,” Teekens said in 2005, “because I go for this music!”

In addition to his son, Gerry Jr., Teekens is survived by his wife and two granddaughters.”

MICHAEL J. WEST

Michael J. West is a jazz journalist in Washington, D.C. 

JAZZ VIEW; Album by Album, a History Emerges

By Peter Watrous

New York Times Jan. 21, 1996

“THE ARRIVAL OF EIGHT NEW CD'S FROM the Dutch label Criss Cross brings a feast of mainstream jazz. The pianist Darrell Grant's "New Pop" is a tribute to the Horace Silver school of small-group arranging, but made modern. Tim Warfield's "Cool Blue" is an unrestrained and passionate session by one of the strongest young tenor saxophonists in jazz. The pianist Bill Charlap's "Souvenir" has ease and elegance that are rarely found in jazz, especially among younger musicians.

The releases are a reminder of how important independent record labels are in the formation and documentation of jazz. Criss Cross is filling the same role that labels like Blue Note and Prestige had during the 1950's and 60's: It is recording works that make up the backbone of jazz, played by musicians who might not be photogenic, charismatic or extroverted enough to be taken up by the pop star-making machinery of major labels. Criss Cross's releases are a record of the daily activity of jazz practice without the intrusion of marketing or the weight of financial expectation.

Its efforts assume even greater importance as the major labels continue to back away from any extensive treatment of the music. As a result, Criss Cross serves as a farm team for developing talent as well as a home for the Hank Mobleys of the world, strong improvisers whose moderation and balance guarantee them a modest audience.

The evolution of Criss Cross since its founding 15 years ago by Gerry Teekens, a former college teacher who lives in Enschede, the Netherlands, illustrates how far jazz has come since then. In 1981, it was possible to declare that jazz had no center, no shared language. There were too many approaches to the music, with fusion, the avant-garde, the downtown experimentalists and others all competing for primacy. Therefore, Mr. Teekens had to search far and wide to find musicians playing the sort of mainstream jazz he liked. Those he came up with included the guitarist Jimmy Raney, the pianists Kirk Lightsey, Cedar Walton and Kenny Barron, the saxophonists Warne Marsh and Clifford Jordan, the trombonist Slide Hampton and the trumpeter Chet Baker.

Fifteen years later, Mr. Teekens is overwhelmed with possibilities. Now, twice a year, he spends nearly a month in New York searching out the new. He asks everyone he meets the same question: "What have you heard recently that you like?" And like the most successful record companies of the past, he has relied on musicians as his talent scouts. The drummer Kenny Washington, for one, has helped him over the years. As an indication of how radically different the jazz scene has become, Mr. Teekens's roster is made up almost exclusively of younger musicians. And good ones, all capable of making solid records. There is a center, and Mr. Teekens captures it.

Like his predecessors at Blue Note and Prestige, Mr. Teekens uses many of the same musicians regularly, creating a distinct sound for the label. He occasionally records older, better-known musicians. He takes full advantage of the New York jazz scene, recording the groups that one might find playing at the Village Vanguard or Bradley's or Smalls and letting the musicians reproduce in the studio what they perform in clubs.

In the process, Mr. Teekens has documented the environment from which important figures can emerge; he has a good ear for music. He recorded Josh Redman, the sideman, before he became Joshua Redman, the band leader and media darling. He recorded the pianists Benny Green and Brad Mehldau early on, as well as the saxophonists Kenny Garrett, Don Braden and Javon Jackson. And he regularly used the bassist Christian McBride.

Just a list of the saxophonists and trumpeters on the label gives an idea of Mr. Teekens's thoroughness. Among the saxophonists are Chris Potter, Steve Wilson, Sam Newsom, Eric Alexander, Seamus Blake, Jon Gordon, Mark Turner, Vincent Herring and Gary Thomas, along with Mr. Garrett and Mr. Warfield. The trumpeters include Brian Lynch, Terrell Stafford, Scott Wendholt, Wallace Roney, Greg Gisbert, Tom Williams, Ryan Kisor, Joe Magnarelli, Tim Hagans and John Swana. They may not be stars, but they form the core of an intelligent mainstream in New York.

THE RESULT IS A CATALOGUE THAT IN 20 years will help explain what happened in the city during a period of real growth in jazz activity. Even though he works within the mainstream and often uses many of the same people, the records are surprisingly diverse. Yet all are rooted in the same language.”