Where's this now?

I missed a busy Euro day in Canberra with two jazz duets the previous weekend so I was happy to see at least one of the duos were featured with a full 2-set performance at COMA in Adelaide.  Suffice to say this was a stunner.  The duo was Reinier Baas and Ben van Gelder, guitar and alto, out of The Netherlands.  One quoted comment was that they sounded like a whole orchestra.  Not quite but I could see the intent.  Mainly it was a function of a certain guitar style that I'd not seen before, using pick and fingerstyles and strums and thumbs and fingered extensions to play bass lines, chords, fills, melody, snippets and intrusions and inclusions, all confirming grooves and setting an housing the song, seemingly all at once.  The alto was more conventional but thrillingly expressive, fleet, intriguing with intervals and sequences and fittingly with guitar, somewhat loose with time, so I could be unsure of the count, where was a beat or a temporarily changed tempo.  It sound problematic but it was anything but, being loose and expressive and together.  I noticed once a face from Reinier to Ben that suggested a slip but mostly this was ripples then waves and rough weather, all telling a story.  There were many originals, perhaps introduced by one or other performer, with fast melodies from alto while you're unsure of a common tune, then a massively quick line appears from guitar, perhaps unison, that confirms the composition.  These originals could seem indistinct in melody if lovely to hear, and perhaps strange or vague in structure but perhaps not, I'd have to listen more.  These were constructs of much complexity.  Then most unexpectedly a series of standards: All the things you are, Body and soul, Monk, more, that had the same sense of ambiguity and an exhilarating build of improv.  This delightful sense of melodic improv with a beguiling sense of time and multi-roles of accompaniment was a stunner.  I remain a bit perplexed but very, very impressed.

Reinier Baas (guitar) and Ben van Gelder (alto) performed for COMA at The Wheatie in Adelaide.