Michael Moore, - sax, clarinet, Wolter Wierbos - trombone , Eric Boeren, - trumpet, Michael Vatcher - drums, percussion, Ernst Glerum - bass, Tobias Delius - sax.

"Just when you make up your mind it's an ethno-centric acid-polka orchestra blowing jazz with a demented dixieland mariachi band in the Bulgarian beergarden, they'll break into a James Browne tune".
(A review from 1985)

Expect the unexpected. That's the most sensible comment to be made about any Available Jelly concert. Over the years the group's line-up and repertory have gone in so many directions that even its members have no clue beforehand what will happen during a performance.

Available Jelly's musical interests and preferences are manifold and varied. They range from bedrock of Jazz in New Orleans to the exploits of Ornette Coleman and beyond. From ethnic musics of as faraway places as the Balkan and Madagascar. From popular music by Cole Porter and Irving Berlin to rock music by the Beach Boys. This may sound like your average `we can't make a choice' eclectic postmodern hotchpotch, but it isn't. The Available Jelly people like a good melody, wherever it may come from. The original compositions by band members Michael Moore and Eric Boeren are in very true evidence of this.

The group never belies its theatrical roots, either. After all, they once came to Europe with the Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe. And even though those days are long gone, Available Jelly's music is always dramatic and never without a streak of absurdists humour. And whoever may think that fun and beauty are mutuallly exclusive, should only listen to there latest CD, Monuments. When the jocular Michael Moore piece Wigwam is followed by the hauntingly beautiful Remy Hira (a folk song from Madagascar), it doesn't seem out of place at all. It's like a circus, where the tears may come from laughing over the clowns or crying over the poor Pierrot. And excitement may come from fear for the ferocious lions or amazement and the agile acrobats.

All this has made Available Jelly one of the most exciting bands on the Amsterdam improvised music scene. Its members ar eamong the most in demand instrumentalists in the Netherlands. Top ensembles like the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra, the Clusone trio, the Maarten Altena Ensemble, Franky Douglas' Sunchild and the Guus Janssen Septet couldn't do without their services.
Since 1993 the band has been exploiting it roots & branches in a series of yearly festivals in Amsterdam.

Info: Bert Bal, Blasiusstraat 74R, 1091 CW Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel/fax: +31-(0)20-6653393

The CD Monuments (Ramboy, 1994) is distributed by BV Haast