THE AURATONES


Is it jazz? Is it funk? Is it soul? The music of Dutch based band The Auratones is best to be described as soul-jazz with latin and world influences: original, funkin’ hard and danceable. Jazz with a beat: an ideal combination of heavily grooving music and the freedom of jazz improvisation. Hot & steaming crowds can tell! Now-jazz with its roots deep in the past, played by some of the finest musicians of the jazz-, funk- & world scene in Holland. The band started in 1996 with the release of the first album “Funny Sounds”. They flirted with “Easy Tune” back then, a retro-style hot and hip in the London discos during those days. The hype disappeared, but The Auratones remained. Soon the direction of the music changed and the band has come a long way, releasing a total of 4 cd’s.

Over the years the band gained a great live-reputation: an enormous drive, excellent music and presentation and humor on stage. The Auratones played countless club gigs in Holland and abroad and many festivals: The World Port Jazzfestival in Rotterdam (NL), several times the North Sea Jazzfestival (NL), the Heineken Jazzfestival on Curaçao (Caribbean), the International Summer Jazz Festival in Riga (Latvia), just to name a few. Radio host Cees Schrama of the famous Dutch radio show ‘Sesjun’ - where the top of the international jazz world did play over the last decades - announced a live concert by The Auratones in his show as follows: “a band that combines all the good stuff that was to be heared in our show during the last 25 years”.

The last couple of years The Auratones played regularly with a number of fantastic guests: Thijs van Leer (Focus), Candy Dulfer and Gerard Presencer (UK).

In November ’07 a compilation of the first 3 cd’s was released: “A Cool And Danceable Adventure”. As bonus the fabuleus trumpet player Gerard Presencer (London / UK, worked with Sting, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, Brand New Heavie, Jamiroquai ..... amongst others) has performed on three tracks on this album.