Thieme Schipper is a young musician who has been working for a while now in the gospel music scene of the Netherlands. He graduated cum laude from the ArtEZ conservatory for 'Jazz' in Enschede, the Netherlands. In 2011 he made a study tour to Los Angeles to be inspired and taught by saxophonists like Eric Marienthal (Chick Corea), Bob Reynolds (John Mayer) (read Bob's review on the album below!) and Justo Almario (Koinonia), with whom he played also together accompanied by well-known American jazz musicians. Once back from his journey and encouraged by his friends, he made up the plan to produce his first own album, joined by his friends Nico Eijlers (drums), Aron de Lijster (bass) and Joshua Dieleman (keyboards). Thieme is a saxophonist who likes to make his own arrangements and songs in the style of smooth jazz (pop with jazz influences). "With my music I would like to communicate the love of God, either by means of instrumental sounds (rhythm, melody and / or harmony) or just the lyrics of a song sung," said Thieme. The title of the CD comes from the poem 'Just a Breath Away' written by the American poet Marilyn Ferguson. This poem touched and inspired Thieme to use its lyrics in a moving ballad, a duet, sung by Sharon Kips (winner of X-factor 2007 in the Netherlands) and Leon Patty. Also in this song you hear a beautiful string arrangement written and played by Frank van Essen and the warm acoustic guitar playing by Elisa Krijgsman, who featured in many tracks of the album. (9 tracks in total, with a total running time of 47 minutes) Review by Bob Reynolds (saxophonist of John Mayer) on some of the first songs of the album: Greater Is He I like the section after the keys solo nice high-note breaks (intentional, I know) Cool unison section with guitar! Reminiscent of some Chick Corea Elektric band stuff. Well thought out arrangement. Production is very clean and tight. Wow, you get up there on those altissimo notes! Make Your Mark Man, this mix sounds great. Loving all the little twists and turns you've added to the arrangements. Just a Breath Away Male vocals almost have a Michael Franks vibe, whoa, then the female vox, this could be a Broadway duet! (I mean that at as a compliment). OK, and strings, man this has lots of layers. Wow. Key change, definitely could hear this in a hit musical. Did you write all of this? It's almost as if your sax is the narrator of their story. Neon Dig the intro through the filter, nice touch. Oh that's cool with the backing vox, forgot what a cool song this is. so many juicy tidbits in the arrangement. Like that part with the clavinet