Dutch Treats
January/February 2005 By Aaron Steinberg
Home Safely
Favorite
Famously, Ornette Coleman performed without a pianist in his band for decades. That didn't stop a high-school-aged Curtis Clark from trying to convince Coleman that he just hadn't heard the right pianist. Who knows how a more persuasive Clark might have...
January/February 2005 By Aaron Steinberg
Omnibus One
Favorite
Ernst Glerum's oddball recording Omnibus One (Favorite) is really two distinct sessions rolled into one. The first features Glerum, surprisingly, on piano rather than bass, which is played by Clemens van der Feen, and drummer Owen Hart Jr. Glerum, to his...
January/February 2005 By Aaron Steinberg
Dance, My Dear?
Data
Considering the personalities of Ernst Glerum and Han Bennink, it's a little disappointing to come across them on something as humorless as Dance, My Dear? (Data). The two of them, along with ICP Orchestra colleague and reedist Ab Baars, comprise pianist...
January/February 2005 By Aaron Steinberg
Astronotes
Data
Trombonists are like the kids picked last for the kickball squad. They're hardly ever stars, and they're typically tabbed to fill out a band's sound. Logging years in secondary or supporting roles can give a musician an unique perspective on things, though...
January/February 2005 By Aaron Steinberg
Majaap
Kontrans
Vocal improvisers Jaap Blonk and Maja Ratkje rifle through 18 short improvised duets in less than 45 minutes on Majaap (Kontrans). Some improv pieces top the four-minute mark, but most come in under two, and the pacing is manic throughout. Neither vocalist...
January/February 2005 By Aaron Steinberg
Growing Pains
BBB
From a freewheeling band like Bik Bent Braam, pianist and bandleader Michiel Braam gets a remarkably controlled sound. Part credit goes to his able band, but Braam earns credit for the rest himself with his clever compositional and performance method. On...
January/February 2005 By Aaron Steinberg
Michiel vs. Braam
Bik Bent Braam
For a much more pointed engagement with Michiel Braam's music and his playing, one could hardly do better than Michiel vs. Braam (Bik Bent Braam). For this solo recital, Braam picked out nine charts he'd written for the large ensemble-only one piece from...
January/February 2005 By Aaron Steinberg
Fellini
icdisc.nl
I Compani has been around since 1985, and its mandate hasn't changed much at all since. The ensemble, formed and still directed by alto and tenor player Bo van de Graaf, devotes itself to the music of Nino Rota, whom film fans will recognize as Federico...
January/February 2005 By Aaron Steinberg
Hollywood O.K. Pieces
GeestGronden
Hollywood O.K. Pieces (Geestgronden) is technically credited to all involved, but pianist Guus Janssen wrote the music and that gives him an edge in the standings. Janssen has composed an entire opera around the biblical story of Noah, but aside from that...
January/February 2005 By Aaron Steinberg
Aan & Uit
ICP
As a child the Italian writer Italo Calvino marched in fascist parades and then came home to the populist socialism of his antifascist parents. Yet, he says, it wasn't a difficult situation. Contradictions like these help shape a life. Calvino may have been...
