Home » Jazz Articles » Misha Mengelberg
Jazz Articles about Misha Mengelberg
Misha Mengelberg / Sabu Toyozumi: The Analects Of Confucius
by Mark Corroto
Come for the music of Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg, and stay for Sabu Toyozumi. Or perhaps you are here for the Japanese drummer--the first non-American invited into the ranks of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)--and are thrilled to hear him engage in a distinctly Japanese take on the New Dutch Swing. Either way, The Analects of Confucius, a newly unearthed gem from NoBusiness Records, offers a compelling document of creative improvisation at its finest.
Continue ReadingYuri Honing: North Sea Jazz Legendary Concerts
by Ian Patterson
It's fitting that saxophonist, composer and quiet visionary Yuri Honing should be acknowledged as one of the pivotal voices in the history of the Netherland's world-renowned North Sea Jazz festival, described in 1990 by Jazz Times as “the best jazz festival in the world." Honing's first appearance at the NSJF's was in 1995, where he performed with pianist Michiel Bortslap's sextet. Since then, he has played all but three of the last 18 editions, reflecting his status alongside pianist Misha ...
Continue ReadingMisha Mengelberg: Rituals Of Transition
by Mark Corroto
It takes a master to speak like a child. Pianist Misha Mengelberg (1935-2017) was such a giant at the keyboard that he could shed all pretension and improvise with a simple innocence. Call it Zen enlightenment or just a blunt brilliance. His music is often absurd and paradoxical, like an inside joke, except he graciously lets us all in on the pranks. Rituals Of Transition is a collection of solo performances recorded from 2002 through 2010 in The ...
Continue ReadingICP Orchestra: Jubilee Varia
by AAJ Italy Staff
Nella sua ormai più che quarantennale avventura creativa, tra le più significative dell'impro-jazz olandese e europeo, l'Instant Composers Pool Orchestra ha affidato al disco materiali molto differenti, per umore [come è naturale data l'attitudine dell'organico] e per qualità, pur mantenendo sempre viva quell'attitudine all'imprevedibile, al guizzo - più o meno beffardo - e alla sorpresa. Jubilee Varia, registrato nel 1997 alla Rote Fabrik di Zurigo e a Middelburg e ora nuovamente ristampato dalla Hatology, è suddiviso in due suites, quella ...
Continue ReadingAlessandra Patrucco: Circus
by AAJ Italy Staff
Che l’ICP Orchestra fosse essenzialmente un circo lo si sapeva da un bel pezzo. Che Mengelberg e soci fossero una masnada di burloni sempre disposti a lasciarsi coinvolgere in qualsiasi sarabanda era evidente da almeno una quarantina di anni. Che nel DNA della musica improvvisata olandese ci sia sempre stata una predisposizione quasi ideologica a non prendersi mai sul serio è notizia di largo dominio. Che ci fosse una cantante italiana pronta a confrontarsi con gli eterni monellacci del jazz ...
Continue ReadingMisha Mengelberg: Senne Sing Song
by AAJ Italy Staff
È un disco che muove sentimenti contrastanti questo Senne Sing Song, in cui troviamo il pianista olandese Misha Mengelberg in un trio con gli statunitensi Greg Cohenal contrabbasso e Ben Perowsky alla batteria, che sembra la naturale prosecuzione delle collaborazioni iniziate negli anni Novanta nelle incisioni DIW, proprio con Cohen o Brad Jones e Joey Baron. Altrettanto naturale è il rapporto con l'etichetta Tzadik, dal momento che John Zorn è sempre stato un grande ammiratore - e in alcuni casi ...
Continue ReadingMisha Mengelberg: More than Instant Composition
by Clifford Allen
If one takes a swath of the most influential and valuable jazz composers and bandleaders of the last 50 years, one gets one (or both) of two things: a handful of pianists and more questions and inconsistencies than clear lineage. However, just as Steve Lacy found in both Monk's music and free jazz “a door to the other side , so the riddles and puzzles of composition in an idiom that has increasingly seen organization yield to freedom are a ...
Continue Reading
