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Jazz Articles about Misha Mengelberg
Yuri 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 ...
read moreMisha 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 ...
read moreICP 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 ...
read moreAlessandra 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 ...
read moreMisha 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 ...
read moreMisha 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 ...
read moreMisha Mengelberg Quartet: Four In One
by Mark Corroto
Most outings between drummer Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg leave listeners wondering just when the proverbial 'kitchen sink' will be tossed-in. Together, the pair are anything but conservative in their approach to music. Beginning with Eric Dolphy's Last Date in 1964 and continuing for the next four decades, they have carried the Dutch jazz scene with their work in the ICP Orchestra and various collaborations. Mengelberg is a true champion of the music of both Thelonious Monk and Herbie ...
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