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Baars Buis Deman: Cecil's Dance
by Mark Corroto
Ab Baars has come to be one of the deans of Dutch jazz, which of course is mostly centered around Amsterdam. He can be heard in large settings such as the Instant Composers Pool, in duo with his partner Ig Henneman, or performing with the anarcho-punk band The Ex. Trombonist Joost Buis joined Baar's quartet for the Duke Ellington tribute Kinda Dukish (Wig, 2005) and later in duo for Moods For Roswell (wig, 2020), a salute to the trombonist Roswell ...
read morePerch Hen Brock & Rain: Elegiacal
by Mark Corroto
The quartet Perch Hen Brock & Rain invites you to linger longer with their sophomore release Elegiacal. Their request is reflected in the music they make which has an imperturbable feel about it. Elegiacal, recorded in 2018, follows Live @ The Jazz Happening Tampere (Relative Pitch Records, 2016) from a quartet tour in 2014. This second outing was captured in a studio after their second tour. Perch Hen Brock & Rain is tenor saxophonist Ab Baars who also ...
read moreDuo Baars-Buis: Moods For Roswell
by Mark Corroto
It is difficult to think of a better way of honoring the memory of trombonist Roswell Rudd than through the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Rudd (1935-2017), the eternal avant-gardist, maintained a firm foundation in the jazz tradition. Even when he was working in the New York Art Quartet or collaborating with Archie Shepp and Steve Lacy, his approach was rooted in jazz's heritage. Ab Baars and Joost Buis celebrate Rudd with these ten chamber jazz adaptations (maybe ...
read moreAb Baars: And She Speaks - A Collection Of Ballads
by Mark Corroto
Mike Doughty of the rock band Soul Coughing wrote the lyric “is Chicago, Is Not Chicago..." to the song of the same name, followed by “a man cuts in half, just like he snaps a pencil..." The same could be said of And She Speaks -A Collection Of Ballads by saxophonist / clarinetist Ab Baars. This solo recording, with each song dedicated to a different composer or musician, is devotional without an obligation to be faithful. Johnny Green's 1930 jazz ...
read moreDuo Baars Henneman & Dave Burrell: Trandans
by Karl Ackermann
Dutch multi-reedist Ab Baars has been active, mostly in Europe, since the 1970s, recording for several labels on the continent and touring in both rock and jazz capacities. His unique style had been dubbed “Ab Music" by the late Misha Mengelberg with whom he had recorded Circus (Instant Composers Pool, 2006) along with Han Bennick. More recently he teamed with Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey and violist Ig Henneman on Perch Hen Brock & Rain (Relative Pitch Records/Wig, 2016).
read moreAb Baars Trio: Slate Blue
by Mark Corroto
There used to be something about the Dutch jazz scene that made it stand out from American jazz, British jazz, and well, other European happenings. The “New Dutch Swing," to borrow the title from Kevin Whitehead's 1998 book, comprised an irreverent brand of music making, with little regard to tradition. Dutch players leaned heavily on Dada and absurdism as a counterpoint to the American tendency to regard jazz as a classical art form.I say there used to be ...
read moreAb Baars Trio / Ken Vandermark: Goofy June Bug
by Jeff Stockton
Ab Baars is a major figure in the Dutch jazz scene, having played with Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink in their Instant Composers Pool for more than 25 years. Ken Vandermark has been the driving organizational force behind the fertile jazz community of Chicago for the better part of the last two decades, leading any number of bands and bringing together improvisers in the City of Wind with like-minded players throughout Europe and Scandinavia. So in spite ...
read moreQueen Mab Trio: Thin Air
by Kurt Gottschalk
Queen Mab “gallops night by night, through lovers' brains and then they dream of love, at least the Fairy Queen Mab of Romeo and Juliet does and if that's a bit sweet, even a bit specious an image to cast upon an all-woman trio, it does make an impression (and after all, they chose what to name their band). The music of the two-parts-Canadian-one-part-Dutch group is light yet evocative and has a way--something like a fairy in ...
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