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Han Bennink
Drummer and multi-instrumentalist Han Bennink was born in Zaandam near Amsterdam in 1942. His first percussion instrument was a kitchen chair. Later his father, an orchestra percussionist, supplied him with a more conventional outfit, but Han never lost his taste for coaxing sounds from unlikely objects he finds backstage at concerts. He is still very fond of playing chairs.
In Holland in the 1960s, Bennink was quickly recognized as an uncommonly versatile drummer. As a hard swinger in the tradition of his hero Kenny Clarke, he accompanied touring American jazz stars, including Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, Wes Montgomery, Johnny Griffin, Eric Dolphy and Dexter Gordon. He is heard with Gordon on the 1969 album "Live at Amsterdam Paradiso" (on the Affinity label) and with Dolphy on 1964's "Last Date" (PolyGram). At the same time, Bennink participated in the creation of a European improvised music which began to evolve a new identity, apart from its jazz roots. With fellow Dutch pioneers, pianist Misha Mengelberg and saxophonist Willem Breuker, he founded the musicians collective Instant Composers Pool in 1967. Bennink anchored various bands led by Mengelberg or Breuker, and appeared in their comic music-theater productions.
Bennink attended art school in the 1960s, and is also a successful visual artist in several media, often constructing sculpture from found objects, which may include broken drum heads and sticks. He has designed the covers for many LPs and CDs on which he appears. Bennink is represented by Amsterdam's Galerie Espace, and has been the subject of several one-man shows, including one at the Gemeente Museum in the Hague in 1995.
In 1966, Bennink played the US's Newport Jazz Festival with the Mengelberg quartet. From the late 1960s through the '70s Bennink collaborated frequently with Danish, German, English and Belgian musicians, notably saxophonists John Tchicai and Peter Brötzmann, guitarist Derek Bailey and pianist Fred van Hove. Bennink, Brötzmann and van Hove had a longstanding trio well documented on FMP Records. There Bennink also showcased his talents on clarinet, trombone, soprano saxophone and many other instruments, also featured in a series of solo albums he began in 1971.
Bennink's many recordings from the 1980s include sessions with Mengelberg's ICP Orchestra (where he remains), South African bassist Harry Miller, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonists Roswell Rudd and George Lewis, and big-bandleaders Sean Bergin and Andy Sheppard.
From 1988 to '98 Bennink's main vehicle was Clusone 3, with saxophonist and clarinetist Michael Moore and cellist Ernst Reijseger, a band noted for its free-wheeling mix of swinging jazz standards, wide-open improvising, and tender ballads. Clusone played Europe and North America, West Africa, China, Vietnam and Australia, and recorded five CDs for Gramavision, hat Art and Ramboy.
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Wadada Leo Smith: The Emerald Duets
by Karl Ackermann
The pioneering British photographer/author Val Wilmer said of Wadada Leo Smith, “he no longer relates to the restrictions of scales and chords. To him, music is about two things only: sound and rhythm." Her assessment, from the essential book As Serious As Your Life (Allison & Busby Ltd, 1977), was published in 1977. But in the survey of creative music history, her title could have been a sole perspective on Smith. After being a regular contributor to John ...
read moreWadada Leo Smith: The Emerald Duets
by Dan McClenaghan
Wadada Leo Smith's music is often celestial, but the man himself is of this Earth—of America, in particular, the progeny of people brought to the Western Hemisphere involuntarily. People who have historically been treated as less than human, for the “sin" of having dark skin. This goes on. The true sin, the flames of racism, are stoked by a former and possibly future (God help us all) president—a cruel, sociopathic, immoral, dishonest racist. Wadada Leo Smith is America. ...
read moreMarion Brown: Why Not? Porto Novo! Revisited
by Chris May
Alto saxophonist Marion Brown was part of the band on John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse, 1965), though you would not guess it from Why Not (ESP, 1968). Like fellow Ascension alumnus, tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders' contemporaneous Tauhid (Impulse, 1967), Brown's album inhabited an intensely melodic section of the 1960s' New Thing. As were Sanders' own-name releases from 1967 onwards, Brown's work was deeply lyrical and embraced South Asian, Maghrebi and West African instruments and constructs. As bandleaders, the two ...
read moreSonny Rollins: Rollins in Holland
by Mike Jurkovic
From the very first decibel of this unrealistically good, previously unreleased recording, Sonny Rollins bears no bones to inform listeners he is suffering no fools. It is a big, Buescher, bellwether sound, the one that gave Rollins the sound and spirit he needed to tell of a man taking it all on without apology. It is also meant to say that, without argument, unrealistically good here is totally understood as a decisively human characteristic and not necessarily one Rollins aspired ...
read moreOmri Ziegele Tomorrow Trio: All Those Yesterdays
by Mark Corroto
It's been more than twenty years since the world lost saxophonist Thomas Chapin. If you were to conduct a search like Tibetan Buddhists looking for the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama, the signs and symbols you would sift through are of course recordings. All Those Yesterdays may be all the proof one needs to adjudge Omri Ziegele the incarnation of Thomas Chapin. His music has the same joy and zestfulness, and it has been hiding in plain sight for ...
read moreThe Quartet Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam
by BIMHUIS
Dutch Jazz master Benjamin Herman, Peter Beets, Ruud Jacobs and Han Bennink have been playing together for five years and swinging from day one, when they hit the stage on New Year's Eve 2013. Since then, every one of their performances has offered something fresh and surprising. A highlight of their collaboration was a series of performances in 2016 dedicated to the music of Misha Mengelberg, in 2016, which were captured on an album on ICP Records. 'Herman ...
read moreKlaus Widmann, Direttore Artistico del Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige
by Libero Farnè
Da oltre dieci anni il festival alto atesino ha cambiato nome, fisionomia, criteri e obiettivi... e direzione artistica. Klaus Widmann, medico di professione e grande appassionato e conoscitore dell'ambiente dolomitico, lentamente ha costruito un festival jazz diramato su tutto il territorio della provincia di Bolzano, anche con dichiarati intenti di promozione turistica. La peculiarità della sua programmazione sta nel fatto che, soprattutto negli ultimi anni, si sia puntata l'attenzione prevalentemente su nomi nuovi e su proposte creative di varie scuole ...
read moreArmen Nalbandian to release new trio album with Nasheet Waits and Eric Revis, and duet album with Han Bennink on August 23rd
Source:
Blacksmith Brother
On August 23rd, pianist/composer Armen Nalbandian will release two new recordings via his label Blacksmith Brother Music. The first being a live recording with drummer Han Bennink from January 2008 entitled Coup de Grace. The second being a follow-up to his 2007 trio recording Manchester Born, features Nalbandian on the fender rhodes and in a trio setting featuring bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits. The album comprises of all original compositions by Nalbandian and is entitled “Quiet, as it's ...
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Ray Anderson, Han Bennink & Christy Doran: ABD on hatOLOGY
Source:
Werner Uehlinger
Listening to Anderson's four compositions, Doran's piece, four free improvisations, and an Ellington tune, from the two sessions strike me as collages of a sort, bringing together very different aesthetics, directions, and materials, for a direct confrontation. Not a confrontational confrontation, mind you. A very amenable comparing, contrasting, and combining of sensibilities, the very thing that makes creative music tick. —John Corbett Originally released as Azurety and Cheer Up. Recorded in 1994-1995. Personnel: Ray Andeerson (trombone, tuba); Han Bennink (drums); ...
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UCLA Live Presents Alice Coltrane Tribute Dec. 5 All-star evening includes performances from McCoy Tyner, Kyp Malone, Nels Cline, Han Bennink, Daniel Carter, Michael White & Leisei Chen, Radha Botofasina, plus Flying Lotus and special guests
Source:
Jessica Wolf
UCLA Live Presents Alice Coltrane Tribute Dec. 5 All-star evening includes performances from McCoy Tyner, Kyp Malone, Nels Cline, Han Bennink, Daniel Carter, Michael White & Leisei Chen, Radha Botofasina, plus Flying Lotus and special guests LOS ANGELES—A host of jazz luminaries and some of modern music's most exciting artists gather on the Royce Hall stage Sunday, December 5 at 7 p.m. in honor of the legendary Alice Coltrane. Led by Kyp Malone, of TV on the Radio and Rain ...
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Peter Brotzmann / Han Bennink Duo USA Tour April 16-28
Source:
All About Jazz
Legendary Free Music Duo in a rare US Tour
“Few modern saxophonists can sound as powerfully abrasive as Mr. Brotzmann, and few drummers can seem as convincingly unhinged as Mr. Bennink. Each is a pillar of the European free-improvising scene, and a touchstone for the rambunctious wing of the contemporary avant-garde." -New York Times 2006
16 April Amherst, Ma Amherst Unitarian Meetinghouse, 8pm 121 N. Pleasant St.
18 April New ...
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Han Bennink to Join the Blueprint Project for CD Release Concerts in Boston and Providence
Source:
Improvised Communications
The Blueprint Project with Han Bennink will perform two Northeast U.S. concerts in late January in celebration of their recent recording, People I Like (Creative Nation Music 008). The group, which pairs the legendary Dutch drummer with the decade-old trio of Jared Sims (saxophones and clarinet), Eric Hofbauer (guitar) and Tyson Rogers (piano), will perform all original music written specifically for this collaboration. Together they will perform at AS220 in Providence on Tuesday, January 22nd and Boston's Emmanuel Church (as ...
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Armen Nalbandian & Han Bennink to Perform Duets on January 31st, 2008
Source:
All About Jazz
On January 31st, 2008 at the Fresno Art Museum, legendary musician Han Bennink will join pianist Armen Nalbandian in a concert of duets as part of Nalbandian's Rhythms of Art concert season. Nalbandian is currently in his fourth year as Musical Director/ Resident Artist of the Fresno Art Museum. “Bennink plays the continuum of jazz as an instrument unto itself." -- Chris Kelsey, All Music Guide “Armen Nalbandian is a truly great modern musician with an expansive understanding of the ...
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Peter Brotzmann / Han Bennink Duo at Vision Club, October 6, 2006
Source:
All About Jazz
Friday, October 6, 2006 The Vision Club Series 2006 presents Peter Brotzmann / Han Bennink
First NYC Appearance of European Free Music Duo Since 1975
What: Peter Brotzmann / Han Bennink Duo Vision Club Series Fall Kickoff Dates/Times: Friday, October 6. 2006 Two Sets at 8 and 10 pm Place: Clemente Soto Velez SEA Theater 107 Suffolk Street, 2nd Floor Cost: $20 per set / $10 students and seniors “Peter ...
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