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BIMhuis
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An October Meeting is an occasional--too occasional--improvisers' convention with a difference: the players convened have major input in deciding who they will perform with in any given set (although other interested parties have their say, chiefly the BIMhuis's stalwart director and Meeting mastermind Huub van Riel). Musicians combine in small groups thrown together a day or a moment before a performance, and on large projects planned long in advance. In 1991 the participants came from points as distant as Kiev and San Diego. The first October Meeting, 1987, is represented on BIMhuis CDs 001 and 002; this volume and 004 survey the '91 edition. Anthony Braxton obviously liked playing bop tunes with Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink; he would draft them for his Charlie Parker project 1993 (hat ART). With all due respect, this '91 set is markedly superior. The American altoist and Dutch pianist deconstruct along two axes, Braxton thinking linearly, Mengelberg in terms of harmonic subtext and coloration. Rhythmically, both need prodding now and then, which is partly why they play with the likes of Mark Dresser and the hard-swinging Mr. Bennink. Han and Misha had been playing standards with visiting Americans since before Dolphy's '64 Last Date; Braxton--who made In the Tradition with Danish rhythm in '72--had employed Dresser for six years at the time of this recording. Pianist Cor Fuhler, then 27, had had minimal contact with Misha at the Sweelinck Conservatory, but it was enough to turn Mengelberg into an advicate. (The teacher recalls the student once bringing him a subversive piece of endless unresolved counterpoint.) For his afternoon at the Amsterdam's Cristofori piano showroom, Fuhler picked three players a generation older: Wim Janssen (who works more outside his brother Guus's bands than his recordings suggest), diehard improviser Tristan Honsinger and disillusioned improviser turned composer Maarten Altena. Their free-improvised set unrolled in discreet, spontaneous episodes, of which you hear three. The first of these is a belated epitaph to the undocumented Honsinger/Altena duo of the '70s. Fuhler's first CD under his own name, a solo piano disc, was issued in '96 by Geestgronden. The Anglo-Dutch quartet that rounds out the program demonstrates how much freedom is really available to free players in the 1990s. Steve Beresford's contributions to the Meeting were a sort of compendium of tactics and strategies once forbidden Euro-improviers. He'd sing precomposed songs, or drop in fragments of compositions, or randomly sample the music on some hastily chosen cassette, using a bottom-of-the-line Casio keyboard. The '91 Meeting was based at the BIMhuis, but went on the road to eleven other Dutch towns from Alkmaar to Zwolle. The night before "The Bear" was taped at the BIM, a Beresford/Bennink/Evan Parker trio had played in the Hague. Beresford and Bennink have an occasional duo notable for its antic quality, as musical chaos and wry sentimental ballads collapse on each other. They inspired Parker, who'd been having a fine time all week, to step out of his usual role as master of circular-breathed spirals to try something new. (As he said then, he wanted to defeat the expectations of people who thought they had his particular number.) Deep into the trio's set, set off by some little Beresford ditty--you'll hear it--Evan stepped up to the microphone and began to tell a story about a Bear, a certain Teddy Bear, who goes to war, suffers post-traumatic stress, and eventually emerges to begin a new life as a tango competitor. Evan's epic prompted Han to pipe up that his favorite children's book had been about Bolke the Bear and a boy named Dorus. That context may or may not help you sort out "The Bear," the next night's sequel. (We folks in the audience knew nothing of what had transpired the night before, but you can hear us laughing anyway.) Critics should avoid superlatives, but this is surely the weirdest Evan Parker on record. Added on bass is Arjen Gorter, whose pliant sprung lines may surprise those who know only his more utilitarian work with the Willem Breuker Kollektief. Gorter demonstrates why he earns high praise from Bennink, who is very demanding of rhythm players. No one CD can give a sense of an October Meeting's breadth, but the four BIMhuis discs do sketch the possibilities. They let the October Meeting concept speak for itself--and the question it asks is, Huub, when will there be another? --Kevin Whitehead/Amsterdam January 1996 OCTOBER MEETING 1991: Three Quartets 1.
Well, You Needn't (Thelonious
Monk) 9:22 5. Collective improvisation (Fuhler, Honsinger, Altena & Janssen) 11.52 Cor
Fuhler - piano 6. The Bear (Parker, Beresford, Gorter & Bennink) 17:04 Evan
Parker - tenor saxophone,
narration All tracks recorded live during OCTOBER MEETING 1991, between 18 and 26 October 1991. Recordings: Gijs van der Heuvel, Georg Litzinger, Edwin van Maastrigt Editing:
Dick Lucas |
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