ICP052-053: MISHA enzovoort DVD

For Misha Mengelberg, the forgetting has begun.
He is waiting for a taxi he didn’t call to go to a performance that won’t take place.

Composer/pianist and grand duke of jazz Misha Mengelberg (1935) has been submerged in the shadow of dementia, ending his life as a musician. At the London jazz club Vortex in 2013 he impressively says his goodbyes to the international stage. It’s also his last major performance with his band, the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra. The musicians find it hard to let him go, but Misha’s decline is constant, and he slowly fades away from their midst. A film about exceptional loyalty, dilemmas, respect and dedication. And about music, the music of Misha Mengelberg. - Cherry Duyns

+++

It’s an Alzheimer film within a musical setting; a music film overshadowed by illness; a film about finiteness; and especially a film about impressive togetherness, and, I’ll say it, love.’ - Walter van de Kooi, De Groene Amsterdammer

Misha and so on is extremely respectful in its treatment of Misha, moving in the unflagging warmth and care towards the pianist, and more than anything vigorous in all its discretion.’ - Pablo Cabenda, de Volkskrant

Misha and so on shows the decline of a great musician, but also shows, during the many fantastic moments – with a perfect rendition of Misha’s Romantic Jump Of Hares as a highlight – how much is still intact.’ - Marianne Broeder in the VPRO TV Guide

1 House Party Starting 08’02” Herbie Nichols / arr. Misha Mengelberg
soloists: Thomas Heberer, Michael Moore
2 Tritohami 02’18” group improvisation: Tristan Honsinger,
Tobias Delius, Han Bennink, Misha Mengelberg
3 Picnic 17’32” Misha Mengelberg
4 No Idea 06’49” Misha Mengelberg / arr. Michael Moore
soloists: Tobias Delius, Wolter Wierbos
5 Marabermi 03’47” group improvisation: Mary Oliver, Ab Baars,
Ernst Glerum, Misha Mengelberg
6 Jaloers, ik ? / Ezels 08’35” Misha Mengelberg
7 Criss Cross 06’32” Thelonious Monk / arr. Misha Mengelberg
Soloists: Michael Moore, Ernst Glerum
8 Peer’s Counting Song 02’17” Misha Mengelberg
9 Barbaric 04’32” Hoagy Carmichael / arr. Michael Moore

Live recording by the BBC on February 2, 2013 at the Vortex, London
Mixed on April 16th and 19th, 2015 in Amsterdam by Ab Baars, Wolter Wierbos and Jaime Rodriguez
Mastered on April 20th, 2015 in IJsselstein by Ab Baars en Tom Peeters
Thanks to Oliver Weindling and the Vortex