Dutch jazz ensembles entertains with finesse and versatility
Dutch jazz ensembles entertains with finesse and versatility
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
A jazz concert can indeed be very entertaining and fun-filled,
especially when it is in the hands of a resourceful musician-cum-
composer.
A recent performance here in Yogyakarta of the highly
theatrical Willem Breuker Kollektief from the Netherlands, a band
comprising 10 musicians that Breuker has been leading for the
last 31 years, proved just that.
The two-and-a-half hour performance seemed to go quickly that
evening as the world-class band presented some 20 pieces from its
repertoire on a crowded stage in front of an audience of some 500
people in an unbelievably tight and aggressive manner.
Just listening to the powerful, energetic music without
looking at the musicians one could easily get the wrong
impression, while the group actually comprises mostly of elderly
balding musicians.
They played almost non stop from one piece to another, except
during a 10-minute break in between the two sessions, shifting
dynamically from waltzes to fanfares, from lullabies to two-beat
thumping or even rapid classical pieces.
Most of the pieces were played ensemble. However, there were
also a lot of solos. All 10 musicians were given the chance to
show their distinct expertise in the instruments they played.
The first chance was given to tenor saxophonist Maarten van
Norden who presented a melodic, sometimes stamping, piece of
music, followed by Andy Altenfelder with his highly improvised
husky trumpet.
The other solos were then played one after the other,
sometimes with an ensemble performance in between, almost without
a stop.
The chic-looking Hermine Deurloo, the only woman musician in
the group, played saxophone and harmonica. Boy Raymakers was on
trumpet. Andy Bruce and Bernard Hunnekink on trombones, Arjen
Gorter on double bass, Henk de Jonge on piano and Rob Verdurmen
on percussion.
As the musicians played solo, others sometimes danced a little
or made funny gestures to the amusement of the excited crowd.
The climax, however, came when Breuker took his turn to play
solo and produced various funny sounds from both his saxophones
and clarinet.
The audience kept on smiling, and even laugh loudly in
amusement, as the veteran musician worked in grunts, growls,
tweets, and hollers or produced other funny sounds that sometimes
resembled the sounds of hens cackling or a seagull's cry.
He sometimes also made funny gestures by, for example,
scratching his balding head or with comical looks on his wrinkled
face.
"We do not indeed play standard jazz. Our music is quite wide
open for any improvisation," Breuker told reporters in a press
conference held ahead of the concert in Yogyakarta.
That also explained why, he prefers to put the names of the
musicians rather than the instruments whenever he is composing a
piece of music for the group to play. He creates music
specifically with all the Kollektief's musicians in mind.
Sometimes he also asks other musicians in his group whether
they want to improvise in a particular part of the music he is
composing before putting someone's name on his music sheet.
French musicologist Jean Claude Balzac writes in
www.willembreukerkollektief.com, "the Kollektief in one of
Europe's finest ensembles playing contemporary and improvised
music".
Kollektief's approach, according to Balzac, combines jazz and
(i.e. classical) music with many popular genres, from marching
band and circus music to Latin dance steps and music for film and
theater.
"The result is both humorous and surprising, full of false
stops and starts, clean breaks, sudden shifts in musical mood,
and above all, a fine sense of irony," Balzac writes.
Founded in 1974, the Kollektief is one of the busiest
ensembles in Europe, touring almost all major cities in the world
including in Europe itself, Canada, the U.S, Russia, Australia,
and Asia. On average it gives some 85 concerts a year.
This is its second visit to Indonesia. Its first visit, to
Jakarta and Bandung, was a couple of years ago.
Neither Willem Breuker himself nor the band are strangers to
the music scene in Europe. A biography of Breuker has been
published in France and in Holland. He is also the recipient of
numerous awards including the prestigious Bird Award (1988).
Ten year later, in 1998, he was awarded the Order of the Lion
of the Netherlands, which is one of the highest honors in his
country.
The band, similarly, has a number of prestigious achievements.
It has featured in the top ranks of the Downbeat Annual Critic's
Poll for big bands since 1986, for example.
It has so far released more than 20 compact discs and given
numerous radio and television performances, not counting its own
annual festival in Amsterdam.