Han Bennink & Tanzanian musicians Hassan & Excel
Its not everyday that you get to meet Jazz legends as Dutch drummer Han Bennink.I call him a legend, a Jazz legend (I stand to be corrected) but with an International resume spanning five decades you just have to give the guy credit.
I didn’t fathom my meeting a casual one, as a matter of fact I had to put him on the spot through a live Studio Interview. Probably my most nerve racking moment, I dug and dug as much Info as I could about him. My most Interesting aspect about Han was the fact that he doesn’t believe that going to an Institute or School should make one the greatest Jazz Artiste. During the Interview I put him on the spot for this one and well he mentions a great number of good Jazz improvisers who never set foot in a school. He continues to say that he considers himself an ‘Instant composer, I like to play fresh, I improvise, am caught up in that moment and that’s what counts, that’s the greatest moment’.
The Interview doesn’t turn out bad as I thought I mean interviewing such a big legend means you have got to get your facts right no matter what. He is a pleasant personality and a great talk. I bring in the aspect of the Instant Composer’s pool which he co-founded with pianist Mengelberg in 1967 he talks so passionately about this with him and Mengelberg being the oldest members apart from Michael Moore (Who is actually present for the Interview as well) up to much of the 1990’s when he played with Clusone 3(also known as the clusone trio) a trio with cellist Ernst Reijseger and Saxophonist and clarinetist Michael Moore.
Han, Michael, Wil
Brooklyn born Wil Holshouser an accordionist and composer inspires me, he tells me he started playing the piano at a very tender age but when a friend gave him a broken accordion as a surprise when he was still young, he fell in love with this instrument and he has since established a unique niche for himself as an accordionist, improviser and composer. I note that he has worked in many different scenes from jazz to pop to classical, I am quick to ask him the difference between Jazz and Classical music. For one he tells me ‘If you are meeting for a Jazz session at 2, people arrive at half past 2 which is the norm, but if you are meeting for a Classical session at 2, people arrive there at a quarter to 2’that’s the difference he tells me. Classical music is more structured and disciplined it took him a while to get used to that he tells me. At the end of it all, the guys actually rain their praises on my good selection of Jazz music throughout the hour from Louis Armstrong ‘dream to dream, the likes of Oscar Peterson, Ella Fritzgerald, am I pleased that the great Han Bennink likes my taste of Jazz music. I must have passed the test!.
