AB BAARS TRIO + ROSWELL RUDD – Four - Live at the BIMhuis 1998 (2001)

Label: DATA Records – DATA 012

Format: CD, Album / Country: Netherlands / Released: 2001

Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live at the BIMhuis Amsterdam, June 6, 1998.

Edited by – Dick Lucas and Ab Baars

Design by – Francesca Patella

1   Miff . . . . 5:43

2   Boo And Milly's Marching Band . . . . 5:18

3   Pound's Stolen Mountain . . . . 5:37

4   Truisch . . . . 7:28

5   Song . . . . 8:58

     The Year Was 1503

6   The Hotel

       Drummer . . . . 6:00

7   The Horsehead Fiddler . . . . 5:08

8   Big Eye Louis Nelson . . . . 6:30

9   Bartolomeo Tromboncino . . . . 9:06

double bass – Wilbert De Joode

drums – Martin Van Duynhoven

tenor saxophone, clarinet – Ab Baars

trombone – Roswell Rudd

Of the second generation of musical freedom fighters, Roswell Rudd proved to be one of the most astute at collective ensemble work. That's not surprising given he cut his teeth playing Dixieland and swing. This session led by Ab Baars gives him an opportunity to demonstrate that his ensemble acumen has sharpened with age. The first five numbers here are devoted to Baars' characteristically quirky Dutch compositions -- little march tunes, folk tunes, wry pop tunes, and the like seasoned with a bit of harmonic indeterminacy. These are developed through a careful interplay between the two horn players. Rudd's gruff yet sensitive trombone and Baars' chirping clarinet make for a piquant ensemble. The music, for all its free flow, remains controlled and maybe a bit too cool. The same cannot be said the final half of the program, devoted to Rudd's suite "The Year Was 1503." The suite is a series of feature numbers for each bandmember tied together by Rudd's rambunctious, over-the-top narration, which mixes the sophomoric with the surreal and is quite as characteristic of the trombonist's broad Yankee vaudeville nature -- remember he did time in a Borscht Belt hotel band -- as Baars' tunes are of his Dutch sensibility. The session ends with Rudd's solo turn, where he exercises his own wild, avant Dixie trombone to fine effect.
_ Review by David DUPONT



Buy this album!

AB BAARS TRIO + GUESTS – Party At The Bimhuis/10 Years Ab Baars Trio 2003

Label: Wig – 09

Format: CD, Album / Country: Netherlands / Released: 2003

Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation

Live recording at the  Bimhuis club in Amsterdam, January 17th, 2003.

Edited by – Dick Lucas and Ab Baars

Produced by – Ig Henneman

Cover photo by – Jean van Lingen

Design by – Francesca Patella

01  3900 Carol Court . . . 5:12

02  GF . . . 6:15

03  Indiaan . . . 5:48

       (Piano – Guus Janssen)

04  Party Talk 1 . . . 5:14

(Alto Saxophone, Flute – Mariëtte Rouppe Van Der Voort, Piano – Misha   Mengelberg, Viola – Ig Henneman)

05  A Portrait Of Roswell Rudd . . . 7:12

(Alto Saxophone, Flute – Mariëtte Rouppe Van Der Voort, Piano – Guus Janssen, Misha Mengelberg, Viola – Ig Henneman)

06  Party Talk 2 . . . 2:01

       (Alto Saxophone, Flute – Mariëtte Rouppe Van Der Voort)

07  Von . . . 7:03

(Alto Saxophone, Flute – Mariëtte Rouppe Van Der Voort, Piano – Guus Janssen, Misha Mengelberg, Viola – Ig Henneman)

08  Party Talk 3 . . . 2:06

       (Alto Saxophone, Flute – Mariëtte Rouppe Van Der Voort, Piano – Guus Janssen)

09  Whisper Soft Horsemeat . . . 0:35

       (Alto Saxophone, Flute – Mariëtte Rouppe Van Der Voort, Viola – Ig Henneman)

10  Reflections . . . 7:5

       (Piano – Misha Mengelberg)

11  Enter From The East . . . 4:54

(Alto Saxophone, Flute – Mariëtte Rouppe Van Der Voort, Piano – Guus Janssen, Misha Mengelberg, Viola – Ig Henneman)

tenor saxophone, clarinet – Ab Baars

double bass – Wilbert De Joode

drums, percussion – Martin Van Duynhoven

+

piano – Guus Janssen, Misha Mengelberg

viola – Ig Henneman

alto saxophone, flute – Mariëtte Rouppe Van Der Voort

To commemorate his ten years with bassist Wilbert de Joode and drummer Martin van Duynhoven, an almost unheard-of tenure for a jazz trio, Ab Baars celebrated where every good Dutch avant-gardist celebrates -- the famed Bimhuis club in Amsterdam. Inviting a quartet of guests, including renowned pianist Misha Mengelberg, the results were dutifully recorded with a tongue-in-cheek, blow-by-blow description by Kevin Whitehead in the liners. Highlights abound, including a ruggedly disjointed quartet version of Monk's "Reflections," with Misha Mengelberg added on piano, and a majestic interpretation of John Carter's "Enter from the East" performed by the septet and featuring the lonely, astringent strings of Ig Henneman. Baars' bittersweet offerings on clarinet are in full display on the opening "3900 Carol Court," where split tones and intervallic leaps combine with dramatic changes in volume to produce a prime example of his trio leadership. Two tributes are especially noteworthy. On "A Portrait of Roswell Rudd," the seven-piece ensemble is sans brass, with improvisations performed, curiously and hauntingly, by the two pianists, Mengelberg and Guus Janssen, while Baars' clarinet shadows mysteriously. The more exuberant "Von," based on the phrasing of Chicago tenorist, Von Freeman, opens with some wily drum work from Martin van Duynhoven, followed by the sprightly melodic line and leading to a raucous, un-Freeman-like solo by Mariette Rouppe van der Voort and an inspired, though less intense contribution from Henneman's viola. Interspersed among the composed tunes are three "Party Talks" -- off-the-cuff banter among close friends -- each with slightly varied personnel. In all, a fitting, understated, though very Baars-like way to remember a decade of good years while anticipating more to come.
_ Review by Steve LOEWY



Buy this album!