Jazz Appreciation month celebration with the ICP Orchestra April 7, 2011

The world-renowned Amsterdam-based Instant Composers Pool (ICP) Orchestra - "Arguably the most dynamic, unpredictable and just-plain-fun jazz ensemble on any continent." (Bob Blumenthal, Boston Globe) - brings the cream of the crop of the Dutch jazz scene to Austin to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month on April 7.

8 p.m. doors 7:30, advance tickets: $16, available at End of An Ear, Waterloo Records, Trailer Space records. $20 @ door.
Presented by Epistrophy Arts
http://epistrophyarts.org

The 10-piece, Instant Composers Pool (ICP) Orchestra has earned worldwide acclaim for its inventiveness, musical genius, and unpredictable stage antics. A collective of Dutch improvisers and composers, ICP was formed in 1967 by Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink, and Willem Breuker to further the cause of experimental, category-bending music. The current line-up consists of 10 of the most inventive artists from around the globe, truly exemplifying the cosmopolitan and relentlessly creative drive that has animated the collective since its founding. ICP features Michael Moore, alto saxophone + clarinet; Ab Baars, tenor saxophone + clarinet; Tobias Delius, tenor saxophone + clarinet; Thomas Heberer, trumpet; Woller Wierbos, trombone; Misha Mengelberg, piano; Mary Oliver, violin; Tristan Honsinger, cello; Ernst Glerum, bass; Han Bennink, drums.

The group’s most recent album ICP 049 earned the number one spot on Francis Davis’ “Best Jazz Albums of 2010” list for The Village Voice. “The latest, typically superb effort from this 10-member Dutch outfit … [is] as swank and precise as it is rollicking, and knowingly evocative of both Ellington and the wildest and woolliest free jazz,” commented Davis. As their recent video for “STEIGERPIJP” (2010) proves, ICP Orchestra continues to combine their robust playfulness with rigorous musical exploration. “Improvising is like everyday life, it’s like crossing the street,” proclaims ICP drummer Han Bennink.

Instant Composers Pool Orchestra blurs the lines between improvisation and composition with their distinctive, and oftentimes theatrical, practice of “instant composing,” while juxtaposing historically disparate music styles with wit and brilliance. From ragtime to swing, composed pieces to improvisation, bop to free jazz, classical to carnivalesque, the ICP Orchestra continues to be at the forefront of the creative music scene that they have been so influential in founding, proliferating, and supporting over the last four decades.

Misha Mengelberg is one of the music world's true originals. A key figure within Amsterdam's jazz and improvised music scene, Mengelberg has been a pianist, composer and bandleader for over four decades. "Of the Dutch jazz improvisers who emerged 30 years ago, Mr. Mengelberg is one of the greatest, and his career has embodied the eccentric humor and structural experimentation associated with Dutch jazz." - Ben Ratliff, New York Times.

Percussionist Han Bennink is one of the central figures of modern jazz in Europe. Combining drama and wit with iconoclastic virtuosity and rhythmic imagination, Bennink's performances are a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. Over the years, he has collaborated with everyone from Eric Dolphy and Johnny Griffin to Myra Melford, Dave Douglas and Eugene Chadbourne. "Han Bennink explodes every drummer cliché, rambunctiously devouring free-jazz bombast and subtle trad swing." - Ken Micallef, Modern Drummer.

"My main thought about the ICP is: How do they do it?
The show is always radically different. These are certainly all great improvisers in the most unfettered sense. But perhaps what amazes me most, beyond that, is the way they wander in and out of strictly composed material. With ten people all finding each other at exactly the same moment and abandoning each other at the next.

Only one analogy comes to mind: they're like a herd of elephants. Each one doing its own thing, seemingly oblivious to the others. And without any cue they all start running in one direction. Without any signal again they stop. Scientists say there must be cues, but that we humans are just not aware of them.

I feel the same way about the ICP. I'd like to know what those invisible signals are and how they work. I've invited the group to the Banff Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music in hopes of getting to the bottom of this. That should be a trip.

These musicians can swing like mad when they want to, and can play the most sensitive cafe ballad at the drop of a hat. They also compose their own fantastic repertoire, and play a passel of Misha Mengelberg tunes, many dating back to the fifties. But the crux of what they do, as the name implies, is improvisation. And they do it as well as anyone out there."

Dave Douglas (2007)

"For the first 10 minutes of the ICP Orchestra's early set at Tonic on Tuesday night, the pianist Misha Mengelberg and the drummer Han Bennink indulged in an improvised duet, something they have been doing together for roughly 40 years. Their styles were complementary, if a bit bizarrely so. Mr. Mengelberg gave the impression of a man groping for the doorknob in a darkened room. Mr. Bennink occupied the same room, but with a different temperament, impatiently and heedlessly knocking things around. __That somewhat comedic contrast has always characterized Mr. Mengelberg's rapport with Mr. BenninkŠ transported the song from crisp Ellingtonian swing (circa 1930's) into cacophonous group improvisation (late 60's). In that moment, and on an equally immersive rumba, ICP lived up to its name; not just the first two letters, but also P, for 'pool.'" - Nate Chinen, New York Times

"If there was a facet of jazz expression that the ICP Orchestra didn't address Wednesday night at HotHouse, it probably wasn't worth mentioning. Practically every twist on the music - from 19th Century ragtime to 21st Century free-form experimentation - eventually came to the fore, and considering that this magnificent Dutch band has been swinging for decades, the sheer vitality of its explorations into American and European jazz vocabularies may have caught some listeners by surprise. Jazz organizations that last this long don't typically convey as much intellectual curiosity, stylistic reach and technical daring as the ICP (Instant Composers Pool) band did in every piece on its first set. Each of the evening's many miniatures, in fact, bristled with strange and provocative juxtapositions of style and musical language, a blues lament giving way to a series of fierce dissonances, an easy swing tempo abruptly interrupted by passages of seeming rhythmic anarchy...Long may they thunder."- Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

www.ICPorchestra.com