AprilCadence2013

HAN BENNINK
BENNINK # CO.
ILK 192
KLEIN GEBREK GEEN
BEZWAAR/ SIM MARCH/
SUITE IN A SEA/ MEET ME
TONIGHT IN DREAMLAND/
DOG/ LAURENS S.D./ INSIDE
INSIDE/ GANZ/ KLEIN
GEBREK GEEN BEZWAAR
NO.2/
Kiefer/ Postlude to Kiefer
and a piece of drum/ A
Flower is a Lovesome Thing
Han Bennink Snare d;
Joachim Badenhorst, ts, b cl,
cl; Simon Toldam, p Belgium,
Nov, 2011
New Issues
118 | CadenCe Magazine | april May June 2013
I am a huge fan of Han Bennink. I had the great pleasure
of seeing him a couple of years ago at the Guelph
jazz festival. If I were a list maker, he would be on my
top ten list.
He is an incredibly creative player who, as is
demonstrated on this record, can do more with a snare
drum than most drummers can do with a whole kit:
Witness his solo on “Prelude”. Another good example is
his solo on “Suite”. He knows how to get different sounds
out of a drum and by how he uses his sticks. Badenhorst
enters with sounds on the sax complementing Bennink’s
snare, with appropriate accompaniment from Toldam,
showing that Bennink’s bandmates are just as creative.
“Dreamland” starts off dreamily, and builds in the middle
to an almost free sounding group improve and then
returning to an almost 1920s sounding statement of the
theme.
In a sense, “Dog” sums up the whole record. There
is great interplay between all three musicians with
Bennink using brushes with snares on and off to create
different sounds, and switching to sticks to add to his
great accompaniments, especially when Badenhorst
gets a bit wild on clarinet. ”Inside” is another example of
how Badenhorst’s swirling clarinet, Toldam’s interesting
lines underneath and Bennink’s snare all work together
to create something that requires at least three listens
to get it all.
But perhaps “Ganz” really sums up the whole record. It
sounds almost like an old 20s tune but definitely played
with the sensibility of today. Voices can be heard in fun. I
assume it is the musicians enjoying themselves. And this
happy piece leads into “Klein 2” which is quite raucous,
with Badenhorst’s bass clarinet swirling away to very
energetic accompaniments from Toldam and Bennink.
I don’t want to make this a track- by-track review. So all I
will say is that every track is great.
Bernie Koenig