LESTER BOWIE

F ESTIVA L REPORT
OPEN PLAN: CECIL
by clifford allen
KATOWICE JAZZART
by andrey henkin
DOEK ABC
by ken waxman
© R.I. Sutherland-Cohen / jazzexpressions.org
Cecil Taylor & Min Tanaka @ Whitney Museum
Radosław Kaźmierczak
AUKSO & Motion Trio @ NOSPR
(c) Susan O’Connor www.jazzword.com
Axel Dörner @ Café de Ceuvel
There is the assumption that once an artist reaches the
academy, the work is already beyond what institutions
can properly codify and disseminate—if it isn’t already
over. The latest incarnation of the Whitney Museum, in
the “Meatpacking District”, is a large and airy building
jutting out in glassy overcrops that stretch over the
Hudson River. In 2016, the Whitney began its Open
Plan series, which gives over the museum’s lengthy
fifth floor to rotating installations cycling through a
range of contemporary artists in a variety of media.
Curated by Whitney’s Jay Sanders and Lawrence
Kumpf (Issue Project Room), pianist Cecil Taylor’s
60-year career arc was the subject of an ambitious
schedule (Apr. 15th-24th). The approach was to pivot
Taylor somewhat from his place in the modern jazz
canon and into the context of trans-media developments
from mid ‘50s onward. Concerts were interleaved with
readings, movement, archival footage, symposia and a
rare performance of playwright Adrienne Kennedy’s
A Rat’s Mass (1968). The latter was cast as an operatic
work in 1976, with Taylor’s Unit providing music—in
the Open Plan, this was partly recalled by prerecorded
piano, though Hilton Als’ austere direction gave the
work a likely different, mercurial imprint.
A makeshift stage was installed with river views,
the remainder of the floor occupied by vitrines and wall
mounts holding archival material and dotted by TVs
screening rare performance footage. Taylor’s musical
segment from the 1981 documentary Imagine the Sound
was on a canted large screen on a loop. It should be
noted that while not Taylor’s first Whitney rodeo, this
was certainly the largest: he warmed up his 1969 Unit
for their famed European tour at the old Whitney Breuer
building on Madison and returned in 1975 opposite
pianist Mary Lou Williams. There was the hope that
Taylor would perform often and the schedule was left
flexible enough that he could play nine nights or not at
all—thus, the musical component included a number of
musicians either in his bands (drummer Andrew Cyrille;
bassists Henry Grimes and William Parker; trumpeter
Enrico Rava) or directly influenced by his music (i.e.,
Ensemble Muntu; poets Nathaniel Mackey, Fred Moten
and Steve Dalachinsky; drummer Susie Ibarra).
The opening fête, with a massive standing ovation
as the diminutive Taylor was walked out to the stage,
heralded a curious trio of Butoh-schooled dancer Min
Tanaka and English percussionist Tony Oxley, who had
traded his customary metal armatures for live sampling
devices. Oxley and Tanaka are longtime collaborators
with Taylor, the drummer since 1988 and the dancer
since the early ‘90s, though they’d never shared the
stage as a trio. Tanaka often seemed to be leading the
group; in a green canvas suit, he crept across the risers,
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The Polish city of Katowice is a metropolis of
competing identities. Its resource-rich region of Upper
Silesia was a wartime prize passed between Prussia
and Austria in the 18th Century and then Germany
and Poland during the World Wars. Incorporated as a
mining town in 1865, Katowice is a relatively modern
city in a country with a complicated, centuries-long
history; as such, its architecture is capped by the
futuristic Spodek Sports Arena rather than the Gothic
Wawel Castle in Kraków an hour to the east. With a
population of just over a quarter-million, its small-city
vibe has been thrust onto the world stage as the first
Polish City of Music in the Creative Cities Network of
UNESCO. And, as happens with many cities whose
existence relied upon heavy industry, it has had to
reinvent itself in the 21st Century, coal mines replaced
by cultural institutions, dusty miners with hip
nightgoers filling the 24-hour bars of Mariacka Street.
The JazzArt Festival (Apr. 25th-30th), now in its
fifth year, reflects this multi-facetedness. International
stars such as Jack DeJohnette and The Thing are
presented alongside regional performers like the RGG
Trio and Raphael Rogiński. Concerts are held in the
beautiful environs of the recently built concert halls of
the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra
(NOSPR) or the gritty upstairs Jazz Club Hipnoza.
Sedate afternoon film screenings complement the
energetic evening performances. World-class branding
is applied, grass-roots style, to store windows, novelty
cars and oversized three-dimensional displays dragged
through the city streets by employees of Katowice
Miasto Ogrodów, which also runs the Street Art and
World Music festivals. And there was as much
enthusiasm—as shown by consistently full houses—
for the music on offer as for the World Hockey
Championship Division I-Group A qualifier happening
concurrently (sadly, Poland did not advance).
JazzArt is unusual in that its programming runs
from Monday-Saturday with either one concert per
evening (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) or two
(Tuesday, Friday and Saturday). For those worrying
about getting bang for your złoty, it is refreshing to
have time to reflect upon a performance without
rushing off to ten more in the same night. This approach
also allows for the programming to take on a discernible
narrative arc.
The 2016 edition opened and closed at Hipnoza to
standing-room-only crowds with twin Scandinavian
explosions The Thing and Selvhenter. The former
should have dedicated their set to Lufthansa, which
prevented Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s upright bass from
arriving in time for the show; it was a rare instance
where he was heard exclusively on electric bass.
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 51)
With many parts of the Netherlands reclaimed from
the sea over the centuries, the Dutch have long been
adroit at recycling and repurposing. So it’s no surprise
that, except for the Bimhuis, with its magnificent
waterfront view, most venues for this year’s Doek ABC
Improvisation Festival in Amsterdam (Apr. 29th-May
4th) had been built as schools, warehouses and even a
dungeon. These locations were particularly pertinent
for this year’s fest, which united local improvisers (A)
with visitors from Berlin (B) and Chicago (C). The
festival also demonstrated how different musicians
repurpose the jazz and improvised traditions.
Probably the most spectacular instance of this
came in the three ‘round midnight performances by
Hook, Line & Sinker (HLS) at the Spinhuis. A former
dungeon located beneath the Multatuli Bridge, the
cramped, subterranean space was an ideal setting for
the unique sensibilities of slide trumpeter Axel Dörner,
tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Tobias Delius, cellist
Tristan Honsinger and bassist Antonio Borghini.
Seeming at times either performance of Waiting for
Godot or vaudeville act, the concert relied as much on
verbal as instrumental improvisation. The wordplay,
usually sparked by Honsinger, often devolved into
skits, with the foursome continuously changing places
in the room, singing pseudo-sea shanties or acting out
neo-Dadaist playlets. Euphonious as well as
entertaining, innate musical sophistication allowed
Delius to slurp pre-modern styled balladry and postmodern
screeches with the same conviction he used to
deflect the cellist’s puns and Dörner to growl split
tones from his bell or rhythmically advance a tune
blowing raspberries sans trumpet.
Another musician who epitomized rhythm and
humor was South African reed player Sean Bergin
(1948-2012), an Amsterdam resident from 1976 until
his death. His music was celebrated as the climax of
the festival’s five-stop bicycle tour at De Ruimte, an
abandoned factory converted to a café. The packed
house swayed and sometimes danced along to Bergin
tunes that transmuted kwela jive into swinging jazz.
Celebrants represented all three cities: cornet players
Eric Boeren and Josh Berman; trombonists Jeb Bishop
and Wolter Wierbos; tenor saxophonists John Dikeman
and Delius; vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz; bass
guitarist Jasper Stadhouders; and drummer Frank
Rosaly. Contrasts between Bishop’s contemporary
gutbucket and Wierbos’ polished emotionalism were
clear, as was Delius’ creamy tone stacked up against
Dikeman’s frenetic New Thing-like textures.
Adasiewicz’ energetic clanking sparked the ensemble
while Rosaly cannily suggested steel pan vibrations
and African drum beats.
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 51)
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2016 13