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Going Dutch in Baltimore
by Anthony Medici in Concert Reviews, Musician Reviews, Opinion Posts
You’ll excuse me, I hope, for borrowing one of my own previous blog titles to talk about last night’s superb performance at An Die Musik in Baltimore of the Ab Baars Trio and Ken Vandermark (as the performance was billed). It just fits so well. I used the same blog title last November when I covered the performance of Trio Braam/De Joode/Vatcher, with Michiel Braam on piano, Wilbert DeJoode on double bass, and Michael Vatcher on drums, at the very same An Die Musik. De Joode was back last night, this time in the company of some other talented Dutchmen: Ab Baars on tenor sax, clarinet and shakuhachi ( a Japanese bamboo flute) and Martin van Duynhoven on drums. Joining them was American Ken Vandermark, based in Chicago, one of the preeminent American (although my wife points out the name is Dutch) musicians in creative improvised music, also on tenor sax and clarinet. Issues of nationality aside, the wonderful thing about this music is that it draws on and immediately transcends local, national, and international boundaries (space is the place, indeed).
Baars may not be the strongest tenor player around, and not in Vandermark’s league when it comes to technical proficiency and sheer blowing power, but he is thoroughly creative and a perfect tag team partner for Vandermark, who was sporting the tightest crewcut this side of a Marine Corps barracks. The interplay between them, whether paired on tenor, clarinet, or tenor-clarinet, was never less than engrossing. De Joode, whom I praised mightily last November, gave me no reason to doubt my initial judgment; he is wickedly clever on bass. Martin van Duynhoven on drums was not much of a factor in this performance. He has a sharp, crisp, manner and sound, but his impact was mild. This night belonged to the front line of Baars and Vandermark. Both of them switched freely from tenor to clarinet (and on one piece, Baars on bamboo flute), sometimes in the middle of a piece, creating pungent and creative dialogues. Highlights included Vandermark’s “Waltz for Monk,” which captured but did not imitate Monk’s manner, and “Tribute to Gesualdo,” a homage to the Renaissance composer “known for his daring chromatic harmonies,” according to Encarta), which climaxed in a keening clarinet duo that eventually resolved into a lovely Renaissance-tinged melody. “Honest John” (For John Gilmore) and “Von” (for Von Freeman), (Baars compositions, I believe), were fully engaging.
In fact, the whole set was so engaging, I stayed for the second set as well. As Baars told the audience at the end of the first set, the second set would have, “All new songs, same improvisations,” a nice example of Dutch humor perhaps.
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