‘IMPROS VERSUS JAZZOS’ REINIER BAAS, JAMESZOO, AND EXPLORING THE RICHTINGENSTRIJD IN A NEW GENERATION OF DUTCH JAZZ by Thijs Janssen Master’s thesis July 4th 2019 University of Amsterdam – Graduate School of Humanities Arts and Culture – Music Studies Student number: 10341900 Supervisor: Maarten Beirens [email protected] University of Amsterdam Graduate School of Humanities Master’s program Contents Introduction 3 1. Jazz in the Netherlands 8 1.1 The birth of the Hollandse School 8 1.2 Developing the impro practice and the rise of Dutch ensemble culture 14 2. The Richtingenstrijd 25 2.1 Constructing a jazz narrative 25 2.2 The Richtingenstrijd as a narrational device 32 3. Reinier Baas 39 3.1 Life and music 39 3.2 Baas and the Richtingenstrijd 45 4. Jameszoo 52 4.1 Life and music 52 4.2 Jameszoo and the Richtingenstrijd 58 Synthesis and conclusion 64 Bibliography 66 2 Introduction Impros, avant-gardes, creative improvised music, free jazz, ‘current improvised music’, New Dutch Swing and perhaps most well known and used: Dutch improvised music or Hollandse School (translated as ‘Dutch School’). Many terms have Been used to delineate the new style of jazz music that emerged in the Netherlands during the late 1960’s and 1970’s. This style included an outspoken and explicit search of a Dutch cultural identity and an increasing association with experimental and innovative elements in jazz music. Musicians like Han Bennink, Misha MengelBerg, Willem Breuker, Leo Cuyper, and collectives such as the Instant Composers Pool and the later Willem Breuker Kollektief, strived to move and change the Boundaries of what was ‘permitted’ in the traditionally American-focussed jazz practice – as well as in the performance tradition as on a more organizational level – and aimed for a free and an explicit Dutch improving jazz practice. Inspired By 1960’s counterculture phenomena such as Fluxus and free jazz, these improvising musicians (or ‘impros’) intentionally distanced themselves from already estaBlished and traditional jazz musicians (or ‘jazzos’) like Rita Reys and Pim JacoBs, creating a divide in the Dutch jazz life of the 1970’s. As musicologist Loes Rusch has put it: ‘During these years, the meaning of jazz within Dutch cultural life altered from Being identified primarily as an American musical form to one that was identified with the Dutch musical community.’1 In search for a musical cultural identity of their own, the impro musicians developed their practice during the 1970’s alongside other avant-gardists in the Netherlands. Contemporary composers such Theo Loevendie, ReinBert de Leeuw, and Louis Andriessen, shared the same goal as the impro pioneers: opening up the estaBlished musical tradition for a new music and democratizing the musical infrastructure in the Netherlands that had long been structured by hierarchy and exclusion. Together, contemporary composers and improvising musicians Began an overhaul of Dutch cultural life, sparking the Dutch ensemble culture. Inspired and influenced by their contemporary music allies, the impros succeeded in not only creating a musical practice for themselves But also creating a supporting organizational infrastructure for funding that practice, estaBlishing educational programs such as open 1 Rusch 2016: 4. 3 workshops, stage opportunities, governmental recognition, the attraction of new audiences and beginning union-like institutions for Dutch improvised music. Along with this growing estaBlishment and development of Dutch improvised music as a practice and tradition, the divide grew seemingly larger Between the impros and jazzos in the Dutch jazz scene of the 1970’s. Where the improvising musicians were searching for a way to express their local cultural identity in a free and interactive music, the jazzos stayed true to the American-focussed traditional jazz model. This resulted in a Battle of directions in the Dutch jazz life, or what now is known as the Richtingenstrijd. Musicologist Loes Rusch has written extensively on Dutch jazz culture, the development of Dutch improvised music and the Richtingenstrijd between the impros and jazzos. Moreover in her work ‘Our suBcultural shit-music: Dutch jazz, representation, and cultural politics’ (2016), Rusch provides a different understanding of the Richtingenstrijd and argues how this battle of directions could be seen as set of selective homogenous and often paradoxical representations that construct and support a local frame of reference through which individual musicians, musical groups, performances, and institutions, are positioned and valued to this day.2 It is interesting how Rusch has stated that the Richtingenstrijd Between the impros and jazzos of the 1970’s, that we now recognize as the start of the Dutch jazz tradition, continues to influence and inform the jazz discourse of today and continues to construct the jazz narrative in the Netherlands. And this is especially interesting to examine nowadays, Because although impro groups like the ICP are still performing live and the impro culture and infrastructure is still an embodiment of the current Dutch jazz culture, a new generation of Dutch jazz musicians has risen. Players like Reinier Baas, Joris Roelofs, Jameszoo, Ben van Gelder, Morris Kliphuis and others, have made name for themselves in the Netherlands and aBroad as skilled and respected jazz musicians. Also, the Dutch jazz discourse has shown an interest in ‘claiming’ and framing these young and upcoming jazz musicians as part of the explicit Dutch jazz tradition. Through initiatives as the documentary New Generation, a series of portraits of young jazz musicians in the Netherlands who are ‘linked’ to musicians of the previous Dutch jazz generation, there is an attempt to secure a future for Dutch jazz.3 Positioning and valuing these youngsters as explicit Dutch jazz musicians places them in 2 Rusch 2016: 50-51. 3 NPO 2018. 4 the framework of Dutch jazz tradition that Rusch has noted is still determined By the representations of the Richtingenstrijd. This interest raises certain questions of how the current generation of Dutch jazz musicians relate to the tradition of Dutch improvised music and jazz in the Netherlands, and moreover how we can see the relation Between the Richtingenstrijd and these young musicians. In this thesis, I will aim to answer these questions and examine how and to what extend we can see the Richtingenstrijd as a narrational device that is part of discursive frame of reference against which individual musicians, groups and institutions are positioned and valued, in relation to today’s Dutch jazz generation. In order to view this relation, I will Be looking at two case studies of Both prominent and highlighted young Dutch jazz musicians, who each have a different But relevant place in the current Dutch jazz scene, and use Rusch’s representations of the Richtingenstrijd as an analysing method. The first chapter consists of a historic literary study on jazz in the Netherlands, discussing the jazz climate in which musicians like MengelBerg, Bennink, and Breuker, discovered a desire to search for their own local cultural identity in jazz music and steer away from an American-based jazz model. In providing such a historic overview, there will Be a focus on Loes Rusch’s work on the development of Dutch improvised music and the estaBlishment of the Dutch ensemble culture in relation to cultural politics and jazz historiography in the Netherlands. Also the work of musicologist and historian Floris Schuiling – such as The Instant Composers Pool and improvisation beyond jazz (2018) – will help in understanding the formation of the impros’ work as a distinct Dutch musical practice and view how the improvising musicians were inspired and influenced By other non-Dutch players such as Eric Dolphy, AlBert Ayler and Ornett Coleman. This first chapter will also include the estaBlishment of the avant-garde musical infrastructure in the Netherlands, the further characteristics of an explicit impro practice and the relation Between the improvising musicians and the contemporary composers in the Dutch ensemble culture. The following chapter will delve deeper into the Richtingenstrijd and examine how the developing impro practice distinguished itself from the remaining jazzo practice in the Netherlands and how they were perceived in the jazz discourse. However, Before viewing the differences Between the impros and jazzos and moreover Rusch’s understanding of the apparent homogenous and dichotomous representations 5 of these jazz groups, this second chapter will include a Background of the complexities of jazz historiography and the influential role of (iconic) representations in the construction of a jazz narrative. Musicologist and historian Scott DeVeaux and Tony Whyton have both written essential works on these topics and therefore will be used as an important theoretical foundation of this chapter. After discussing these works and theories, I will move on to research Rusch’s concept of the Richtingenstrijd as a narrational device and systematic valuing frame of reference in terms of an analysing method for the following case studies that will represent the current generation of Dutch jazz musicians. The third chapter will then contain the first case study: Reinier Baas. Born in 1985, Baas is a young But highly respected jazz guitarist and composer in the Netherlands. He has studied at the Conservatory of Amsterdam – where he was only recently appointed as head guitar teacher at the jazz department – and at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. With his collective The More Socially Relevant Jazz Music Ensemble (TMSRJME for short), Baas has won the Dutch national Edison jazz award in 2013 as well as in 2017, and has Been noted numerous times By jazz critics as ‘the most exiting and hip jazz band the Netherlands has to offer’.4 As one of the Netherlands’ most lauded and well respected jazz musicians, Baas will be an interesting first case study in viewing the Richtingenstrijd as a continuing value system in the Dutch jazz discourse.5 The fourth chapter and second case study is on Michel van Dinther (1992-), Better known as Jameszoo.