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What's So Funny About Reeds, Brass and Syncopation?

What's So Funny About Reeds, Brass and Syncopation?

WHAT’S SO FUNNY ABOUT REEDS, BRASS AND SYNCOPATION? The ICP Orchestra are known for their seamless blend of composition and improvisation with a humorous touch. Kurt Gottschalk hangs with the band for three days in Philadelphia. Photos by Ryan Collerd. signing-in, Philadelphia, PA, April 2011.

The April Fools’ tradition dates back at gestion and goes back to sleep. The next accounts in the centuries since Chaucer. least to the 14th century, when it was cited day, however, a sly fox convinces him to In 1969 a story aired on Dutch television in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer references show off his vocal talents, and as he crows stating that a new device would detect TV it there in the Nun’s Priest Tale, in which it’s the fox catches him in his teeth and runs off license fee evaders. A government official said to have occurred “since March began, with him. The barnyard denizens run after was quoted as saying that it was likely to be thirty days and two.” There’s some ques- them to try to save the rooster but the fox effective, since people would be unwilling tion as to the accuracy of the text (modern is too quick. Eventually, the rooster tells the to wrap their sets in aluminum foil. The next scholars believe it should read “since March fox that he should stop long enough to tell day there was a run on foil at stores across was gone,” and that Chaucer was refer- the other animals to give up the chase and the country, despite the fact that there was ring to May 2nd, 32 days after the end of with the same downfall of pride that almost no such thing as a TV license. March), but in the past it’s been assumed undid the rooster himself, the fox stops and 1969 was also a productive year for the he meant the day after March 31. On opens his mouth to yell to his pursuers, giv- then-fledgling whichever date it was meant to have taken ing the rooster opportunity to escape. and its record label, also bearing the name place, the tale concerns a rooster which has References to April Fools’ Day, or All “ICP.” Two years prior, drummer Han Ben- a dream prophesying his own death. He is Fools’ Day, have recurred through Brit- nink and saxophonist had a convinced by one of his hens it’s just indi- ish, French and Flemish poetry and news record pressed as the New Acoustic Swing 12 | SIGNAL to NOISE #62 WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM SIGNAL to NOISE #62 | 13 Top: leads !omas Heberer, and Walter Weirbos. Bo"om: Ab Baars sigtseeing.

Duo, solidifying the loose conglomera- begins collecting and wiping off music ‘deet, bop beep,’ very musical but not too tion that had been working as the Instant stands. Bennink walks in and out of the much.” Composers Pool into an identifiable thing, room through various doorways as though Having played all the elements, if not the a product with covers individually drawn he were acting in a slow-paced comedy entire piece, they break. Mengelberg will by Bennink and bearing the serial number sketch. arrive shortly before showtime. “Double ICP-001. The first appearance of the Instant Indeed, there’s a fair bit of laughter heard Ostrich Conundrum” will be included in that Composers Pool as a performing ensemble as each musician sets up his or her instru- night’s set list being made by Delius. The on record came the following year, a trio ments. Referential asides are bandied about set list used to be Mengelberg’s task, and with Bennink, pianist Misha Mengelberg in English and Dutch. Bennink takes a seat for a while Bennink took it over, but now the (who co-founded with Bennink and Breuker in the front row, the drum set having not assignment rotates somewhat haphazardly. the ICP) and saxophonist . In yet arrived, and watches the proceedings, They take the stage that night without 1969, the label released ICP-004 by the duo laughing regularly. Glerum works over a Mengelberg as well, opening with his “Kraal of Bennink and British guitarist , borrowed bass, tuning and testing its voice. Kraal Locht” before taking on the Ostrich a pairing that would carry on for the next “It sounds very funny,” he said, peering up conundrum. When Honsinger leaves his four decades. That year also saw a number at his bandmates. Oliver gives a soft coyote chair to begin the ostrich-walk cuing, it of recordings which would eventually be howl as Bennink looks on, laughing again. seems in a way unplanned, as if he might released on the label. Sessions by quartets, Within half an hour, all except Mengel- have suddenly broken into a strolling quintets, sextets and septets all under the berg are in formation and ready to run conduction no matter what piece they were ICP name were recorded, with Bennink as through charts. Cellist Tristan Honsinger has playing. It comes off like a magic trick—and the only constant member. Breuker mean- brought a complex piece bearing the title magic tricks, of course, require practice. while recorded an outdoor concert with “Double Ostrich Conundrum” which the They carry on with ’s three barrel organs in a Gunter Hampel-led band has played only once before, or per- “Mood Indigo” and Ab Baars’ “Brigade” sextet with , Arjen Gorter, haps only rehearsed, depending on which before swinging into Mengelberg’s “Off to Jeanne Lee and Steve McCall. band member you ask, as usual. Honsinger the Races,” a great piece pitting the strings The ICP Orchestra began to take shape breaks it down into short sections and calls and trombonist Wierbos against the rest of in the early ‘80s with a series of repertory up subgroups to play individual parts. The the horns in a scrimmage of tonalities. Then projects dedicated to three of Mengelberg’s three (Ab Baars, Toby Delius and they play “Rollo III” from Mengelberg’s dearest inspirations: pianist/composers Michael Moore) play a brief and beautiful wonderful series of “Rollo” pieces and close Duke Ellington, and section reminiscent of Hindemith. Then with another bit of Ellingtonia in Juan Tizol’s . Since then, the evolv- Honsinger, Heberer and Oliver follow with a “Caravan,” with Bennink embodying the ing Orchestra has taken on the mantle fractured fragment. Baars and Delius switch whole of the song with his drums-against- of cultural ambassadors, bringing their to tenors to play a fanfare with Wolter Wi- horn accents. If the band is tired from distinctive take on the radical develop- erbos’s trombone, then Delius and Moore the previous night’s concert, it’s only the ments in improvised music in the 1960s (on alto) join Oliver for a bit of Ellingtonia. showmanship and not the music that has and ’70s to stages around the world. With After that, a sadly sweet string trio plays for suffered. respect to their blend of improvisation and a moment—each of these sections lasted composition, the trumpeter less than a minute. One, in fact, Honsinger Or maybe it’s simply the case that the has memorably compared the group to “a specifies as lasting about two seconds in members of the ICP Orchestra aren’t actu- herd of elephants. Each one doing its own duration. (Oliver: “Is it a gliss?” Honsinger: ally that funny. And for that matter they’re thing, seemingly oblivious to the others. “It’s a gliss.”) They execute a double reverse not Dutch, either, not most of them. Let’s And without any cue they all start running glissando and then move on to the next set the facts straight. They are, maybe, in one direction. Without any signal, again section, but Oliver soon stops them. about one quarter funny—and one third they stop.” “We’re playing in different tempos,” she American, for the love of Pete, which is not says. even to mention the Brits and Germans in More than forty years after the ICP’s “It’s OK, though,” the drummer pro- the band, or the fact that the ensemble’s founding, on April Fools’ Day 2011, the ICP nounces from his seat in the audience. “I leader is Ukrainian by birth. Orchestra are about to begin a three-night like it.” “I hate humor,” Mengelberg confides stint in a 100-year-old church in Philadel- In about a half hour they are close to during lunch in downtown Philly. “But when phia’s Center City. Bassist Ernst Glerum and nailing it—pastiche doesn’t come easy— things are humorless, with a small voice I trumpeter Thomas Heberer are the first and they move on to the final page. The say ‘is there nobody to make a small joke to arrive at the church, having just made last of the three sections involves Honsinger out of all this rubbish?’” the train ride down from New York. The cuing the ensemble with an exaggerated Mengelberg is settled into a booth at a previous night’s gig at Le Poisson Rouge walk, knees reaching high, arms crossed in Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant, having just asked had been a draining success, with musi- front of him, hands moving like the beaks of the waitress that the blend of ’80s and cian friends like Peter Evans, squawking geese. As he executes this ma- contemporary synthesized pop be turned and George Lewis in the audience. Glerum neuver, he explains the musical meanings of down. Already there was something funny sits down at the grand and begins each gesture. Sticking his tongue out would about the scene. playing some gentle chords before he’s be a cue to play, he said, and it will only “That is our sense of humor,” he explains even taken off his coat and backpack. The happen in pairs for duets within the piece. with a stern look. “The Dutch think when rest file in several minutes later, all except Vigorous stomping means stop. somebody falls on the floor in a clumsy way Mengelberg, as Glerum steps it up to a “And when I walk like this,” he adds, and breaks his nose, that’s funny. My friends livelier rag. Violinist Mary Oliver helpfully returning to his rubber-legged march, “it’s in the orchestra like that type of humor.” 14 | SIGNAL to NOISE #62 WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM SIGNAL to NOISE #62 | 15 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Michael Moore unwinds a#er the gig.

(Asked about what sort of movies he likes in Holland since 1987, and through her for- in the basement of Carnegie Hall. Our if he hates humor, he responds, “Buñuel is mer employment with the famed Bimhuis luncheon joke, as it turned out, has a layer funny.”) theater in gradually came of truth. As he speaks, Mengelberg reacts to every to be an all-around administrator for the sound in the restaurant, mimicking or dart- band. She has no official title, she says, but A three-night run in one place is rare for ing his eyes in the direction of its source or serves as business manager, booking agent the ICP, and the stay gives the members responding with a smile or a laugh. He is as and nurse. Under any one of those titles, of the band a chance to explore the city, quick to change topics in the discussion as she is the force that makes the ICP’s tours in specific a field trip to the Philadelphia he is to refocus anytime a question is put possible. After lunch, as Mengelberg naps Museum of Art. Baars, Bennink, Heberer, to him. Asked about what sort of music he before the second Philly show, she speaks Moore and Oliver convene in the hotel listens to when he’s at home, he responds candidly about his well-being—a concern lobby but alternately walk, hail a cab or take matter-of-factly: “I don’t like music.” He then not often far from the lips of the orchestra’s the bus, leaving them scattered around the howls and barks a little. “I’m in favor of good followers. museum. Almost by instinct, however, they coffee,” he adds, “but this is dishwater.” “He’s had a heart attack and he’s had a find each other in the museum’s Marcel Du- A conversation with Mengelberg can stroke, he has bursitis and problems with champ gallery. It’s there that Mary Oliver sits reflect the absurdist tendencies that have his arms,” von Canon says. “Misha’s always quietly when Bennink suddenly, but without long been cited as his early influences. His been somewhere else. Maybe now he’s just a sound, bounds into the room to grab her participation in experiments goes a little bit further somewhere else. I truly and take her next door to a gallery devoted back about as far as his musical perfor- believe that behind his present frailty and to his countryman, Piet Mondrian. mances, although certainly his love for obstacles, he’s sharp as a tack. Sometimes “My favorite, though, is the Cy Twombly,” Thelonious Monk has been more apparent he’s close to what we call reality and some- Bennink says definitively. “With Mondrian, than Jean Arp or Marcel Duchamp. His times he’s further away, but he always has it’s the clarity. You can also have clarity in ex- surreal leaps of abstract logic can be will- music.” pressionist painting, and music of course. I fully befuddling. He has an odd way of not Mengelberg’s sense of humor runs in like to have clarity. It’s a very personal thing, needing other people to be in on the joke. deep and unusual directions. He might but even in improvisation I go for form, a Over salad and crab cakes, Mengelberg speak directly, but leave out crucial details beginning and a nice ending. Clarity, yeah! crafts a plan to play Carnegie Hall, enlisting that would make what he’s saying make It should be in balance, nice colors. If you this journalist, our photographer and some- sense. He makes complex puns using look at an early Mondrian, he did a tree or a one he met at the hotel bar the previous syntax or homonyms crossing between portrait, but then he came upon [using only] night (despite his not being present at lunch different languages. And, according to the form.” or even being familiar with the band) as the von Canon, he reassigns nuances to the Bennink’s own drawings and calligraphy people who will make it happen. When the words he uses. “OK,” for example, is high have graced most of the ICP label’s releas- restaurant server returns to check on the praise, and “pretty well OK” is the highest es, and he is a dedicated painter as well. table, he explains the plan to her and drafts of praise. Speaking of the second night’s Glerum also paints and Wierbos draws, but her onto the production team as well. He concert, which featured guest vocalist Fay Bennink is the only member of the band sets forth specific details, playing with the Victor, Mengelberg says, “It was a nice who shows his work in galleries. He has also irrationality of the situation. concert or what I prefer an ‘OK concert.’ It’s launched a website for his visual work, or at Mengelberg also has a way of separating not so incredible, it’s OK.” In that respect, least hired someone to do it. “I paid 2,500 himself from the band, speaking of “those he is apparently pleased; however, when for the motherfucker,” he says. “It should be stupid people who call themselves part of it is suggested that the audience seemed there.” (It is, at hanbennink.com.) a pool” with a feigned exasperation. “They to love it, he says simply, “they have to The drummer continued to stalk the are completely untrustworthy, but only in decide for themselves what something museum’s halls, Baars, Moore and Oliver certain aspects,” he says of his ensemble, is, the audience. I don’t intervene in their contemplatively following behind. He spies as is “my wife, of course, and the manager. making opinions. They should decide for a Pollock, an unusually quasi-figurative She will, if not necessary, speak the truth.” themselves. If somebody said ‘Your concert piece completed in 1943 and titled Male That manager, Susanna von Canon, sits was fantastic’ I’d say, ‘Did you listen well and Female, and he approaches it in long next to him, squeezing lemons and mixing enough?’ Nobody dares to say that they strides. the juice with olive oil for the pianist’s salad did not listen well enough.” “When they see me playing, they think I dressing. She smiles faintly while he holds While nobody is presuming to make make paintings like Jackson Pollock, which court. decisions for Mengelberg, von Canon and I don’t do,” he says. “I have two sides, I “It’s completely of no interest that I’m members of the band all suggested that guess.” born in the Ukraine,” Mengelberg insists. “I the spring tour—which took the band from Having two sides, however, isn’t the had 2-1/2 years to learn sentences in Rus- New York and Baltimore to Chicago, Des Dutch way. Bennink said his musical reputa- sian and then we fled because there was a Moines, Austin, Houston and Seattle—may tion has hindered him in the Amsterdam guy that wanted to confiscate my mother’s have been Mengelberg’s last trip to the US. art world. “In Holland you’re not allowed harp. She was in the orchestra in Kiev. “I do believe that this is the last tour of that to serve two masters,” he says. “It’s too “Nobody’s Dutch,” he insists of his band, states that Misha will be on, but I could be Calvinistic. You aren’t supposed to do two allowing, “ is Dutch and Ab wrong,” she said. “If Carnegie Hall calls, things.” is also Dutch. It seems to be a Dutch-orient- he’ll be the first one on the plane.” Bennink continues moving through the ed band. Almost everybody tries to speak She has, in fact, been working on a plan museum in giant steps—even on his way Dutch. Han is Dutch as smoked eel.” for the orchestra to play at Zankel Hall, the to the bathroom he can’t stop reading The American-born von Canon has lived refurbished and acoustically pristine room artist nameplates. He stops briefly by an 16 | SIGNAL to NOISE #62 WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM SIGNAL to NOISE #62 | 17 Jazz From Another Place: !omas Heberer warms up

Ilya Bolotowsky (“I would steal this one, Oliver in many ways seems to be the and other Dutch artists,” he continues. “It too.”) before positioning himself in front band’s den mother. Along with von Canon, didn’t really appeal to me, but then I saw of Manet’s 1872 View in Holland. The gray she does much to keep the ship on course. Misha who was working with this other painting depicts sailboats in a harbor. She also calls the men on the locker-room Fluxus man Wim Schippers, who worked in “That’s where I live, me and Terrie Ex,” he humor that sometimes permeates their theater and television. That impressed me says excitedly. “It’s so nicely painted.” He green rooms, but is just as prone to turn very much. They were doing a series in a leans in close and then leans back, panto- a surprisingly blue comment herself. One theater called ‘the Mickery.’ The night I went miming brush strokes with arm extended. wonders how the men might manage with- they had invited Derek Bailey, it was the “You look at it and say ‘how is it done?’ but out these two women steering. first time I saw him. He was playing alone. the more you go away the more it becomes Along with Honsinger and Moore, Oliver The next night there was a man reading a a ship.” is a part of the American contingent of text that I think Wim and Misha wrote that Having covered a small part of the expan- the group, introduced to the Dutch scene meant nothing. They next evening they sive institution, Bennink, Moore and Oliver when she was brought to the 1991 October made smoke in the theater so that the the- make their way to the museum café, where Meeting in Amsterdam by trombonist ater manager came out and said ‘what are they engage in a fast-paced discussion George Lewis, her teacher at you doing, you’re burning down my theater’ covering musical education, legumes and in Oakland, CA. She applied for a Fulbright and then Han and [South African saxophon- sex, interspersed with laughter. Scholarship to study with Mengelberg and, ist] came out of the smoke “Conservatories are basically built on this when she didn’t get it, took up a residency playing. It was really brilliant and stupid at system from Bach: repeat, repeat, repeat, in Stutengarten, Germany, and traveled be- the same time.” and that’s fine,” Bennink complains. “But tween there and Amsterdam. With training Mengelberg had organized an ensemble jazz players, you recognize them from how in classical performance, she has premiered and, in those days, was a forceful leader, they sound, that’s the main thing, not to solo pieces by and Ian- Honsinger says. repeat Coltrane.” nis Xenakis. For her, there’s a strong Dutch “Misha was like a policeman,” he says. “They say people were booing Stravinsky, identity within the ICP. “He would come up and interrupt people but they were booing the choreography,” “I think in Holland there’s a strong sense while they were playing. I was the first to say Oliver responds. of collectiveness,” she remarks, “at least in ‘I’m leaving,’ and it fell apart. He was very “The French are very rococo,” Bennink the improvising community. That’s definitely arrogant and opinionated and provocative, says decidedly. the strength of ICP—everybody’s taking and now he’s kind of the opposite. He’s kind Moore, meanwhile, is scooping refried responsibility for their own contributions. of given up his control. We all have our little black beans from a cup with a plastic spoon. As an American living in Holland, that’s say and Misha seems to have an invisible “Can you get black beans in Holland?” certainly been the story. function. Not taking the lead gives him a he asks Oliver. “The history of expansion, whether it was special role in the group. He’s very frugal.” “Yeah, I get them all the time,” she colonial or the people that came over here, If the time comes when the band has to replies. that’s the kind of freedom in the group,” face working without Mengelberg’s involve- “Are you a bean fan?” Bennink interjects. she continued. “I’m not a jazz violinist and ment, Honsinger says he could see the “Mary too!” nobody has ever told me to play like that. band continuing to tour. “Yeah, Californians,” she says, explaining You’re given this rope to try to find your “Oh, sure. I don’t know if I would enjoy it her and Moore’s native home as a dietary own way. I didn’t have that feeling living in as much, but it could happen,” he says. “I determinant. Germany. It’s like a small village, Amster- think the band would evolve in a different “What is it with beans?” Bennink asks. dam. There’s this sophistication. ICP is like way, at which point I would say ‘why are we “They make you poop! Marcel Duchamp that. You have that freedom to ride your doing this?’ But I also have questions about had prostate cancer, so my question is, was bike or go wherever you want to go or play why I question. he not eating enough beans?” at your own tempo.” “There was a time not long ago when “My theory is he was not fucking Tristan Honsinger has spent many more Han took the lead and he was very hard on enough,” Oliver offers. years as a European expatriate. After everyone, especially himself,” he added. “He certainly was obsessed with it growing up in Springfield, MA, the cellist “But then he kind of gave up too and now enough,” Moore says. moved to Montreal when he was in his we’re a leaderless group. He’s very Dutch, “Yeah,” Bennink laughed. “Looking at it!” twenties and in 1974 relocated to Amster- but not Dutch at all. It’s a funny country. It’s “I like looking at it,” Oliver counters. dam upon hearing some ICP releases as kind of a mystery how Misha developed this “Sure!” Bennink shoots back. “I would well as records on the German label FMP movement. It has a lot to do with the past rather look at a beautiful woman than a and Britain’s Incus imprint, co-founded by century of movements, from Dada to Fluxus Mondrian!” guitarist Derek Bailey. He, too, sees at least and these movements of art. I think they “Well that’s obvious,” Oliver mutters. a little Dutch personality in the band, as well took some kind of responsibility to show The conversation turns back to beans and as influences from across Europe and across surreality and what means right-doing and from there, to bassist Dave Holland’s tenure media. wrong-doing, which for me is the antithesis in the Miles Davis group. “I would say that although the older guys of dogmatic sensibility. It comes to the point “He looked so funny in that band, this 22- are maybe typically Dutch but also untypi- of really not knowing, it goes to the mystery. year-old hippie with a headband,” Moore cally in a way,” Honsinger observes. “Han Misha is very anti-mystic, but I would say says with a broad smile. and Misha were influenced not only by he’s closer to Sun Ra than he would care to “What time do we have rehearsal?” music but by writing, visual arts, they’re very admit.” Oliver says suddenly. “Michael, do you want international. Having joined in 2003, saxophonist to do the set list?” “When I got there I met Willem Breuker is the newest member of 18 | SIGNAL to NOISE #62 WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM SIGNAL to NOISE #62 | 19 the group. Born in England to Argentinian course, and if they were told that’s what and German parents, Delius and his family they were doing they would probably have moved to Germany at age 10. In the early taken pains to sabotage the arrangement. 1980s, Delius moved to Holland and four Nevertheless, on this night they found years ago he returned to Germany. “I find themselves in the unusual position of being it difficult to pinpoint a particular nationality joined by a guest vocalist. [in the ensemble],” he said. “I think what But if Fay Victor was a guest, she certainly Han and Misha did was develop a par- has a talent for making herself at home. ticular method in how to deal with the jazz Previously, she has eased her way into the tradition that was quite specific to them. full of New York’s longstanding By the time I came in 1984 it was already quartet Other Dimensions in Music, smug- very multi-national. If you look at the first gling lyrics from old calypso songs into their ICP records there was Derek Bailey and open improvisations. Here there would be Dudu Pukwana and Peter Brötzmann. What not just songs but a set list largely compris- I loved about the ICP is how nondogmatic ing tunes by Thelonious Monk and Herbie the music was. This idea of not being too Nichols, two of Mengelberg’s favorites. defined about ‘are you playing jazz, are you It wasn’t a blind date, however. Victor playing traditional music,’ that was quite recorded with Wierbos a decade ago, and unusual in Amsterdam.” the pair did a show with Mengelberg and German by birth, trumpeter Thomas Glerum last year. “It was the Nichols/Monk Heberer joined the ICP but has never lived connection, we did this program then too,” in the . For the last three years, Wierbos says. “It was fantastic orchestra- he has been based in New York City. He tion, just piano, bass, trombone and voice, too, says there’s something Dutch about the no drums. I like to be the only horn. With band he joined in 1993, if only among the Michael I can do that composing on the Dutchmen. spot, but with most other horn players it’s “When you look at improvised music in not a good fit. And Fay fits right in. She Europe, the origins of the music in the ’60s, never comes in late or says she needs to you can clearly identify national scenes,” he hear us do this at this spot.” says. “To simplify, the British musicians were Because it’s a more specified set list, it’s always the extremists. It was always about a done this time by committee in the green pure influence, it was absolutely forbidden room shortly before the show. They arrange to quote something or use something. The the order of the vocal pieces (Victor has Germans were similar whereas the French written lyrics to some of the Monk and were about incorporating their folk music Nichols tunes) and assign soloists. and their tradition. The Dutch were always “How about ‘Zing, Zang Zaterdag’?” about playfulness, mixing circus music, Oliver said. It’s one of the charmingly simple Thelonious Monk and Schoenberg—every- vocal pieces Mengelberg has penned, a thing is equal. catchy tune that runs through the days of “If you compare Ab and Wolter to the the week starting with Saturday and count- way I behave on stage, you can clearly see I ing a ten-day stretch: “But on Monday came from a different background,” he con- I’ve got a headache that lasts until 1:00 in tinues. “If you grow up in Germany, you are the afternoon / And what then? / Nobody obsessed with perfection. You don’t see too knows.” many grinning faces on German musicians.” “Ah, it’s Saturday,” Bennink replies. Like Oliver, Heberer said it was left to him to “That’s a good idea.” find his place in the band. “Maybe last,” says Moore. “When I joined, nobody was teaching me “Yes,” Bennink responds quickly. “Always the rules,” he says. “It took me about five last.” Bennink, always the crowd pleaser. years to understand the rules. You weren’t Moore busily copies the list. Wierbos, necessarily forced to behave right away. meanwhile, is looking for information about Since then Toby and Mary have joined. I Benjamin Franklin on his smart phone. saw them struggling so I was not the only “I thought I’d write down the first soloist one. It feels like being a teenager and grow- in most cases,” Moore says. “Then if some- ing up.” one wants to come in, they come in.” Heberer, however, speaks with more cer- Glerum leans out the church window to tainty about the future of the ensemble than have a cigarette. Bennink, drumming on the do some of his bandmates. “There’s no small table, says he needs to find an Apple doubt that ICP will continue,” he says. “We store. all know the language. There’s still a lot of “Is that like a tampon, an iPad?” Wierbos ground to cover and a lot to record. Michael asks without looking up. Moore sometimes goes to the National Oliver stands and feigns a sigh of disgust. Archive and finds, like, a Misha Mengelberg Then, as she walks out of the room, she opera from 1972 that no one else is going announces, “If you want to see me do my to do. That’s kind of the job of the ICP. thing, pull my string!” to howls of laughter “We are like a democracy,” he added. and disbelief from the men. “There is no hierarchy. Everybody is re- A bottle of wine is opened and Glerum spected. There’s a particular type of beauty and Wierbos begin a game of “Desert to see this diversity. Economically there is Storm” on their phones. no hierarchy in ICP. Han Bennink earns the As the concert gets underway, they are same thing that I earn. It goes beyond the rested and personable, with Bennink as usu- idea of music. It presents an ideal view of al the focal point. He takes a solo early on, the world.” dampening the snare drum with his foot in a trademark move that always draws laughter If on the first night the orchestra was from the audience. But it isn’t funny per se, a little weary, for the second concert the it’s just efficient. Abrupt stylistic changes members are cast in the unusual position aren’t funny, they’re just a product of clever of being a backing band. Not entirely, of arrangement. What’s funny? One of the lo- 20 | SIGNAL to NOISE #62 WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM SIGNAL to NOISE #62 | 21 cal papers leads a preview of the weekend’s Oliver describes as “the longest marriage run of shows by comparing Mengelberg I’ve known besides my parents.” and Bennink not to Duke Ellington and In short time, Mengelberg finds his way Sonny Greer, not to Thelonious Monk and into a blues. Bennink quiets down for a or and Andrew Cy- moment then brings the cardboard rhythm rille but to Abbott and Costello, Martin and back up. Eventually he punctures the box Lewis and Laurel and Hardy. All of them. with a drumstick and makes an oversized Now that’s funny. pinwheel out of it, then picks up his wooden The band plays a couple of Mengelberg’s chair and keeps time on it with a stick as he pieces and one of Baars’ before introduc- makes his way back to the kit, emptying an ing Victor and “Round Midnight,” which entire bag of sticks over it, turning a small at first is played with only Mengelberg and table behind the drums upside down then Bennink accompanying before the horns knocking it over, hitting an abruptly loud and strings begin to ease in and out again. beat on the snare, crash and bass drums all It is breathtaking. Victor’s rousing version at once, picking up the plastic bag which of Nichols’ “House Party” follows, with a had contained his sticks off the floor with solo by Mengelberg. The rest of the band one of them and spinning it awkwardly pulls back—Mengelberg’s playing has never as Mengelberg concludes the obliviously been particularly fast or loud—except for meandering song that has by now essen- Bennink. A smile wrapped across the front tially become a solo piece with distractions. half of his head, he only hits the drums Then, an arm extended toward his compa- harder. During a subsequent version of triot, Bennink yells loudly “MEEESH-ah!”’ “Lady Sings the Blues” Wierbos steps up OK, so maybe they are funny onstage. with an eloquent solo. Victor’s presence Certainly Honsinger is. But for the most seems to bring out a bit of panache in him, part the ICP Orchestra is visually funny. and in fact casts the band in a new light. And music isn’t about the visual, as any They are comfortably loose but eminently curvacious lounge singer, cutie-pie J-Pop responsive and one can see how they could act, corpse-painted black metal band or easily work as a repertory band with guest blinged-out rapper can tell you. So here, soloists. The concert ends with “Zing, Zang then, is the real deal: The ICP is incidentally Zaterdag,” Victor and Mengelberg sharing funny. And incidentally, pretty hilarious. And the piano bench and a microphone. It is a that is a necessary factor peripheral to the joyous evening. ICP achievement, which in no small part is Maybe some hardened jazz fans, their Misha Mengelberg’s achievement, which is chins calloused from contemplation, simply not just bringing an absurdist element into don’t distinguish between humor and joyful- the all-too-often all-too-staid jazz tradition, ness. Maybe they don’t recognize the differ- but keeping it there, maintaining a dedica- ence between The Pink Panther and Being tion to the spirit of having fun. Without There. There is, of course, a gospel tradition Lester Bowie, the Art Ensemble of Chicago within jazz. ICP aren’t so far from that, if with lost its showmanship. Without Sun Ra, the a secular bent. Arkestra lost its spirit, or at least had its joie Or maybe it is all a joke. de vivre eviscerated (a happydectomy?). Or maybe not. There’s a quality they all share which isn’t Or: What’s so funny about reeds, brass about the joy of the spiritual but the rev- and syncopation? elry of the secular. It’s not the cry from the Or: Joi de vivre is not a joke. mountaintop but the shout from the village. Or: Who put the bomp in the bomp bah It’s not the meat but the potatoes, not the bomp bah bomp, who put the business in pantomime but the carnival. Thelonious Monk? Mengelberg, as it happened, didn’t fin- Or: The tableau of our shared existence is ish the tour. He became exhausted, “too no laughing matter. pooped to party” as von Cannon put it, Or: How many funny painters are there? and returned home, leaving the rest of the (Probably quite a few, but the ICP crew band to perform concerts in Houston, Des walked past the Jasper Johns and headed Moines, Chicago and Seattle without him. straight for the Twombly.) Questions about the future of the band During a panel discussion led by journal- don’t need to be asked or answered at ist (who literally wrote the the moment, and indeed can’t be. Several book on jazz from the Netherlands with his members speculated that they might bring New Dutch Swing) before the last of the Mengelberg on tour even if he wasn’t able three concerts, Bennink objects to the sug- to play; von Canon suggested that a large gestion that he “puts on a show.” easy chair might be kept onstage for him. “A show to me is where you play one All agreed that Mengelberg is happiest thing and people laugh at a certain point when he’s onstage with his orchestra. whether or not anything funny happened,” And for what it’s worth, Mengelberg says Bennink says. “If you want to call what I do he doesn’t think the Dutch recognize April a show, that’s fine. But I don’t want to go Fools’ Day. There is historical evidence, from point A to point B. I don’t want to put however, more than just the TV license on a hat and a coat and a feather.” incident. In 1960, a Dutch news broadcast reported that the Tower of Pisa had fallen The third night begins with Mengelberg over, shocking viewers and leading to a playing solo, a slow, dissonant jazzy thing. flood of calls to the station. The moral, of Bennink soon enters with pizza box and course, is that one shouldn’t make false drum sticks and sits next to him, the co- reports about the falling of a giant.. ✹ founders (with Breuker, who left the ICP in 1972 and left the planet in 2010) of one of Kurt Gottschalk lives in New York City. He the major touchstones of European jazz. wrote about Diamanda Galas in STN#49 The pianist and drummer who backed on his last concert in 1964. The pair 22 | SIGNAL to NOISE #62 WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM WWW.SIGNALTONOISEMAGAZINE.COM SIGNAL to NOISE #62 | 23

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