iNTERaCT @ Hasselt, Belgium, 19th and 20th May

Joe McPhee and Michael Zerang (c)Ronny Wertelaers, 2006

This weekend i visited the iNTERaCT event in Hasselt, Belgium. This time they kidnapped the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet for two days… they played in different combos, also with a few Belgium free improvisers, and the event finished with a Tentet set of 50 minutes.

It was nice to see that the hotel i had booked (IBIS) was just in the same street of the venue… so of course, everybody was staying there (not that Hasselt is such a big city anyway…).

The venue made me think of Ugglan in Stockholm: several gig rooms (Parquet Hall, Black Room, Cafe), one with a bar, a very relaxed atmosphere, the people running the place are really friendly and it was no problem to chat with the programme manager, and also people in the audience. It turned out that most of the people travelled especially to this event, from Brussels, Paris, Germany, the French part of Belgium…

They had a festival photograph (who is in daily life working in a car factory), he had been shooting the rehearsals, and some pictures were already hanging when i arrived. He also shot much during the gigs, and on Saturday we had fresh pics from Friday. That was really a great idea.

It was 5 gigs on Friday, starting 8.30pm until a bit over midnight. Different combos of the Tentet guys plus some Belgium improvisers. Some combos worked better than others, some were funny, some really interesting, and the surprise for me was the trio SONORE (brötz/mats/vandermark) which i had never heard before. Phew.

Overview of Friday's gigs:

- Kent Kessler, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Peter Jacquemyn (BE, bass), Joe McPhee, Thomas Olbrechts (BE, sax) (combo)

- SONORE (Peter Brötzmann, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark)

- Thomas Olbrechts, Fred LH, Kevin Drumm (Chicago, electronics), Paal NL, Joachim Deville (BE, trumpet) (combo)

- Peter Jacquemyn, Mats Gustafsson, Johannes Bauer (combo)

- Joachim Deville, Johannes Bauer, Joe McPhee, Per-Åke Holmlander, Michael Zerang (combo)

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Saturday 20th
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Peter Brötzmann (c)Ronny Wertelaers, 2006

They had added a gig in the programme, so it went like that:

- Kevin Drumm (a guy from Chicago on electronics), Paal NL, Fred Lonberg-Holm (combo)

- Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler, Michael Zerang and Peter Brötzmann

- Vandermark, Paal NL, Kevin Drumm, Peter Jacquemyn (bass), Thomas Olbrechts (sax), Joachim Deville (trumpet) (combo)

- Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet

The combos were nice, but i really preferred the first one with Fred. It was a good combination with this Kevin Drumm electronics guy. Kevin was much more discrete than Marhaug, and also used a guitar a bit like Stackenäs. Fred is really creative on his cello, and i got really fascinated by his sounds. I wished several times that it was just the two of them, without Paal ;-)

The other combo with the Belgians was quite interesting too, this Peter Jacquemyn is really working hard on his bass, sometimes with two bows, sometimes inserting empty cola cans between the strings (not sure what difference it made with the other sounds he was making though)... but sometimes i also had the feeling that he was a bit overdoing it, and maybe he would be better with a saw and cutting trees in the woods... well anyway quite funny to see him playing. I cant say much about the two other (younger) Belgians, i should hear them again, but nothing that made me fall from my chair...

The band with McPhee/Kessler/Zerang and Brötz was excellent. Immediately one could hear that it's a fixed band and they are used to play with each other. Zerang told me at breakfast that he has been playing music with Kessler since they were like kids… They actually live in the same neighbourhood in Chicago.

The gig started with McPhee standing completely on the left and Brötz completely on the right (no stage, so they were just in front of us). Then at some point they walked towards each other and started a intensive saxophone to saxophone dialog, uah, that was really cool! So great to see these two historical free jazz figures playing their @sses off just in front of us, excellent! (there i should add something about Kessler, he was just amazing) I really would like to see a full gig of this band, for sure. Everybody in the room wanted more :-)

Then place to the TENTET! I kind of knew already that this gig was going to be too short, only one set of about 55 minutes… Again the guys were standing in front of us without stage, and actually the first row of chairs was kind of inside the hemi circle formed by the band. From left to right: Mats Gustafsson, Johannes Bauer, Fred LH, Ken Vandermark, behind him Paal NL, then Kent Kessler, behind him Michael Zerang, then Mc Phee, Brötzmann, and Per-Åke Holmlander. I was a bit surprised that Mats was standing at the opposite of Brötz, but in that way they could see each other…

Brötz opened with a beautiful solo on his alto. The whole ensemble gradually took over. It got very dense quite fast, everybody contributing to the cacophonic sound that developed. One of the most fascinating is how the band is breaking up spontaneously in solos, duos, trios, etc. and how the whole ensemble is then reacting, building up over it, or leaving it die off until one or several musicians are jumping in again and developing new ideas. Ken’s voice on baritone was sometimes difficult to hear in the tumult, but on clarinet, he was loud and clear and initiating these tensions that make everybody react… at some point somebody started a rhythm pattern out of this powerful mix, and i could not figure out if it was Fred, or Kent, or Paal, or maybe Ken? In the fury two voices were still very distinct: Paal and Peter, as if they were using the energy of the ensemble to be projected on top and get into a duo inside the storm, phew. There were also some incredibly wonderful quiet parts, for example Peter on his tarogato: you could have heard a pin fall in the room. Fantastic.


(c)Ronny Wertelaers, 2006

Trombone player Johannes Bauer (Germany) is part of this European Tentet Tour. It was the opportunity for me to discover this fantastic and reactive player, who can get quite animated while performing. Always nice to see how the Tentet is absorbing new (great) players just like that: it seems that Johannes has been in the band since ever :-)

So, i just want to say a big THANK YOU to all these fantastic musicians!

i am really looking forward to see them again at NattJazz in Bergen on Saturday!!
=:-P

Anne

Pictures from: Ronny Wertelaers