Thursday, April 30, 2015

ICP Orchestra turns the U.S. next month

The world-renowned Amsterdam-based Instant Composers Pool (ICP) Orchestra, led by Han Bennink (above), celebrates the release of its recent CD "East of the Sun" with a 13-date US tour, May 2 - 17, 2015.

Performances include:

Saturday, May 2 -
Monday, May 4: Constellation, 3111 North Western Avenue, Chicago, IL  
Tickets: $15 - $20; http://constellation-chicago.com
Mix of performances including ICP Orchestra, mixed groups of ICP players and Chicago players and ICP players with dancers.                                                

Tuesday, May 5: Trinosophes, 1464 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI
8:00 p.m.; http://trinosophes.com; 313-737-6606
Tickets: $10 - $20

Wednesday, May 6 -
Friday, May 8: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
8:00 p.m. each night; http://roulette.org/events; 917-267-0363
Tickets: $25 / $20 students/seniors advance; $30 / $25 students/seniors at door.

Saturday, May 9: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY
8:00 p.m.; http://www.albrightknox.org/; 716-882-8700
Tickets: $10 / $5 members

Monday, May 11: Caspe Terrace, 33158 Ute Avenue, Waukee, IA
7:30 p.m.; abe@trilixgroup.com; 515-279-6452
Tickets: $35 / $30 advance

Thursday, May 14: The North Door, 502 Brushy Street, Austin, TX
8:00 p.m.; http://www.ndvenue.com/                                                    
Presented by Epistrophy Arts - http://epistrophyarts.tumblr.com/

Friday, May 15: Outpost Performance Space, 210 Yale Boulevard SE, Albuquerque, NM
7:30 p.m.; http://outpostspace.org; 505-268-0044.
Tickets: $25 / $20 members and students

Saturday, May 16: The Royal Room, 5000 Rainier Avenue South, Seattle, WA
7:00 and 9:30 p.m.; http://www.earshot.org/Events/Promo_Pages/promo_2015_05_ICP.html; 206-547-6763
Presented by Earshot Jazz. Tickets: $20 / $18 Earshot members & seniors / $10 students & veterans

Sunday, May 17: Redeemer Lutheran Church, 5431 NE 20th Ave, Portland, OR
8:00 p.m.; Presented by Creative Music Guild: http://creativemusicguild.org
$15 suggested price (but tickets sold on a sliding scale).
Tickets available at http://icpinportland2015.brownpapertickets.com

The 10-piece Instant Composers Pool (ICP) Orchestra has earned worldwide acclaim for its inventiveness, musical genius, and unpredictable stage antics. The group includes world-class improvisers Han Bennink on drums, Michael Moore on clarinet and alto saxophone, Ab Baars on clarinet and tenor saxophone, Tobias Delius on clarinet and tenor saxophone, Thomas Heberer on coronet, Wolter Wierbos on trombone, Tristan Honsinger on cello, Ernst Glerum on bass, Guus Janssen on piano, and Mary Oliver on viola and violin.

Since ICP's inception in 1967 and the ICP 001 New Acoustic Swing Duo, the group has toured and recorded widely. It has released a total of 51 recordings, most recently ICP Orchestra (ICP 049) recorded in 3 sessions in 2009,!ICP! 50 (vinyl) and East of the Sun (051), the first release in ICP's 48-year history without pianist and co-founder Misha Mengelberg. But with guest star Guus Janssen at the piano, a handful of stalwart DownBeat Critics Poll honorees on board, and an astonishing repertoire - a different setlist is written every evening by a member of the band "the music--as rich, wobbly, and unpredictable as ever--is still imbued with [Mengelberg's] contrary character." (Guy Peters).

Out November 15, 2014, East of the Sun is earning the highest praise.  As Bruce Lee Gallanter says in Downtown Music Gallery, "There is something magical and distinctive about this ensemble. They seem to have their hands in a wide variety of influences or genres: cartoon or circus music, traditional Dutch melodies, old school swing/jazz, modern classical arrangements, with lots of unexpected twists and turns and solo[s] or small subgroup sections and free eruptions when you least expect them. The quirky and consistently crafty arrangements by different members of the band (especially Mr. Moore) is/are what makes this band unlike any other.... There is only one ICP Orchestra...each and every release is a treasure."

ICP's live performances have earned equal acclaim:

"Tonight's packed-out, party-atmosphere performance presented the full ensemble cavorting through a trademark mix of free and classic jazz, classical modernism and left-field cabaret. Rough-at-the edges and anarchic, they veered from sublime readings of Ellington and Monk to raucous rabble-rousing and tongue-in-cheek mischief." - Mike Hobart, Financial Times

 "If there was a facet of jazz expression that the ICP Orchestra didn't address Wednesday night at HotHouse, it probably wasn't worth mentioning. Practically every twist on the music -- from 19th Century ragtime to 21st Century free-form experimentation -- eventually came to the fore, and considering that this magnificent Dutch band has been swinging for decades, the sheer vitality of its explorations into American and European jazz vocabularies may have caught some listeners by surprise. Jazz organizations that last this long don't typically convey as much intellectual curiosity, stylistic reach and technical daring as the ICP (Instant Composers Pool) band did in every piece on its first set. Each of the evening's many miniatures, in fact, bristled with strange and provocative juxtapositions of style and musical language, a blues lament giving way to a series of fierce dissonances, an easy swing tempo abruptly interrupted by passages of seeming rhythmic anarchy...Long may they thunder."-- Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

Percussionist Han Bennink is one of the central figures of modern jazz in Europe. Combining drama and wit with iconoclastic virtuosity and rhythmic imagination, Bennink's performances are a feast for the eyes as well as the ears.  Over the years, he has collaborated with everyone from Eric Dolphy and Johnny Griffin to Myra Melford, Dave Douglas and Eugene Chadbourne. "Han Bennink explodes every drummer cliché, rambunctiously devouring free-jazz bombast and subtle trad swing." -- Ken Micallef, Modern Drummer.

Find the complete ICP history here: http://www.icporchestra.com/history.htm

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