martin van duynhoven

This morning I went to Musicon in The Hague for a concert based on the music of Dutch jazzdrummer Martin van Duynhoven. Some time ago a friend gave me a copy of the wonderful recording of Van Duynhoven Percussion Ensemble’s In A.M. (a live recording in Frascati, 1976).

In ‘A’ Mitrailleur N.Y. ’76 part 1 & 2 (subtitled Of wij moeten dit in het midden laten) is a most intriguing concert for four drummers, two saxophones & one banjo, which takes place, one could say, somewhere in between minimal music and impro.

Since this morning concert took place within the context of a conference for drummers, they didn’t play the whole piece, but only 3 short parts taken from the original concert.

Van Duynhoven played with Mark Eeftens, Olaf Fase (great name for a drummer by the way) and Fred Cohen, and as short and incomplete as it was: it worked wonders. There’s a mystery in here which really tickles the imagination, and I do hope some venue in the Netherlands or perhaps the next edition of Wonderfeel will programme a full rendition of In AM in the original line up.

Have a look at this short doc on Van Duynhoven and his musical ideas, made for the series Jazzhelden by the Nederlands Jazz Archief.