Biography Misha Mengelberg

Misha Mengelberg (5 June 1935 – 3 March 2017) was a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1961.

Mengelberg was born in Kiev, Ukraine, the son of the Dutch conductor Karel Mengelberg, who was himself the nephew of the conductor Willem Mengelberg. His family moved back to the Netherlands in the late 1930s and the young Mengelberg began learning the piano at age five Mengelberg briefly studied architecture before entering the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he studied music from 1958 to 1964. While there he won the first prize at a jazz festival in Loosdrecht and became associated with Fluxus. His early influences included Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and John Cage, whom he heard lecture at Darmstadt.

Mengelberg's first appearance on record was on Eric Dolphy's last album, Last Date (1964). Also on that record was the drummer Han Bennink, and the two of them, together with Piet Noordijk, formed a quartet which had a number of different bassists, and which played at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1966. In 1967 he co-founded the Instant Composers Pool, an organisation which promoted avant garde Dutch jazz performances and recordings, with Bennink and Willem Breuker. He was co-founder of STEIM in Amsterdam in 1969.

Mengelberg played with a large variety of musicians. He often performed in a duo with fellow Dutchman Bennink, with other collaborators including Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, and (on the flip side of a live recording with Dolphy) his pet parrot. He was also one of the earliest exponents of the work of the once-neglected pianist Herbie Nichols.

He also wrote music for others to perform (generally leaving some room for improvisation) and oversaw a number of music theatre productions, which usually included a large element of absurdist humour. A 2006 DVD release, Afijn (ICP/Data), is a primer on Mengelberg's life and work, containing an 80-minute documentary and additional concert footage.

Two of his students were Oscar van Dillen and Cor Fuhler.

Mengelberg died in Amsterdam on March 3rd, 2017.

Selected discography

Solo albums

1979: Pech Onderweg (BV Haast)

1982: Musica Per 17 Instrumenti / 3 Intermezzi /Omtrent Een Componistenactie Composer's Voice

1994: Impromptus (FMP)

1997: Misha Mengelberg (I Dischi Di Angelica)

1997: The Root Of The Problem (hatOLOGY)

1999: Two Days In Chicago (hatOLOGY)

2000: Solo (Buzz)

2005: Senne Sing Song (Tzadik)

Collaborations

As leader

1978: Groupcomposing (Instant Composers Pool), with Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Peter Bennink, Paul Rutherford, Derek Bailey, and Han Bennink

1978: Fragments (Instant Composers Pool), with John Tchicai, Han Bennink, and Derek Bailey

1985: Change of Season (Music of Herbie Nichols) (Soul Note), with Steve Lacy, George Lewis, Arjen Gorter, and Han Bennink

1985: On Escalation / 3 Pianopieces / Dialogue / Summer (Attacca), with Peter Schat, Jan Van Vlijmen, and Otto Ketting

1991: Dutch Masters (Soul Note), with Steve Lacy, George Lewis, Ernst Reyseger, and Han Bennink

1994: Who's Bridge (Avant), with Misha Mengelberg Trio (Brad Jones, Joey Baron)

1997: Live In Holland '97 (X-OR), with Mats Gustafsson and Gert-Jan Prins

1998: No Idea (DIW), with Misha Mengelberg Trio (Greg Cohen, Joey Baron)

2001: Four in One (Songlines), with Misha Mengelberg Quartet (Dave Douglas, Brad Jones, Han Bennink)[4]

2009: Mill (Conundrom), with Cor Fuhler and Michiel Scheen

2011: It Won't Be Called Broken Chair (Psi), with Evan Parker

2013: Lucebert / Jazz & Poetry '65 (Uitgeverij Huis Clos), with Misha Mengelberg / Piet Noordijk Kwartet (Han Bennink, Rob Langereis)

2014: Nunc! (Nemu), with Dirk Bell, Ryan Carniaux, Gerd Dudek, Joscha Oetz, and Nils Tegen

With Eric Dolphy

1964: Last Date (Fontana), live including with Jacques Schols and Han Bennink

1974: Playing: Epistrophy, June 1, 1964 In Eindhoven, Holland (Instant Composers Pool), including with Jacques Schols and Han Bennink

With Han Bennink

1968: Instant Composers Pool (Instant Composers Pool), including with John Tchicai

1971: Instant Composers Pool 010 (Instant Composers Pool)

1972: Een Mirakelse Tocht Door Het Scharrebroekse no. 1-6 (Instant Composers Pool)

1974: EinePartieTischtennis (FMP, Instant Composers Pool), live

1975: Coincidents (Stichting ICP Geluidsdragers, Instant Composers Pool)

1978: Midwoud 77 (Instant Composers Pool)

1979: A European Proposal (Live in Cremona) (Horo), including with Paul Rutherford and Mario Schiano

1982: Bennink Mengelberg (Instant Composers Pool)

1994: Mix (Instant Composers Pool)

1996: The Instant Composers Pool 30 Years (Instant Composers Pool)

1998: MiHa (Instant Composers Pool)

2004: Senne Sing Song (Tzadik)

With Louis Andriessen

1969: Reconstructie (STEIM), including with Hugo Claus, Reinbert de Leeuw, Harry Mulisch, Peter Schat and Jan van Vlijmen

With ICP Orchestra

1979: Live in Soncino (Instant Composers Pool, AD LIB)

1982: Japan Japon (Instant Composers Pool)

1984: Extension Red, White & Blue (Instant Composers Pool)

1987: Two Programs: Performs Herbie Nichols and Thelonious Monk (Instant Composers Pool)

1990: Bospaadje Konijnehol I (Instant Composers Pool)

1991: Bospaadje Konijnehol II (Instant Composers Pool)

1999: Jubilee Varia (hatOLOGY)

2001: Oh, My Dog (Instant Composers Pool)

2004: Aan & Uit (Instant Composers Pool)

2006: Weer Is Een Dag Voorbij (Instant Composers Pool)

2009: Live at the Bimhuis (Instant Composers Pool)

2010: !ICP! 50 (Instant Composers Pool)

2010: ICP Orchestra (Instant Composers Pool)

2014: East of the Sun (Instant Composers Pool)

2015: Misha Enzovoort (Instant Composers Pool)

2016: Restless in Pieces (Instant Composers Pool)

With Peter Brötzmann

1979: 3 Points and a Mountain (FMP), including with Han Bennink

With Dudu Pukwana

1979: Yi Yole (Instant Composers Pool), including with Han Bennink

With Keshavan Maslak

1980: Humanplexity (Leo), including with Han Bennink

With Roswell Rudd

1983: Regeneration (Soul Note), including with Steve Lacy, Kent Carter, and Han Bennink

With Pino Minafra

1987: Tropic of the Mounted Sea Chicken (Splasc(H)), including with Michele Lomuto, Han Bennink, and Unknown Artist

With Steve Lacy

1996: Five Facings (FMP), including with Marilyn Crispell, Ulrich Gumpert, Fred Van Hove, Vladimir Miller

With Yuri Honing

1998: Playing (Jazz in Motion)

2000: Lively (Buzz), including with Ernst Reijseger

With Paul Termos

2003: Termos Sessions Volume I (X-OR, Bimhuis)

With Benjamin Herman

2004: Heterogenity (X-OR, Bimhuis), featuring Bert Joris

With Alessandra Patrucco

2006: Circus (Instant Composers Pool), including with Tristan Honsinger, Ab Baars, and Han Bennink

With Frank Gratkowski

2006: Frank Gratkowski Vis-à-vis Misha Mengelberg (Leo)

With Ab Baars

2009: Sliptong (Wig), including with Ig Henneman

Biography courtesy of BV Haast, Amsterdam NL :

Misha Mengelberg was born in Kiev in 1935 - the son of a Dutch composer/conductor/pianist and a German harpist - but is a lifelong resident of Amsterdam, where he teaches counterpoint at the Sweelinck Conservatory. He wrote his first piece for piano at age four and has been composing pretty much ever since, in the jazz and classical fields. Crucial early influences include jazz pianists Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols, the composer John Cage, whom he heard lecture at Darmstadt in 1958, and the absurd-art movement Fluxus, with which he was involved in the 1960s.

Mengelberg graduated from the Royal Conservatory in the Hague in 1964. The same year he made his first issued recording, Eric Dolphy’s “Last Date“. That album also features drummer Han Bennink, with whom Misha has had a longstanding duo. In 1966 Mengelberg’s quartet appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in the USA. The following year Mengelberg, Bennink and Willem Breuker founded the Instant Composers Pool, a landmark in the development of an independent Dutch improvised music, which draws on jazz but does not restrict itself to any one style or aesthetic. (By the time of its 30th anniversary in 1997, ICP Records was the longest – running musician-owned label in improvised music). In the same period he wrote several “game pieces“ for musicians, notably “Hello! Windyboys“ (1968), over a decade before such gaming became common.

In the 1970s Mengelberg was artistic director of the electronic music workshop STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music), served as first chairman of the Dutch improvising musicians’ union BIM, and began leading the Instant Composer's Pool Orchestra. He also recorded in trios with Bennink and either South African saxophonist Dudu Pukwana or German reed player Peter Brozmann, and in duet with is wife’s parrot Eeko. Along with Breuker, Mengelberg is largely responsible for the creation of Dutch “music theatre“, which contains heavy doses of absurdity and improvisation, musical and theatrical.

In the ‘80s Mengelberg presented many music theatre productions and embarked on repertory projects exploring the music of Herbie Nichols, Thelenious Monk and Duke Ellington, with ICP (documented on their CDs “Two Programs - the ICP Orchestra Performs Nichols-Monk“ and “Bospaadje Konijnehol I”, both on the ICP label) and quintets with Bennink and saxophonist Steve Lacy, heard on the albums “Regeneration“ and “Change of Season“ (Soul Note). His recordings in the ‘90s include two acclaimed trio CDs taped in New York with drummer Joey Baron, “Who’s Bridge“ (Avant) and “No Idea“ (DIW); the solo piano recital “Mix“ (ICP) and a duo recording with Bennink, “MiHA“ (both on ICP), and “Jubilee Varia”, a 1997 recording by the ICP Orchestra (hatOLOGY). He also participated with improvised meetings with various European and American musicians, for several labels.

Mengelbergs’s many compositions for reading musicians include “3 Pianopieces“ (1961) and “In Memorium Hans van Zweeden“ (1964 - early minimalism, from his Fluxus years) for solo piano, “Dressoir“ (1977) for the wind orchestra De Volharding, “Rokus de Veldmuis“ for the electro-acoustic ensemble Hoketus (1983), and “To a Deaf Man’s Ears”, a 1996 cantata scripted by Dutch writer J. Bernlef. His orchestral compositions include “With Well-Kind Regards from the Camel“ (1974), “3 Intermezzi“ (1981), “Zeekip Ahoy“ (1984) and “Beestebeest versus Hertie“ (1995). “Onderweg“ (1973) and his 1980 saxophone concerto (played by Ed Boogaard) can be heard on the CD “Misha Mengelberg“ (Pierrot Lunaire/Associazione di Idee) recorded by the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, cond. Ernst van Tiel.

Mengelberg continues to lead the ICP Orchestra, usually an octet with German trumpeter Thomas Heberer, and the cream of musicians based in Holland: drummer Bennink, reedists Ab Baars and Michael Moore, trombonist Wolter Wierbos, cellist Tristan Honsinger and bassist Ernst Glerum. That band serves as a forum for all Mengelberg’s interests: composition, improvisation, conducted improvisation, and music theatre

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