On Tuesday night, Jay and myself attended a truly magnificent performance by the Clusone Trio. This is a superb group of musicians who play very unique music that's unlike anything else I know in the world of jazz or Free Improv. The group consists of Michael Moore on clarinet, alto sax, melodica, and penny whistle, Ernst Reijseger on cello, and madcap genius drummer and percussionist Han Bennink. The show we saw mirrored the one seen by Alan about a week earlier in some respects, but differed in many others. The group tours with the sheet music for virtually every song they have played on their 4 recordings in addition to music from 2 new CDs that are in the works. They basically decide on the fly which tunes they are going to play. This is all the more remarkable given the complexity of some of the music and the fact that Moore and Reijseger often play in unison.

The show took place at Beanbenders in Berkeley. Beanbenders is housed in the Berkeley Gallery Store Annex, a rather bland generic and charmless room. The Beanbenders' Series offers up some of the most renowned artists in creative improvised music. The room seats about 150 people and on this night, there were close to twice that many attendees. Fortunately, we came relatively early and had fairly choice seats. Dan Plonsey, one of the producers of the Beanbenders' program, came on to introduce the band and plug some upcoming shows. As he began to do that, Han Bennink came on stage, carrying this big 2 x 4 piece of lumber and drops in front of thestage. He sits down and proceeds to pound out a beat on the piece of wood, occasionally mocking Plonsey as he continues to mention future attractions. Moore, alternating between pennywhistle, melodica and clarinet, led the group into a free piece of sorts with Reijseger playing some harsh dissonant figures on cello. This segued into a quiet and pretty ballad with a something of a Latin flavor. The music of the Clusone Trio covers the gamut from faithful or even corny rendition of standards or show business tunes to free jazz polar explorations.

Moore and Reijseger often have a very serious appearance on stage and play rather intricate parts. Some of the songs are highly structured, whereas others are freely improvised. Bennink, a generation older than the other 2 musicians (well about 12 years), marches to his own tune. His is a strikingly looking figure-- tall, sporting an unseemly crewcut with a ruddy complexion that turns bright red when he pounds his drum kit. He is perhaps the most entertaining performer I have ever seen in any context. He is at once, a great drummer and a world class clown. He brings with him a range of percussive tools, some of which are found on site (e.g., blocks of wood). Indeed, any object in the vicinity is a candidate percussive device, including a wooden chair which served as both an object and instrument for his drumming. Bennink is typically not bound by any convention known toother musicians. For example, he would occasionally engage in a loud and violent drum solo in the midst of a quiet meditative piece. He frequently calls attention to himself, even in the midst of another musician's solo. He would raise his foot on his floor toms and pound away, put a drumstick in his mouth, whoop and holler an Indian war cry or even get up and do a little tap dance. During the first set, the audience broke up laughing about a dozen times as a result of one of his gags. On one occasion, he left the stage for a minute or so. And then from offstage (on the other side of a curtain) we see this long metal pole emerge and hit the crash cymbal (a properly timed accent). During a quiet introspective number, Bennink tied a rope to his high hat and walked into the audience holding the rope. From the front row, he would tug on the rope, jiggling and in effect playing the high hat, creating a unique percussive sound. It was absolutely hilarious, but also surprisingly musical. In fact, for all of his extracurricular hijinx, much of his activity was done in support of the music. Bennink coaxes a range of timbres from his various percussive devices. He has excellent timing, is quite masterful in his use of brushes and can really swing the band when the mood strikes him.

For the first 15 or so minutes, I was more or less transfixed by Bennink's performance and unfortunately paid less attention to the other 2/3 of the Clusone Trio. Reijseger is really an exceptionally versatile cellist. He can demonstrate a kind of mundane virtuosity (playing the cello as it was meant to be played) whether playing classical motifs or exploring freer terrain. He can also perfectly mimic a walking line on an upright bass. Even more surprising, he would re-positions the cello in a horizontal plane and can then reproduce a sound exemplary of either a fat funky electric bass or strum the cello as if it were an acoustic guitar. He can play a Bossa Nova like Charlie Byrd or convincingly play the blues. Everything Reijseger does is done in service of the music and not for the purposes of showmanship.

Moore is equally adept at clarinet or alto sax. He is a very lyrical and fluid player who seems to be steeped in the history of jazz from Dixieland to Contemporary Free Improv. He has the tone of a player from an earlier era-Alan and others have compared his playing to Lee Konitz. Moore has a distinctively alto-like sound, unlike many young alto players who seem to emulate tenor players. Though, he did quote Trane on a couple of occasions. Moore and Reijseger would often engage in interesting musical dialogues, while Bennink would do, well.. whatever he chooses to. I think the contrast between the Bennink's free for all approach with Reijseger and Moore's more deliberate one is an integral part of the group's identity.

The first set was played largely without any pauses (Bennink would fill any interlude between songs). The songs appeared to segue one into another. At points, they seem to consist of a set of miniature suites or medleys (similar to their recording Love Henry). According to Reijseger, who I spoke with briefly after the performance, the tunes were taken from various recordings, including 2 as of yet unreleased ones.

The second set was perhaps even better than the first, although it was decidedly more conventional. For the most part, Bennink was very well behaved throughout the set, seemingly content to play drums. The music also had a more discernible strong structure and Moore actually introduced several of the tunes (when Bennink would let him). As Jay astutely pointed out, the songs explored the theme of Birds. This began with an unusual and rather out original composition called Secretary Bird. They subsequently performed a beautiful and lengthy rendition of the Buzzard Song from Porgy and Bess featuring some stellar work by Moore on both alto and clarinet. They also did a version of the Jobim composition O' Pato (The Duck). On this number, Bennink brought his snare drum to the front of the stage and contributed some exquisite brush work. The Clusone Trio performed Saint-Saen's Swan Song, which was something of a vehicle for Reijseger (if memory serves me well). For an encore, they performed a faithful and magnificent interpretation of Hoagy Carmichael's Baltimore Oriole with Moore's lyrical alto taking the lead and the other 2 providing rhythmic accompaniment.

I'm running out of steam. Suffice to say that this was a wonderful show. I really hope I get to see them rather soon.