Han Bennink
Han Bennink, one of the most colorful and expressive characters that I've had the pleasure of being inspired by. He is a drummer, multi-instrumentalist and painter. He was born in Zaandam near Amsterdam in 1942. Bennink began playing drums while in his teens under the influence of his father, a classical percussionist. He played with hometown musicians in the early '60s. His first percussion instrument was a kitchen chair. Later his father, an orchestra percussionist, supplied him with a drum kit, but Han never lost his taste for weird sounds. He is still very fond of playing chairs.
Now he is a 72 year old, free-wheeler. Mixing swinging jazz with wide-open improvisation and tender ballads. I was 18 years old when I first heard of Han Bennink. I was told he had a utterly unique way of expressing his musical vocabulary on the drum kit. Two years later I saw him for the first time in a very large venue, packed with kids ranging from 6 to 60. I was completely awe struck, in a matter of bars he had put his left stick in his mouth and started playing it with his right hand while opening and closing his mouth. Quickly after that he was bending the pitch of his snare drum with the heel of his foot ,whilst wearing clogs. Seeing him playing with his feet made me feel like there was this whole world full of original, fun and expressive ways to shape the world of rhythm. It was honestly one of the most colorful epiphanies I ever had.
In Holland in the 1960s, Bennink was quickly recognized as a very versatile drummer. A hard swinger. He played with some great American jazz stars, including Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, Eric Dolphy and Dexter Gordon.
He played a big part in the creation of a European improvised music scene which began to expand. With his fellow Dutch pioneers, pianist Misha Mengelberg and saxophonist Willem Breuker, he founded the musicians collective Instant Composers Pool in 1967, a not-for-profit organization designed to promote the Dutch jazz avant-garde.
Bennink attended art school in the 1960s, often creating sculptures from found objects, which may include broken drum heads and sticks. He has designed the covers for many LPs and CDs on which he appears. From the late 1960s through the '70s Bennink collaborated frequently with Danish, German, English and Belgian musicians. There Bennink also showcased his talents on clarinet, trombone, soprano saxophone and many other instruments, also featured on his solo albums he started in 1971.
What ultimately makes Bennink special is his expression in love for the music, a love that inspires you to look at what exhilarates your blood flow and your hart tick. To me Benninks approach of drumming acts as a relief for everyone that has ever experienced a fierce moment of 'Writers Block' or 'Creative Drought'. Bennink's extraordinarily wide range of musical interests and the absurdist sense of humor in his play makes me look at what I'm doing and I realize that, When I come to a point in making music where I am getting a bit too serious about what I love. I should stop, play with my feet, start again, and have some fun.
Çà êîíòàêò/fuer Kontakt: helden_und_heilige@abv.bg