Misha Mengelberg

Misha Mengelberg in Austin, Texas (2006)

Misha Mengelberg (born June 5, 1935 in Kiev , Ukrainian SSR ; † March 3, 2017 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch pianist , composer and band leader .

biography

Mengelberg was the son of the conductor and composer Karel Mengelberg and Willem Mengelberg's great-nephew . His mother was an orchestral harpist. He was born in Kiev while his father was staying as a film composer and conductor. In 1938 the family returned to Amsterdam . He began to study architecture and then studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague between 1958 and 1964 music, a. a. Composition and music theory with Kees van Baaren . Already during his studies he gained a reputation as a jazz pianist and in 1959 won the jazz competition in Loosdrecht . An encounter with John Cage during the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music was influential .

In 1961 he founded a quartet with the alto saxophonist Piet Noordijk , the bassist Rob Langereis (later replaced by Jacques Schols ) and the drummer Han Bennink , with whom she a. a. Joined Johnny Griffin and Eric Dolphy on its last recording in 1964 . In 1966 Mengelberg received the Wessel-Ilcken Prize . In 1964 the quartet performed at the Newport Jazz Festival (as the only European group at the time). When Mengelberg and Bennink turned to freer jazz forms, they separated from Schols and Noordijk in 1967 and instead played with Maarten Altena and Willem Breuker in a quartet, the nucleus of the Instant Composers Pool (ICP) founded in the same year .

Misha Mengelberg (2004)

In 1969 he wrote the opera Reconstructie with the composers Louis Andriessen , Jan van Vlijmen , Peter Schat, Reinbert de Leeuw and the librettists Harry Mulisch and Hugo Claus . The group founded the Studio for electro instrumental music ( Steim ) in Amsterdam in 1969 , which is still in existence today.

The Instant Composers Pool Orchestra (ICP Orchestra), led by Mengelberg, combines stylistic elements of European music with those of free jazz . Misha Mengelberg is considered to be one of the most important contemporary composers in the Netherlands and combined elements of flux and jazz with those from new music , new improvisation music and classical music. He has performed as an improvising pianist with internationally known jazz musicians such as Anthony Braxton , Sunny Murray , Peter Brötzmann , Steve Lacy and Roswell Rudd , often playing the repertoire of the equally “weird” pianist Thelonious Monk (1986 for the ICP Orchestra or in Two Days in Chicago , 1999) and Herbie Nichols (1984 for the ICP Orchestra). In 1990 he took on the music of Duke Ellington with the ICP Orchestra .

In February 2013 Mengelberg, who had dementia , said goodbye to the stage. His (unfinished) opera Koien (Kühe) was performed at the 2015 Holland Festival with the ICP Orchestra under Guus Janssen . He has released numerous records and CDs (often on the musician's own label ICP, which he founded with Bennink and Breuker in the 1960s).

From 1972 to 1981 he was chairman of the Dutch professional association for improvising music. From 1982 he was a lecturer at the Amsterdam Conservatory .

Awards

Misha Mengelberg with the Wessel Ilcken Prijs (1966)

Mengelberg received the Gaudeamus Foundation's composition prize in 1961 . In 1966 he was awarded the Wessel Ilcken Prijs . In 1989 he received the Bird Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival .

literature

Kevin Whitehead : New Dutch swing. An in-depth examination of Amsterdam's vital and distinctive jazz scene. Billboard, New York 1998, ISBN 0-8230-8334-9 .
Misha Mengelberg: workshop talk. In: Wolfram Knauer : Jazz in Europe (= Darmstadt contributions to jazz research. Vol. 3). Cloud Publishing House, 1994.

Movie

AFIJN, Netherlands 2005, 77 minutes, color. Director, editor: Jellie Dekker. Documentary about Misha Mengelberg

Web links

Commons : Misha Mengelberg - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

↑ Erik van den Berg: Jazz pianist Misha Mengelberg (81), groot dwarsdenker van de Nederlandse muziek, overleden . Obituary in De Volkskrant , March 3, 2017, accessed March 3, 2017 (Dutch).
^ From June 2, 1964 in Hilversum, with Han Bennink, Jacques Schols, published as Last Date . There is also a film by Hans Hylkema about it. Later, Dolphy's recordings from June 11th appeared in Paris .
↑ Since 1991, however, the old quartet had reunions with Noordijk and Schols.
↑ Misha enzovoort . DVD / CD review on Jazzenzo, accessed March 3, 2017 (Dutch).
↑ Kevin Whitehead: Misha's Cows Comes Home . Point of departure. To Online Music Journal, issue 57, December 2016, accessed on March 3, 2017 (English).

personal data
SURNAME	Mengelberg, Misha
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dutch pianist, composer and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH	June 5, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kiev , Ukrainian SSR
DATE OF DEATH	March 3, 2017
Place of death	Amsterdam

[1] Erik van den Berg: Jazz pianist Misha Mengelberg (81), groot dwarsdenker van de Nederlandse muziek, overleden . Obituary in De Volkskrant , March 3, 2017, accessed March 3, 2017 (Dutch).

[2] From June 2, 1964 in Hilversum, with Han Bennink, Jacques Schols, published as Last Date . There is also a film by Hans Hylkema about it. Later, Dolphy's recordings from June 11th appeared in Paris .

[3] Since 1991, however, the old quartet had reunions with Noordijk and Schols.

[4] Misha enzovoort . DVD / CD review on Jazzenzo, accessed March 3, 2017 (Dutch).

[5] Kevin Whitehead: Misha's Cows Comes Home . Point of departure. To Online Music Journal, issue 57, December 2016, accessed on March 3, 2017 (English).