E di anni ne avrebbe compiuti oggi novanta Misha Mengelberg (1935-2017): per ricordarlo si tiene stasera uno speciale concerto dell'ICP Orchestra al culmine di un intero ciclo di eventi celebrati ad Amsterdam in suo nome, Misha Kosmos Festival.
Misha Mengelberg (Kiev, 5 June 1935), leader of the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra, is a trickster figure in Dutch composing and international improvised music: a philosophical thinker about musical issues who doesn’t take himself seriously, but who helped bring about government subsidies for composed and improvised music (which he dubbed ‘instant composition’) in the Netherlands in the 1960s and 70s. He has brought compositional procedures to improvised music with ICP, and quasi-improvised insubordination to his composing. As jazz pianist, he draws on early idols Thelonious Monk (an unhurried gait, dense impacted chords) and Herbie Nichols (harmonies that subvert traditional patterns). In the late 1960s Mengelberg helped develop the “European improvised music” that splintered off of jazz, along with his lifelong drummer Han Bennink. Mengelberg’s 1960s “game pieces” anticipate later works by his friend and benefactor John Zorn. In the 1990s ICP became increasingly recognized internationally, for its live collaging operations and Mengelberg’s elegantly witty writing. His classical works are likewise noted for fetching melodies and unpredictable developments.
The ICP Orchestra has been a household name for years. In 1967, Han Bennink together with pianist/composer Misha Mengelberg laid the foundation for this versatile orchestra, known as one of the most creative groups in modern jazz. Mengelberg passed away in 2017 and would have turned 90 exactly on this day, June 5, 2025. The ICP Orchestra still plays his music, but of course in the typical ICP style; while Mengelberg’s oeuvre is the starting point, no concert sounds the same and the orchestra members improvise in all directions. The musicians in the ICP Orchestra learned to deal with the peculiarities of timing or intonation of fellow players, how to confuse their colleagues, how to bend or undermine the music during performance. The music is full of surprises, unexpected turns, nimble grace and strange outbursts.