Flatlands Collective live in Grand Rapids this Saturday

[Lazaro Vega]

UPCOMING MUSIC CONCERTS

FLATLANDS COLLECTIVE

with special guests WINDY & CARL

Performing Saturday, December 10

8 PM

The Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts

41 Sheldon Blvd.

Grand Rapids, MI

www.uica.org

Flatlands Collective:

Jorrit Dijkstra’s Flatlands Collective is a new project that brings some of Chicago’s hottest improvisers together with a remarkable alto saxophonist and composer from the lively Dutch improvisation scene.

Dijkstra, Jeb Bishop and Kent Kessler had a successful musical encounter in Chicago’s Candlestick Maker in 2003, and found a common ground in a more international way of improvising, blending American and European improvisation traditions. Dijkstra met James Falzone in an ensemble he was coaching at the New England Conservatory in 1998, dedicated to the music of Dutch musical thinkers Misha Mengelberg and Guus Janssen. After projects in Paris, Vancouver, Edinburgh and Boston, the Chicago Collective is another example of Dijkstra’s interest in uniting musicians from different cities in the world, sharing similar improvisation ideas.

Dijkstra says: ”I believe that the landscape in which you grow up has an effect on how your music sounds. This is what’s so interesting about jazz: musicians in New York, Barcelona, Moscow, Shanghai or Addis Abeba play this music, but there is always a distinctive local interpretation.” And he adds: “The first thing I noticed in Chicago is how flat it is. Whether this has an effect on the local musicians just as it had on me coming from the Netherlands, I’m researching with this project.”

Jorrit Dijkstra writes most of the music, focusing on contrapuntal melodies, layered rhythms in multiple tempos and light electronic modifications. Plus of course lots of space for improvisation, sometimes in the form of little musical games or sets of cues. The Flatland Collective toured the Midwest in May 2004 and plans to do a second tour in the fall of 2005.

[ghost of miles]

They'll be here in Bloomington this Thursday at Bear's Place, for any south-central Indiana fans who are interested.

[Kalo]

Jorrit is a very talented musician and an extremely intelligent guy. He lives in the Boston area and I was lucky enough to interview him for a profile I wrote for one of the local rags last year.

I urge you to check him out if you have the chance. He's less overtly wacky and more dry-witted than many of the Dutch Scene musicians (the quote above about the flatness of Chicago as it relates to the flatness of Holland is characteristic), but he's cannily extending the tradition of players like Steve Lacy, Lee Konitz, and Ornette Coleman. Also a very open-minded explorer of contemporary electronic music.

Edited December 7, 2005 by Kalo

[Lazaro Vega]

Jorrit Dijkstra Flatlands Collective Tour ­

www.jorritdijkstra.com Jorrit Dijkstra - alto sax, lyricon - http://www.jorritdijkstra.com/

James Falzone - clarinet

Jeb Bishop - trombone

Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello

Jason Roebke - bass

Tim Mulvenna - drums

12/7: Chicago, IL - Hothouse, http://www.hothouse.net/

12/8: Bloomington IN - Bear's Place, http://www.bearsplacebar.com/index.php

12/9: Ann Arbor, MI - Kerry Town Concert House, http://kerrytownconcerthouse.com/

12/10: Grand Rapids, MI - Urban Institute for the Contemporary Arts, http://www.uica.org/music.html

12/11: Kalamazoo, MI ­ Krafbrau, http://www.kraftbraubrewery.com/

>

[Free For All]

Just out of curiousity, anyone know if the aforementioned James Falzone is related to Sam Falzone, who played sax with Don Ellis' band? Haven't run into that many "Falzones" so I was wondering.........