Ab Baars Trio
Ab Baars Trio is the primary outlet for Dutch multi-instrumentalist and composer Ab Baars (tenor saxophone, clarinet, shakuhachi). Formed in 1991, the trio has maintained a remarkably consistent lineup with bassist Wilbert de Joode and drummer Martin van Duynhoven, never changing its core personnel .
The trio’s music occupies a distinctive space in European free jazz, characterized by what critics have described as a “cool, restrained” Dutch sensibility—more focused on wit, grace, and nuanced interplay than the aggressive, “take-no-prisoners” style of their American counterparts . Baars’ playing draws inspiration from the extremes of tuning and color explored by saxophonists like Von Freeman and Albert Ayler . His clarinet work, in particular, reflects intensive study with American clarinetist John Carter.
The trio has documented its work extensively on labels like Geestgronden and Wig, with notable releases including 3900 Carol Court (1992), A Free Step: The Music of John Carter (1999), Songs (2001), and Slate Blue (2014) . They have also collaborated with an impressive roster of guests, including Roswell Rudd, Steve Lacy, Misha Mengelberg, and Ken Vandermark (documented on Goofy June Bug, 2008).
Sprok
Sprok
“the deft and creative musicianship here creates a very sophisticated type of conversation, indulging the full range of musical emotion. Recommended.” -Thom Jurek, All Music
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Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone – Ab Baars
Double Bass – Wilbert de Joode
Percussion – Martin van Duynhoven
Tracks 1, 2, 9: recorded at Bethaniënklooster, Amsterdam, October, 5, 1994
Track 3: recorded at BIMhuis, Amsterdam. April 2, 1994
Tracks 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10: recorded at Vredenburg, Utrecht, March 31, 1994
Songs
Songs
“Musical shading, not musical imitation, is what makes this collection of Songs work so well.
With well-thought-out arrangements and the smarts of committed improvisers, the three show
how well Aboriginal sounds can be adapted and transformed into impressive improvisations.” –Ken Waxman
[…] There are no bad compositions on the cd Songs; Maliseet Love Song and Aotzi No-otz are especially beautiful. […] From extremely delicate to unusually heavy. […] The Ab Baars Trio’s sound and intensity recall the best of the legendary Albert Ayler Trio.” –Frans van Leeuwen (NRC, 31-8-2001)
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Recording at theTheater De Burcht Zaandam, on February 4th, 2000.
Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone – Ab Baars
Double Bass – Wilbert de Joode
Drums, Percussion – Martin Van Duynhoven
Slate Blue
Slate Blue
“While making readers aware that the Ab Baars trio – whose line-up has Wilbert de Joode’s double bass and Martin van Duynhoven’s drums appearing alongside the leader’s tenor sax, clarinet, and shakuhachi – started in 1990, Slate Blue’s liner notes implicitly invite the listener to measure the progress made by this trio, also its unvarying distance from the “landscape”. -Beppe Colli
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Bass – Wilbert De Joode
Drums – Martin Van Duynhoven
Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet, Shakuhachi – Ab Baars
Live recording March 6 2014 at Splendor Amsterdam by Micha de Kanter
Mixed & Edited by Ab Baars, Ig Henneman, Micha de Kanter
Photography by Ig Henneman
Producer – Ig Henneman
Composed by Ab Baars
Design – Francesca Patella
Party At The Bimhuis
Party At The Bimhuis
“Concision and concentrated emotion commingle with technical proficiency at a quite rarefied level throughout. Discipline and definitude are combined with a sometimes-dizzying willingness to explore uncharted territory in a thoroughly engaging fashion. Baars can be bracingly abstract at times – particularly on clarinet – then turn around and prod your viscera with tenor playing nakedly ardent enough to give Gene Ammons a run for his money. … Discipline and definitude are combined with a sometimes-dizzying willingness to explore uncharted territory in a thoroughly engaging fashion. … Party at the Bimhuis is a brilliant recording.” -Bill Barton, Sudden Thoughts CD Reviews
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Ab Baars – clarinet, tenor saxophone
Wilbert de Joode – double bass
Martin van Duynhoven – drums
Ig Henneman – viola
Misha Mengelberg – piano
Guus Janssen – piano
Mariëtte Rouppe van der Voort – alto saxophone, flutes
BUMA | STEMRA
Live recording at the Bimhuis January 17th, 2003 by Dick Lucas DATA RECORDS
Edited by Dick Lucas | Ab Baars
liner notes Kevin Whitehead
Cover photo Jean van Lingen
design and other photos Francesca Patella
produced by Ig Henneman
Thanks to: Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst, Thuis Kopie Fonds and the Bimhuis.
Invisible Blow
Invisible Blow
“Invisible Blow in inspired by poems describing the unexpected Knock-out blows in life. Invisible Blow is a boxing term, a boxing match can be considered as a metaphor for life. The texts were chosen by Ab Baars with the assistance of Anneke Brasinga. Joyce Carol Oates’ essay collection ‘On Boxing’ served as a source book.”
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Bass – Wilbert De Joode
Drums – Martin Van Duynhoven
French Horn – Vincent Chancey
Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet, Shakuhachi – Ab Baars
Voice – Fay Victor
Voice – Anneke Brassinga (tracks: 3, 8)
Live recording November 27 2012 at the Bimhuis Amsterdam by Micha de Kanter.
Mixed and Mastered by Ab Baars, Ig Henneman & Micha de Kanter.
Design – Francesca Patella
Producer – Ig Henneman
Artwork – Eli Content
Wig 23
Goofy June Bug
Goofy June Bug
Ab Baars: tenor sax, clarinet, shakuhachi
Ken Vandermark: tenor sax, clarinet
Wilbert de Joode: double-bass
Martin van Duynhoven: drums
compositions
Ab Baars [buma stemra]
Ken Vandermark [twenty first mobile music/ascap]
Recording october 21 & 22 2007 bimhuis amsterdam Guido Tichelman/Azazello, Micha de Kanter
mixing & editing Guido Tichelman/Azazello, Ab Baars, Ig Henneman
liner notes Erik van den Berg
photos & design Francesca Patella
produced by Ig Henneman supported by the Dutch Fund for Performing Arts+
Gawky Stride
Gawky Stride
20 Years Ab Baars Trio (and Counting)
by Kevin Whitehead
… In many ways, 2011’s Gawky Stride is a turn toward looser, less structured territory. As in ICP, the longer the musicians play and work together, the less they need formalized rules. For the first time on record, they play free improvisations, “Spray of Rooks” and “Lace Rocked Foam.” (The titles, but not concepts, come from poems in Derek Walcott’s collection White Egrets.)
“In the past few years,” Baars says, “we’ve rehearsed a lot even when we didn’t have concerts. These rehearsals were mostly about improvising—working on opening up and developing the trio’s awareness of form, and to be more playful without losing sight of a piece’s concept. The goal is to be as free as possible—to feel unrestricted by the material but challenged to apply our individual performance techniques to it. It’s not about playing the compositions in a ‘strict’ or ‘clean’ way but playing with ‘beau geste’: with a generous spirit.”
Indeed. There’s almost palpable friction between (and within) bass and tenor parts on “Lace Rocked Foam”—but then Wilbert loves those scrunching ‘wolf tones’ other string players avoid. For much of “Ochre Verges” clarinet and arco bass play a cat-and-mouse game of ‘listening and not listening,’ with drums picking up and braiding their threads—until they align over sighing high notes in the endgame. On the free “Spray of Rooks,” the rhythm players’ ramshackle broken-time swing pushes without stating a pulse; “Indigo Weight” has time-playing without walking bass, ratatatt without fixed drum patterns, and melodic tenor with a fragile, egg-shell timbre. Like “Gawky Stride” it’s got a shapely, suspense-building melody.
“Toru’s Garden” and the haiku-concentrated “Bannered Breakers” find Ab on shakuhachi, which he’s studied in Japan, Canada and Holland. To these ears, he aims for a more idiomatic sound than on his other axes—though as he points out, teacher-hopping is very untraditional.
For the state of the trio in its third decade, I’d point to “Wake Up Call,” also in ICP’s book, though the trio give the definitive reading. It’s a typically Baarsian construction with multiple momentum-halting exclamation points, torturous mountain ascents and squealy blasts for their own sake; bowing liberates the bassist’s inner clarinetist. But the collective improvising they dive into after a couple of minutes is the sweet meat, where Amerindian inflections (tenor) and rhythms (bass) come back in completely non-obvious ways, not least because Van Duynhoven as ever resists shopworn tom-tom markers.”
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Ab Baars – tenor saxophone, clarinet, shakuhachi
Wilbert de Joode – bass
Martin van Duynhoven – drums
All compositions Ab Baars BUMA STEMRA
except 1 and 6 Baars, de Joode, van Duynhoven
Recording February 9 2011 Studio-Eleven Hilversum Micha de Kanter
Mixing & editing Micha de Kanter | Mideka Music Recording and Ab Baars
Artwork Eli Content
Design Francesca Patella
Produced by Ig Henneman
Four
Four
“…If you are accustomed to the eclectic, dissonant and perhaps even sometimes bullying Baars language, then you’ll find some true gems on the album Four. The group interaction and the improvisations are of an exceptionally high level. Rudd fits perfectly with the trio; together they form a real quartet.”
Kees Stevens Parool 31/7/2001
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compositions 1-5 by Ab Baars – BUMA | STEMRA
compositions 6-9 by Roswell Rudd – BMI
recorded by Dick Lucas DATA RECORDS June 6,1998 live at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam
cover Petra Dolleman
design Leugenachtig Lekker
produced by Dick Lucas
thanks to Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst, Fonds voor de Podiumkunsten
A Free Step: The Music of John Carter
A Free Step: The Music of John Carter
“Ab Baars was a student and colleague of John Carter from the late ’80s until the great composer-clarinetist died in ’91. Baars obviously learned some big lessons given the Amsterdam-based clarinetist-tenor saxophonist’s excellent interpretations of 10 of Carter’s most technically treacherous and deeply moving compositions on A Free Step. Baars’ use of such Carter clarinet signatures as a piercing tone in the high register, skittering, largely chromatic runs and visceral overtones repeatedly bear an uncanny likeness to his mentor’s. But Baars is clearly pursuing his own voice through this demanding, rewarding material; in this regard, his outings on tenor provide a necessary contrast. His colleagues are well-suited for the project: Wilbert de Joode is a powerful bass player, whose work is often strongly felt before the notes are fully articulated in the mind; and Martin van Duynhoven is a solid ensemble player who pushes the music with shrewd cross rhythms. They are a trio that does justice to the music of John Carter.” -BILL SHOEMAKER, JazzTimes
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Recorded at Bimhuis, Amsterdam January 25, 1997 (tracks 3, 5, 6) and at Polanentheater, April 23-24, 1998 (tracks 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone – Ab Baars
Double Bass – Wilbert de Joode
Drums – Martin van Duynhoven
3900 Carol Court
3900 Carol Court
[…] The Ab Baars Trio has always excelled in subtle improvisation, but so ingenious and sensitive as in this concert programme I have not heard them before. […] In this programme Baars again showed his mastery in making essentially little accessible music accessible. –Kees Polling
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Bass – Wilbert de Joode
Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone – Ab Baars
Drums – Martin van Duynhoven
Theater a.d. Molenlaan Bussum 15-03-92 (tracks 1, 2, 6, 7)
BIMhuis Amsterdam 20-03-92 (tracks 3, 4, 8)
BIMhuis Amsterdam 28-06-92 (track 5)
BIMhuis Amsterdam 07-06-92 (track 9)