6 December 2010

New Acoustic Swing Duo - live in Essen 1968




Due to requests, here is a live date by the duo of Willem Breuker and Han Bennink, known as the New Acoustic Swing Duo. This date was shortly after the release of their album, the first on the new ICP label, pictured above.


1968-06.00 / BREUKER
NEW ACOUSTIC SWING DUO (Willem Breuker & Han Bennink)
Early June 1968 – Essen (Germany), Jazzclub Podium
Willem Breuker ts/as/bcl/cl/ss; Han Bennink d/kalimba.

First Set
1. TENOR & DRUMS (Breuker/Bennink) – 14:54
2. ALTO & DRUMS (Breuker/Bennink) – 9:31
3. BASSCLARINET & DRUMS (Breuker/Bennink) – 17:57

Second Set
4. CLARINET & DRUMS (Breuker/Bennink) – 10:39
5. SOPRANO & DRUMS (Breuker/Bennink) – 10:48 into
6. BASSCLARINET/TENOR & KALIMBA/DRUMS (Breuker/Bennink) – 14:56

Length: 3t/42'42" + 3t/37'35" = 6t/81'
Source: AUD

Breuker switched instruments between each piece. Two sets in all, just a little over 80 minutes. Hard to say what I prefer, but I've always enjoyed Breuker on the bass clarinet and some may recall the duet with John Surman on the "Gittin' to know y'all" album from the Baden Baden Free Jazz Meeting in 1969.

Here's a little description of the setting:


This is an audience recording I've done together with a friend of mine at a small jazz club called "Podium" in Essen (Germany). I've lost the notice with the exact date, but I'm remembering, that the concert took place on the first or second weekend in June 1968. It was a short time after the first LP of this "NEW ACOUSTIC SWING DUO", the first one of the new ICP Label, was issued.

We asked the two young musicians from Amsterdam and were allowed to record the concert. We did it in stereo, with two stage micros and a Revox tape recorder. Just after this concert I did a mono-copy on my own Grundig tape recorder. The flacs are directly from this reel tape.

I lost my friend from view in 1969 and still I was not able to rediscover him to ask for the master tapes. So at the moment it seems, that my copy is the only known master tape of this fantastic concert.

The model for this new group format of a reeds & drums duo probably were the John Coltrane / Rashied Ali Duos recorded in 1967. But the music of the Breuker/Bennink Duo was quiet different and unique.

ENJOY!

This was uploaded to the Dime site about three years ago by "sammler kk" who supplied more goodies from the late 60s from Dutch and German sources. We may get to them later on. So settle into the cozy chair, put up your feet, pour yourself a Scotch (or other drink of your choice) and get prepared for a little swing time. Yes sirree!

19 comments:

kinabalu said...

http://www.multiupload.com/5NFE0VBUBY

Ernst Grgo Nebhuth said...

Thank you Kinabalu!

I will follow your suggestion.
I have opened a bottle of wine and filled my glass.
After writing this comment I shall press "start"...
Funny enough the wine is called "La Musique".

Cheers, Kinabalu and thanks again for this wonderful bouquet.

kinabalu said...

Cheers mate!

SOTISE said...

thanks K .. other than its sheer historical significance this is wonderful music!
thanks to Sammler KK too , perhaps its time for a run of his great tapes!

paul w. said...

hi kinabalu,

thank you very much for this fantastic post. i like willem breuker very much, especially with kollektief, but here he overdoes himself - he sounds great, it's free jazz at the highest level.
i have it on one cd - just excluded the small doses of applause and got 79:51 of perfect music...and the quality of sound is impeccable.

best regards.

paul w.

john said...

in the past I've liked the idea of Breuker's music more than I've liked the music, but this looks very interesting. Thank you.

kinabalu said...

Hi Paul,

I'll see if I can't have a little Kollektief here, too. I have a bundle of concerts, but I've got to listen through them first.

kinabalu said...

M, yeah, that's definitely something to ponder about. I believe I collected them all.

Jonathan said...

awesome picture of Han Bennink with a beard!

Nick said...

Original front cover images were created individually by Han Bennink - three or four thousand, he once estimated - drawing on blank sleeves, pressing rubber stamps onto them, affixing little screws to the cardboard. He’d spread a batch on a floor like tile, ink his feet and walk on them. Eventually he discovered a gallery owner was buying up copies for resale on the Japanese art market. (...)" (Kevin Whitehead)

Thanks to discogs entry

kinabalu said...

New link:

RS

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Thanks much, Kinabalu!

lee said...

Missed this last time. So excited to see it come back. Thanks for the re-up!

Anonymous said...

Re-up please? Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Any chance of a re-up? I've been trying to find this all over but this seems to be the only place. I love the NASD album and this would be a great addition to my collection

cLauDe said...

I third that motion for re-upness.

francisco santos said...

what a wonderful surprise!...
BIG THX!...

Ernst Grgo Nebhuth said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jeff said...

Thanks to all involved for bringing this show to the light. Am looking forward to digesting this later this morning. Thanks for the re-up Ernst.