Ab Baars Trio With Ken Vandermark [Victory Grill, Friday]

Chicago-based reedman and composer Ken Vandermark is probably no stranger to Austin ears, as he has been here numerous occasions with his regularly working group, the Vandermark Five; Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet; and in trio with drummers Paul Lytton (UK) and Paul Lovens (Germany). Vandermark is also no stranger to the idea of maintaining a set of diverse collaborators, across the spectrum of contemporary improvisation/composition and even post-rock. He’s got what one might call a voracious appetite for new and unfamiliar playing settings, not all of which work, but certainly they add to and expand his comfort zones and approach. For that, he is a seeker. Two years ago, Vandermark first collaborated with Holland’s Ab Baars Trio, and this promises to be an interesting melding of aesthetics.

Clarinetist/saxophonist Ab Baars, winner of the prestigious 1989 Boy Edgar Jazz Prize in his home country, has also previously performed in Austin with the Instant Composers’ Pool (ICP) Orchestra under the direction of pianist-composer Misha Mengelberg. Baars’ pedigree is not limited to the often madcap kaleidoscope of jazz, classical and art song that is the ICP; he studied with legendary clarinetist John Carter in 1989 and AACM founding member Roscoe Mitchell in 1986. His approach to the reed family is decidedly “cool” and has been called “obstinate,” a willful iconoclasm that fits like an odd peg in Mengelberg’s music, as well as that of Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, and other composers in the ICP fakebook.

Baars’ trio with bassist Wilbert de Joode and drummer Martin van Duynhoven has been active on the European scene since the early 1990s, recording for the Data and Geestrongen labels. De Joode has similarly been a force in modern improvisation, also working notably with German reedman Frank Gratkowski, as well as in modern dance. Van Duynhoven has been a mainstay of Dutch jazz since the mid Sixties, and played in the groups of Nedly Elstak, Hans Dulfer, Theo Loevendie and Chris Hinze, American pianists Mal Waldron and Burton Greene, along with many others.

Baars’ tough approach to the clarinet, along with de Joode’s classically-inspired bass work and the bebop/North African/Latin overlays of percussionist van Duynhoven, make this a trio to watch out for on these shores. Add to that mix the fire-and-tradition of Ken Vandermark’s saxophones and clarinets and you’ll have an incredible improvised stew to start off your weekend. -Clifford Allen

Ab Baars Ken Vandermark Wilbert de Joode