the hum / By Bob Doran

No Taboos

Dutch American improv from Holshouser, Bennink and Moore plus Pretty Lights and other crazy music

(Oct. 15, 2009) Holshouser, Bennink and Moore. For the uninitiated it probably sounds like the name of a law firm, but the trio of musicians — accordionist Will Holshouser, drummer Han Bennink and reedsman Michael Moore — is on the cutting edge of modern improvisational music.

Holshouser is a New Yorker, an innovative player who’s worked as a sideman for everyone from jazzman Dave Douglas and vocalist Regina Carter to Antony and the Johnsons. Mad drummer Bennink is a Dutch jazz icon, one of the founders of the Instant Composers Pool and a longtime member of Clusone 3 (aka Clusone Trio), along with cellist Ernst Reijseger and Moore, a Humboldt expat who’s been living in Amsterdam since 1982.

Michael Moore of Holshouser, Bennink & Moore.

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Moore grew up in a musical household: His father, Jerry Moore, taught jazz and world music at CR. After leaving Humboldt to pursue his music studies at the New England Conservatory and elsewhere, Michael followed his brother Gregg to Holland.

“We met some Dutch musicians who introduced us to other Dutch musicians — that’s how it goes. We [Moore and Bennink] started doing the Clusone Trio early on, but I wasn’t quite ready for the textural aspect of it. I didn’t have enough breadth of expression of something, so it took me a couple of years before I was comfortable with it.”

As I told Moore, it’s always seemed like Dutch jazz is a different animal, although I can’t really explain why. “I’d like to hear you try,” he replied with a laugh. “There’s a different kind of timing. What I like about it is, there’s no taboos. You can really play any kind of music you want. And you’re playing a lot with context. Hopefully, it’s not music about music — it’s just music. But music can too easily become a pastiche, making fun of genres, stuff like that. I don’t think we cross that line so much; we’re pretty reverent. On the other hand, if we get tired of playing a song, we’ll stop playing it and go to something else.”

What do Holshouser, Bennink and Moore have planned for their cross-country American tour? Moore will be playing clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone “and maybe some melodica.” He says, “It’s kind of a lighter concept because Han is just playing snare drum, so it’s just accordion and snare and myself, so there’s not heavy bass or a big drum set or anything like that.”

Bennink has a rep as a wild man on the drums. Will this be less wild? “I don’t think he’s any more restrained,” said Moore. “it’s just the sounds are lighter and it’s scaled down more to the basics.

“Expect some crazy music and some sublime music; some beauty and some shit, or maybe beauty and tension is a better way of saying it. It’s like life itself.”

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