Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

DE BEREN GIEREN

With their signature absurd sense of humour, De Beren Gieren describe their music as ‘Californian Jazzrability’. On this upcoming Jazzlab Series tour, you’ll be able to find out for yourself what that means. They won over the jury at Jong Jazztalent and were unanimously crowned the winners of the 2009 edition: “De Beren Gieren combines adventurous experimentation with meter types and tempi with musical harmony. The trio performs pianist Fulco Ottenvanger’s ambitious compositions chockablock with surprising twists and turns with remarkable ease and clear pleasure.” His compositions do not always necessarily fit into the strict jazz tradition, but you will hear echoes of Cecil Taylor’s disturbed earnestness, Thelonious Monk’s rebelliousness, Charles Mingus’s energy and Misha Mengelberg’s Dutch sense of humour. Fulco, also known as the lead singer of rock band Marvelas Something, was the opener for Absynthe Minded in Vooruit last year.

JAMIE SAFT PLAYS BOB DYLAN, JOHN ZORN & JAMIE SAFT

Jamie Saft has played the keys with John Zorn and Merzbow, but only showed the true extent of his talent with his trio. On ‘Trouble’, they cover Dylan songs. But instead of selecting his biggest hits, they opted for his more unknown work. For this double bill with De Beren Gieren, Saft will leave his bandmates at home and will perform songs by Bob Dylan and John Zorn. He will also perform some of his own work, which is often unpredictable and versatile. De Volkskrant wrote the following about Saft’s debut album ‘Sovlanut’ (released on Tzadik) “A nonchalant melting pot of style, in which everything teeters and tears. (…) A compelling album on which everything that seemed irreconcilable works after all.