Biography
In 1986 the Dutch pianist, composer, and bandleader Michiel Braam launched the large ensemble Bik Bent Braam. For more than twenty-five years the outfit toured extensively while issuing multiple acclaimed albums of avant-garde and modern creative jazz, earning recognition alongside the ICP Orchestra and Willem Breuker Kollektief as one of the Dutch jazz scene’s most daringly inventive big bands.
Braam disclosed in 2011 that Bik Bent Braam would disband the next year and arranged a farewell tour for early 2012 that spotlighted newly composed and improvised works presented under the title Exit. “You could state that now it is time to take a next step,” Braam said. “To let go of yet another certainty. I have the intention to keep performing with an ensemble of this size but in a more flexible setup. The pool of musicians will change with every new program. It is a choice to add more flexibility and more openness.”
He carried out those intentions by forming Flex Bent Braam, whose debut recording, Lucebert, appeared in 2013. Drawing inspiration from the Dutch painter and poet Lucebert, a declared jazz enthusiast, the album contained original Braam compositions rooted in Lucebert’s Japanese epigrams as well as freshly arranged covers of standards by Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Cole Porter, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, and George Russell. Released independently on the BBB label, Lucebert also served as one of two discs included with the 2013 book Lucebert & Jazz: Ik Ben een Gemankeerde Saxofonist [I Am a Flawed Saxophonist].
The septet on the recording comprised Braam on piano together with former Bik Bent Braam members Angelo Verploegen on trumpet, Wolter Wierbos on trombone, and Bart van der Putten on alto saxophone, plus Oleg Hollmann on baritone saxophone, Tony Overwater on double bass, and Joost Lijbaart on drums. Assembled expressly for the Lucebert project in keeping with Braam’s plan for a continually shifting roster, the album’s liner notes noted that future lineups would vary. Flex Bent Braam presented the Lucebert repertoire on a Dutch tour during October and November 2013 that included concerts in Arnhem, Amsterdam, Baarle-Nassau, Utrecht, and Nijmegen.
Braam disclosed in 2011 that Bik Bent Braam would disband the next year and arranged a farewell tour for early 2012 that spotlighted newly composed and improvised works presented under the title Exit. “You could state that now it is time to take a next step,” Braam said. “To let go of yet another certainty. I have the intention to keep performing with an ensemble of this size but in a more flexible setup. The pool of musicians will change with every new program. It is a choice to add more flexibility and more openness.”
He carried out those intentions by forming Flex Bent Braam, whose debut recording, Lucebert, appeared in 2013. Drawing inspiration from the Dutch painter and poet Lucebert, a declared jazz enthusiast, the album contained original Braam compositions rooted in Lucebert’s Japanese epigrams as well as freshly arranged covers of standards by Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Cole Porter, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, and George Russell. Released independently on the BBB label, Lucebert also served as one of two discs included with the 2013 book Lucebert & Jazz: Ik Ben een Gemankeerde Saxofonist [I Am a Flawed Saxophonist].
The septet on the recording comprised Braam on piano together with former Bik Bent Braam members Angelo Verploegen on trumpet, Wolter Wierbos on trombone, and Bart van der Putten on alto saxophone, plus Oleg Hollmann on baritone saxophone, Tony Overwater on double bass, and Joost Lijbaart on drums. Assembled expressly for the Lucebert project in keeping with Braam’s plan for a continually shifting roster, the album’s liner notes noted that future lineups would vary. Flex Bent Braam presented the Lucebert repertoire on a Dutch tour during October and November 2013 that included concerts in Arnhem, Amsterdam, Baarle-Nassau, Utrecht, and Nijmegen.
Albums