best known for his long-time membership in the oicp orchestra and leading his own trio, amsterdam reedist ab baars also adapts his skills to other aggregations for greater or lesser periods.
live at konfrontationen nickelsdorf 2012 features baars in a trio, which had quite a few gigs in those days, a co-op with german bassist meinrad kneer and long-time american-in-europe expatriate drummer bill elgart.
for those used to baars’ gentlemanly ellington-affected playing and composing the first sound heard on “nickelsdorf suite #1 part i” may shock. here’s the dutchman skronking harsh aylerian smears from his saxophone. at the same time though baars’ altissimo screams and tonal exaggerations slide securely in place besides the weightlifter-like string pulls that kneer resonates to solidify the rhythm and elgart’s elegant pings and ruffs which moderate the output. this seeming contrast between high and low-pitched vibrations; lusty and mild sounds defines the tripartite interaction throughout, with a climax reached on “nickelsdorf suite #1 part iii” as clean moderated clarinet lines replace broken split tones to burnish deepened double bass thumps and descriptive drum paradiddles and pops. “nickelsdorf fantasia”, the shakuhachi-featured final track, which also includes frame-drum-like resonation from elgart and erhu-like strokes from kneer, also turns out to be an amorphous gagaku music-like coda, wrapping up the preceding tonal multiplicity. the two-part “nickelsdorf suite #2” which precedes that track further animated the trio’s program, building an ambling narrative out of gong-like shatters and finger-cymbal tings from elgart; broken tones and motionless air sourced from deep inside both of baars’ reeds’ body tubes; and defining string strokes and sweeps from kneer.
this group functions on a high level, with baars’ designated talents contribute to these elevations.
ken waxman, 11 november 2018,
jazzword.com