Dave Burrell at Philadelphia Art Alliance

Please join Ars Nova Workshop for the first duo performance ever by two legendary musicians: Philadelphian pianist Dave Burrell and Dutch drummer Han Bennink.

“Dave Burrell crams a century of jazz history into every chugging stride episode and churning dissonance,” writes Francis Davis for Village Voice. “Encyclopedic as well as eccentric, he's a living treasure." One of the most influential and innovative jazz pianists and composers of his generation, Burrell has lived in Philadelphia since 1985.

He has worked with many of the best jazz musicians of the last 50 years (Marion Brown, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Roscoe Mitchell, Alan Silva, Grachan Moncur III, and David Murray), has released over 115 recordings, and has taught courses at renowned universities around the world (including Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, Duquesne, and University of Pennsylvania). His recent work includes a series of suites commissioned by Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum & Library. In 2010, he presented “Portraits of Civil War Heroes," and this month he presents "Civilians During Wartime," both inspired by the museum’s Civil War archives. These commissions have given Burrell an opportunity to embark on extensive research projects and deeply reflect on the evolution of American music within the context of the country’s larger historical narrative. Articulating the development of the jazz art form from its early ragtime and blues foundations, in the last four years Burrell has created some of the most ambitious and exciting music of his career....

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Please join Ars Nova Workshop for the first duo performance ever by two legendary musicians: Philadelphian pianist Dave Burrell and Dutch drummer Han Bennink.

“Dave Burrell crams a century of jazz history into every chugging stride episode and churning dissonance,” writes Francis Davis for Village Voice. “Encyclopedic as well as eccentric, he's a living treasure." One of the most influential and innovative jazz pianists and composers of his generation, Burrell has lived in Philadelphia since 1985.

He has worked with many of the best jazz musicians of the last 50 years (Marion Brown, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Roscoe Mitchell, Alan Silva, Grachan Moncur III, and David Murray), has released over 115 recordings, and has taught courses at renowned universities around the world (including Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, Duquesne, and University of Pennsylvania). His recent work includes a series of suites commissioned by Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum & Library. In 2010, he presented “Portraits of Civil War Heroes," and this month he presents "Civilians During Wartime," both inspired by the museum’s Civil War archives. These commissions have given Burrell an opportunity to embark on extensive research projects and deeply reflect on the evolution of American music within the context of the country’s larger historical narrative. Articulating the development of the jazz art form from its early ragtime and blues foundations, in the last four years Burrell has created some of the most ambitious and exciting music of his career.

“Impatiently and heedlessly knocking things around,” writes The New York Times about Han Bennink's behavior during a 2006 performance with the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra, the legendary large ensemble he co-founded with Misha Mengelberg and Willem Breuker in 1967, and which ANW presented for three consecutive nights in 2011. The Dutch drummer and pioneer of European free-jazz turns 70 this year, and there's not even the slightest sign he'll become any less wild, reckless, and spectacular behind the kit anytime soon.

In addition to his ongoing work with ICP Orchestra, over the years Bennink has collaborated with Peter Brötzmann, Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy, The Ex, Sonny Rollins, Derek Bailey, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Cecil Taylor, Evan Parker, John Tchicai, and literally hundreds of leading jazz and experimental musicians. His current projects include the Third Man Trio with Michael Moore and Ernst Reijseger, the BBG Trio with Michiel Borstlap and Ernst Glerum, and the Han Bennink Trio with Joachim Badenhorst and Simon Toldam.

Creative music history will be made tonight in Philadelphia as Burrell and Bennink play in duo for the first time.

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