F.I.M. meets DOEK (Amsterdam)

After meeting FIM Basel in 2019, ARTist Wiesbaden 2020 and Impact Köln in 2021 in 2022 5 Musicians of DO:EK (Amsterdam) meet 5 Musicians of F.I.M. Frankfurt.

• Marta Warelis -piano
• Ada Rave - sax/clarinet
• Oscar Jan Hoogland - piano/electric clavichord
• Wilbert de Joode - double bass
• Jasper Stadhouders - guitar
• John Schröder - guitar, dr
• Burkard Kunkel - bassethorn/zither
• Jürgen Werner - bansuri, flute
• Daniel Guggenheim - sax
• Uli Schiffelholz - dr

DOEK (Amsterdam) is a collective of improvising musicians who create opportunities for experimentation, research and performance. They share attitudes regarding tactics, references, ancestors and descendants regarding improvisation and continue the musical practice in many groups and ad hoc combinations.
By initiating, organizing, financing concerts, projects, tours and an annual festival, Doek has become a central platform for improvisation. As a partner of established and emerging events and organisations, Doek opens up the vibrant world of improvisation to a wide audience.
(www.doek.org/about-doek/)

Our musicians from DOEK and F.I.M.:

Wilbert de Joode (1955) is a veritable research scientist of bass pizzicato and bowing techniques. A self-taught musician, he has been playing the double-bass since 1982. He began working in groups that improvised within a jazz framework. Other musicians were soon drawn to his idiosyncratic style, and in the mid 80s he played in groups led by Vera Vingerhoeds, Armando Cairo and Ig Henneman where he further developed his improvisation skills. He came into contact with such musicians as J.C.Tans, Rinus Groeneveld, Michiel Braam, Han Bennink, Han Buhrs (Schismatics) and Ab Baars.
De Joode is currently one of the most active bass players on the European improvised music circuit. His individual style and musicality transforms the double bass into an equal partner in the most varied ensembles. A personal tone colour, exploration of the outer registers, quirky improvisations and the use of gut strings contribute to an instantly recognizable and intriguing sound.
The seventeen improvised pieces on his first solo cd Olo (distributed by ToonDist) show how rich and complex his sound on the double bass is.

“Jasper Stadhouders (Tilburg, NL, 1989) is one of the newest members of DOEK and belongs to the youngest generation of Dutch improvisers. He is a guitarist, bassist, improviser, composer, bandleader and concert organiser. Since arriving in Amsterdam, Jasper has exploded onto the international improvised music scene. His playing showcases a completely natural musicality. One has the sense that he is so connected with his instrument he can play whatever he imagines. His ability to perform difficult compositions, with an assured sense of rhythm and harmony, combined with his extremely physical and dynamic approach to improvising, has led him being one of the most sought after guitarists and electric bassists around.”

Jasper leads the PolyBand which he founded in 2015. The PolyBand consists of an ever expanding pool of musicians and performers in varying line-ups and sizes which focuses on polyrhythmic cycles, polytonality and trance-like long forms. In 2019, Jasper received a commission from the prestigious festival Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Utrecht, NL) to compose an entirely new work for a 16-piece version of the PolyBand which will premier in September 2019.

At the 2015 Incubate Festival (Tilburg, NL), during a 6-day residency he lead the Jasper Stadhouders’ International Improv Ensemble. He also formed the 5tet Oliver / Stadhouders / Vitols / Rosaly / ‘t Hart, which premiered at the 2018 DOEK Festival.
He is the co-founder of Cactus Truck, Trio Stadhouders / Govaert / De Joode + Delius, Trio Rempis / Stadhouders / Rosaly, Shelter, Bazooka, Practical Music, and plays in bands like Spinifex, Ken Vandermark’s groups Made To Break, Entr’Acte and Next International, Jaap Blonk’s Retirement Overdue, Bacchanalia, o k a p i, and Jeroen Kimman’s Orquesta del Tiempo Perdido. In 2014, The Ex invited Jasper to join them on the last tour of the late great Ethiopian saxophone legend Getatchew Mekuria in Addis Ababa. Next to this, Jasper has worked with theatre companies De Warme Winkel, Nieuw-West and Freek Vielen. He performed contemporary composed music by Steve Reich, Michael Gordon, Barbara Ellison and Genevieve Murphy.He’s played with Han Bennink, Ab Baars, Paal Nilssen-Love, Marshall Allen, Hamid Drake, C. Spencer Yeh, Akira Sakata, Noel Redding, Andrew D’Angelo, Roy Campbell (R.I.P.), Jeb Bishop, Mars Williams, Priya Purushothaman, Kaja Draksler, Johannes Bauer (R.I.P.), The Ex, Fendika, Getatchew Mekuria (R.I.P.), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Michael Vatcher, Marc Ducret, Jozef Dumoulin, Magda Mayas, Mette Rasmussen, Nate Wooley, Valerio Tricoli, Tom Rainey, Mark Sanders, Emilio Gordoa, Dirar Kalash, Christian Lillinger, Michiyo Yagi and many others.

Jasper toured extensively all throughout Europe, North America and Russia, and also performed in Ethiopia, India, Japan, Mexico, Argentina and Palestine. He lives in Amsterdam since 2006.

Pianist Marta Warelis (1986) is a vibrant performer with a strong preference for improvisation and experimentation in all genres. She continually aims for instant composing on the basis of new sounds and influences. Her work draws inspiration from music across the globe including cumbia, Angolan dance music, as well as jazz, western classical music and the various schools of free improvisation. Born and raised in Poland where she graduated with honours from WSJiMR in Wroclaw, Marta moved to Groningen in 2010 to attend the Prins Claus Conservatory. In 2014 she found her place in Amsterdam, very quickly becoming an active member of the local improvisers’ scene. Marta has appeared frequently in the Bimhuis, where in 2017 she was given a Carte Blanche in recognition of her remarkable talents. She performs with a variety of creative musicians including Michael Moore, Ab Baars, Mike Reed, Andy Moor, Joost Buis, dancers Lily Kiara and Michael Shumacher, as well with such groups as Hupata!, Omawi, Future Neighbor, Polyband, Edge Ensemble, Strings5, Xavier Pamplona, Warelis/Rosaly/Lumley/Dikeman and Bazooka.

Ada Rave (1974, Comodoro Rivadavia), is an Argentinian saxophonist, improviser and composer. Ada’s instrumental approach is based on research into a wide variety of techniques, conventional and unorthodox, which allow her to create a highly personal narrative in real time composition. In addition to her ability to perform with an incredible degree of abstraction, she also boasts one of the boldest tenor sounds around.

As a young child, Ada grew up in rural Patagonia before moving to Buenos Aires where she finished her primary education and began performing as a musician. She was an active part of the local jazz scene but became interested in improvised music and composition quite early, which led her to lead ensembles of her own that performed at venues and festivals all over Argentina. In 2013, her interest in improvised music inspired her and her husband, pianist Nicolas Chientaroli, to attend the Dutch Impro Academy. Shortly thereafter they relocated to Amsterdam permanently.

Since moving to Amsterdam, Ada has become one of the most in demand saxophonists on the scene. She’s performed throughout Europe solo and with her trio, as well as in arious projects including Hearth, the Kaja Draksler Octet and The Ex. Ada is also active as a music educator and organizer of the series Impro Jam at De Ruimte.

In DOEK, Oscar Jan Hoogland represents the so-called “fourth generation” of Dutch improvisers, in the lineage of Misha Mengelberg, Guus Janssen and Cor Fuhler—smart pianist/composers with an itch to make music that cuts across genres, who don’t take themselves so seriously, but whose whimsical music has real bite and brainpower.

Hoogland plays in a plethora of groups. They include: EKE, a trio with Yedo Gibson on reeds and Gerri Jäger on drums where he plays his unique homemade electric clavichord; the smart and playfully improvising quartet The Ambush Party with Natalio Sued on tenor Marcos Baggiani on drums and his long time compagnon Harald Austbø on cello. He plays duo with drummer Han Bennink, in Gibson’s roiling Royal Improvisers Orchestra, and in the bicycle-portable, words-and-music street outfit, the Bakfietsband. He leads his own recordplayer orchestra The Phonograph Orchestra and then there is the improvising post-punk band The Job where he takes up the guitar a moog and a megaphone to be one of four one-man-bands on stage next to Jochem van Tol, Onno Govaert and Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti.

Hoogland has been a devoted orgeniser over the years not only pushing his own bands forward but also initiating projects like the scene based repertoir project The Amsterdam Real Book, setting up festivals and music serries in Amsterdam as well as running his own recordlabel De Platenbakkerij. Currently he colleborates as a programmer with the EYE-filmmuseum and the OT301 for respectively the E*cinema series and the Eddie and the Eagles.

In reply to questions by Kevin Whitehead:
“Musicians basically play for two kinds of audiences, those who know you, and those who don’t. An audience that knows your music understands the language; there’s a shared understanding. Together you take off from the history of the music so far and go on from there, commenting on it, improving it, destroying it, reinventing and repeating it. If they wanted to know more about what I do—and they don’t have to—I could tell them that I am driven by an enthusiasm to explore, to try to go as far down a certain path as you need to figure out what it’s about. And then adding some different aspect to it.”

“The other great audience is the completely ignorant, innocent one. In a village in Brazil, EKE played for a young audience who’d never heard anything like it before, and they were sucked right into it.”

“EKE is about creating something new, with an abstract approach to sound and interaction.
I take it very seriously. The Ambush Party is about the game of instant composing, or instant songwriting. It’s also about being un-dogmatic, having aspects of serious sonic improvising, ironic Dutch theatrical impro, jazz and free jazz, modern contemporary music, pop songs, good taste and tastelessness. We love or hate all that music and in a free situation it all comes out. Playing duo with Han feels almost outside of time—like we’ve played together forever.”

“I like to be a chess player among tigers. But on other days I like to be the tiger myself.”

Uli Schiffelholz

The band of Uli Schiffelholz's artistic work ranges from rock music to brass band music and classical music to work as a musician and actor in the theater, with jazz being his favorite.

In addition to his work as a composer and arranger for his quartet, he is the drummer for the Thomas Bachmann Group, the Bob Degen Quartet, the Jürgen Wuchner Quartet and the J-Sound Project. Since the summer of 2010 he has been a member of the Hessian Radio Jazz Ensemble, for which he also composes and arranges.

In 2011, he received the Jazz grant from the city of Frankfurt, which enabled him to study in New York.

Jürgen Werner:

After classical training on the flute, learning a wide variety of saxophones and dealing with traditional playing styles (jazz standards, bossa nova), free improvisation became a focus of his musical interest. As a member of the F.I.M. in the 90s, he continued to play freely improvised music in various ensembles (including the Katharsis Ensemble) even after its dissolution.

Travels to Cuba and India brought world music influences and expansion of the instruments (Ind. Bansuri, Kalimba).

Far from dogmatism, purism and stylistic conventions, his musical conception is to allow influences from the most diverse styles of playing - from new music, world music to free jazz - to flow into free improvisation.

Daniel Guggenheims

Daniel Guggenheim's path led from Switzerland via Paris, Rio de Janeiro and New York to success. Strong personalities have shaped him from the start, such as Jimmy Hendrix, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. Daniel Guggenheim asks himself anew every time: what does their music tell me and how can it help me?

In 1983 he met Hermeto Pascoal in Brazil. A real stroke of luck. Through the music anarchist Pascoal, Guggenheim learned to live his own music and constantly explore new boundaries.

Whether Paris, New York or Frankfurt, where he has since settled: Daniel Guggenheim's music always creates new images that become an extraordinary experience for everyone involved. He played with jazz legends such as Elvin Jones, Cecil McBee, Richie Beriech and Billy Hart and David Liebman.

Katrin Zurborg from the German state „Niedersachsen“, studied jazz guitar at the "Franz Liszt" University of Music in Weimar and graduated in 2005 with a diploma. She has been living in Frankfurt am Main since December 2006 and works as a guitarist, singer, composer and arranger in various formations with different styles from solo to

nonet. Among other things, she is a co-founder of the modern jazz trio "Feinherb", plays guitar in the "Jazz Sisters Quartet" and composes and arranges music for "taw - theater am werk" for literary theater productions. She also provides musical accompaniment to numerous literary projects with the actor and speaker Christoph Maasch. Since 2008 she has performed regularly throughout Germany with the Frankfurt children's songwriter Georg "Ferri" Feils, with whom she also offers workshops for children accompanying concerts. Since 2022 she has been running the "Kulturwerkstatt Germaniastraße" in Frankfurt's Nordend, where she also offers band coaching for pop, rock and jazz bands as well as guitar courses preparing for work. With her trio "Feinherb" she released the 4th studio album "unterwegs" in September.