We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

31

SUNDAY

Kitchen-sink percussionist Han Bennink is, as Kevin Whitehead writes in New Dutch Swing, an avant-jazzer whose virtuosity and humor assures that “any fuck-up is deliberate.” And conservatory-trained pianist Misha Mengelberg, Bennink’s co-leader in Dutch jazz supergroup Instant Composer’s Pool (ICP), is similarly endowed with chops and schtick: “Misha is always able to surprise me,” says toughass German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, “[b]ecause he [doesn’t] give a shit.” The two of them have been recording together since Eric Dolphy’s 1964 live set, Last Date, and working within ICP’s free-wheeling context since the late ’60s. Whitehead compares Bennink and Mengelberg’s relationship to a dysfunctional marriage—which may very well be true, but they’re also a perfect match: Together or alone, both musicians seem intent on dismantling tradition even as they celebrate it. The ICP Orchestra plays at 8 and 10 p.m. at Twins Jazz, 1344 U St. NW. $10. (202) 234-0072. (Brent Burton)