B4
The Vancouver Sun, Wednesday, Mar. 9, 1988

Dutch band
puts the
fun back
into jazz
They play circus music and chachas, free form and Spike Jones. On
any given night, you can find band
members playing while lying on
their backs, shing-a-linging Motown
steps (while wearing lederhosen)
and parodying self-indulgent jazz
musicians by playing long-winded
scales while sneaking peaks at their
watches.
• They are the Willem Breuker Kol. lektief, a Dutch 10-piece band that
puts fun back into jazz, even if it
means making fun of their colleagues.
The 14-year-old Kollektief visits
• Vancouver for the first time on
· March 12, for a performance at the
• New York Theatre.
"Dutch post-free-jazz with elements of European theatre, street
and contemporary music," is how
one member describes the Kollektiers music. During one American
tour, the band played cocktail music
(think of it: a 10-piece band playing
Feelings), Basie, Ruby and the
Romantics, Dixieland, the theme
from The Good The Bad and the
Ugly, free jazz and military marches.
Did we mention the rendition of Oh
You Beautiful Doll played on champagne bottles?
The band is the brainchild ofsaxophonist Willem Breuker, who
wanted to merge new music forms
with theatre. Some musicians in the
group are classically trained, others
come from a jazz background. All
share an interest in turning concerts
into events that incorporate vaudeville, musical satire and more serious music.
Saturday's concert begins at 8
p.m. Admission is $15.
On a more serious note, the Vancouver's New Orchestra Workshop
begins a 12-concert series Thursday
at the French Cultural Centre, 795
West 16th.
Brass Roots, an eight-piece brass
band, kicks off the series Thursday.
The rest of the lineup includes the
Claude Ranger Trio (March 11),
vocalist Kate Hammett-Vaughan
(March 12), the Coast Quartet
(March 17), a special concert with
American jazzmen Jay Clayton,
Julian Priester and Jerry Granelli
(March 18), Bruce Freedman' and
Chief Feature (March 19), the
Michael Blake Quartet (March 24),
Lunar Adventures (March 25), the
Graham Drd Trio (March 26) ,
Themba Tana's African Heritage
(March 31), the Paul Plimley Trio
(April 1) and Creatures of Habit
-(April 2).
All concerts begin at 8:30. Tickets
are $4 advance (from Black Swan,
Highlife and Zulu record stores), $6
at the door for all but the Clay ton/Priester/Granelli date, which is
$10. A series pass is $25.
• MARKE ANDREWS

1