Trio Baars/ Kneer/ Elgart

Ab Baars - tenor saxophone, clarinet, shakuhachi
Meinrad Kneer - double bass
Bill Elgart - drums

For several years now, Ab Baars' and Meinrad Kneer's musical paths are regularly crossing. The wish to work together evolved. During intense "living room sessions", these two willful players developed their personal interplay by improvising and discussing the achieved musical results and sound colors. On the CD "windfall"" the first fruits of this new duo are harvested and presented. After having played together with Bill Elgart on two festival events in September 2010, it was clear for all participants that this is the beginning of a new trio in improvised music.

CD's:
Windfall (2010), Evil Rabbit Records (ERR10)
www.evilrabbitrecords.eu

van Veenendaal/ Kneer/ Sun

Albert van Veenendaal - piano
Meinrad Kneer - double bass
Yonga Sun - drums

During some inspiring duo encounters, Meinrad Kneer and Albert van Veenendaal discovered that their conceptions about improvisation and playing together are very similar. Very naturally the desire arose to establish a trio in which they could give shape to their musical ideas. It has been their starting point to play original material in which composition and improvisation organically merge. To reach this goal, they use a vast vocabulary of improvisation techniques. In the drummer Yonga Sun they found their perfect partner. These three authentic musicians allow themselves to be guided by their intuition and inspiration. Time after time they are amazed by the various ways a composition can sound. The performances of their musical pieces are led by a strong sense of form and groove and can be described as epical musical adventures.

CD's
1. Songs to Dance Strangely With (2005), TryTone (TT559-029)
2. Predictable Point of Impact (2006), Evil Rabbit Records (ERR04)

Baraná Quintet

Behsat Üvez: vocals, saz, cura, percussion
Steven Kamperman: alto clarinet, soprano saxophone
Bart Lelivelt: accordion
Meinrad Kneer - double bass
Sebastian Demydczuk: drums

The Baraná Quintet celebrates with the program Sarap (Wine) texts by the famous Persian poet Omar Khayyám. Recurrent motive in the work of Khayyám is the importance of Wine, according to him an important way to honour the Creation.

'What do you want? Being in a café and exploring your conscience, or kneeling in a mosque without your soul being there?'

The unorthodox Khayyám teases his audience, and almost seems to promote intoxication. But at the same time he wrestles with human dilemmas and the essence of God with integrity. His almost humanist poetry is the thread for a program about the mystery of our existence, love and the importance of 'carpe diem'.
In Baraná Quintet, Üvez and Kamperman meet with virtuoso accordeonist Bart Lelivelt, German bass player and improviser Meinrad Kneer and drummer Sebastian Demydczuk from Poland. Magic songs and spectacular grooves go along with teasing improvisations.

CD's:
Sarap (2010), Baykus Music (BY0005)
www.baykusmusic.com
More info:www.barana.nl

Klare/ Platz/ Kneer/ Elgart

Jan Klare: alto saxophone, clarinet, fluten
Jeff Platz: guitar
Meinrad Kneer - double bass
Bill Elgart: drums

This ensemble presents its own approach to freely improvised music, combining each musician's personal technique and artistic interpretations. The group offers a uniquely fresh perspective on the U.S. vs. European sensibilities to modern improvised music drawing from a vast background of individual experience.

CD's:
Coming soon, check out evilrabbitrecords.eu regularly!

The Tigers of Love

Alexander Beierbach: saxophones
Steffen Faul: trumpet
Meinrad Kneer - double bass
Uli Jennessen: drums

Quite some people pounced like a tiger, only to end up as a bed-side carpet. Not these four, however. The Tigers of Love have discovered the power of love - of a passionate love for lively, acoustic jazz with melodies that invite the listener to sing along and with energetic rhythms that permeate every fiber of the listener's being - musical ideas burning to be tried out, which one follows with full attention so as not to miss any detail. Of course, this piano-less quartet with two horns conjures up images of other famous groups from jazz history: Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker played their spontaneous counterpoint in this line-up, and Ornette Coleman freed jazz from the cumbersome shackles of the well-tempered piano. The Tigers of Love are pleased to consider themselves a part of this tradition, directly related to the heart of jazz: group improvisation. The Tigers have made this interplay the basic concept of their music.

More info: www.thetigersoflove.de

Spoon 3

Jodi Gilbert - voice, electronics
Albert van Veenendaal - (prepared) piano, sampler
Meinrad Kneer - double bass

With Spoon 3 we are developing an intimate and theatrical vehicle for a music which is highly stylized and very personal. The tunes/songs are self-composed with texts written or found by the musicians and through improvisation set into a clear form. Raw emotional texts, beautiful, poetic, histrionic, and angry, crossing over into vocalise that steers far away from jazz scat singing, but looks for the grooves that underlie it all. It is a classic trio combination, piano, bass, voice , looking to fit in and subvert this well-known constellation. Beauty, confrontation, and adventure, teeming up with the expressiveÝpossibilities offered within this transparent setting.

We are exploring an electronic level, to see if we can add an additional depth to the acoustic playing with the emphasis on how the acoustic and electronic components interact and build on the material to add a fuller dimension. It is not necessary to find something new with this technology, as the technology is so complex,and this complexity is not interesting to us. We are looking to put passion in an otherwise cold distant technology and using the electronics to make choices on the spot to create a human world of sound.

Bite the Gnatze

Michel Duijves: clarinet/bass-clarinet
Joost Buis: trombone/lapsteelguitar
Paul Pallesen: guitar/banjo/vocals
Frank Van Bommel: piano/ vibraphone
Meinrad Kneer: double bass
Alan Purves: drums/percussion

The Dutch Guitarist and banjoplayer Paul Pallesen started the band in 1995 to make exiting music inspired by jazz, Dutch /European folkmusic, country and western and instant composing. What came out is a subtile mingling of strong simple melodies and rhythms with more complex harmonies and structures, and there is always an open approch to the arrangements which makes their music unpredictable and free.

Bite the Gnatze has played on several important Dutch festivals like the Jazzfietstour, The Klap op de Vuurpijl and the Trois Jours festival, were they were given some very enthusiastic reviews.

CD's:
Wilde dans in een afgelegen berghut (2003), TryTone (TT559-020)
Wals door het raam (2007) TryTone (TT559-037)
www.bitethegnatze.nl

Carrousel

Steven Kamperman: alto clarinet, soprano saxophone
Jeroen van Vliet: piano
Meinrad Kneer: double bass
Andreas Pichler: drums

What a sight it must have been, the first merry-go-round! The horses going up and down, the changing perspectives, the happy music, all delivered without electronics or computers. A grown-up child of our times now, I can still watch a carrousel for hours. The pieces we wrote for this project are all inspired by the traditional funfair (or 'kermis' as we say in Dutch). An annual feast that has survived and developed over centuries. For me, all the funfair toys, rides and acts celebrate the joy of playing music.
As to the music, the first idea was to stretch the sound of the traditional jazz quartet. The music is inspired by both eastern and western modes, and modal techniques like those of Messiaen. You will find elements of ethnic folk music, improv, jazz and new music all combined with a rather rocky approach.

CD's:
Coming soon, check out www.loplop.nl regularly!

Klare/ Kaufmann/ Kneer

Jan Klare: alto saxophone, clarinet
Achim Kaufmann: piano
Meinrad Kneer: double bass

These three improvisers' musical expression has been minted to a large extent by long to very long stays in the Netherlands. Achim Kaufmann and Meinrad Kneer lived for a long time in Amsterdam and both are still important players of the so vivid jazz and Improvisation scene there. Klare studied Jazz in the Netherlands and he is still involved with many Dutch players, as Wilbert de Joode, Michael Vatcher and others.
This trio is a good example for the liveliness and the big influence of Dutch improvised music, which evolved since the sixties/ seventies.

President of the Globe

Elisa Roep - soprano voice
Alec Kopyt - voice
Tobias Klein - clarinets, alto sax, live-electronics
Albert van Veenendaal - (prepared) piano, sampler
Meinrad Kneer - double bass

In their project 'President of the Globe', Tobias Klein and Meinrad Kneer combine composed, improvised and electronic music with the poetry of the Russian futurist poet Velimir Chlebnikov (1885-1922). It is thematically a continuation of Kneer's and Klein's last project 'Dalgoo - New Anatomy', music with texts by Russian writer Daniil Charms, which won the prestigious Jur Naessens Music Prize 2002 and represented the Netherlands at the Contemporary Arts Festival inÝEkaterinburg in 2002 and at the Days of Dutch Culture in St.Petersburg in 2003.

CD's:
President oif the Globe (2005), TryTone (TT559-032)
www.presidentoftheglobe.nl

Gravitones

Augusto Forti - clarinet
Saartje van Camp - cello
Paul Pallesen - banjo, el. guitar
Meinrad Kneer - double bass
Alan ‘Gunga’ Purves: drums, percussion

The music of Augusto Forti’s Gravitones is absolutely fascinating, fusing Americana instrumentation with Dutch free jazz/improv aesthetics. Though freely improvised, the players move within fully composed songs with constant tonal centers.

CD's:
The Gravitones and Strings - Live at the Bimhuis (for T 02/ 2006)
http://www.subdist.com

Play Station 6

Maartje ten Hoorn - violin
Eric Boeren - cornet
Tobias Delius - tenor saxophone, clarinet
Achim Kaufmann - piano
Meinrad Kneer - double bass
Paul Lovens - drums, percussion

Having played succesfully as a quintet in the Netherlands, the addition of Paul Lovens on drums has proven to be a very fruitful one. Their first cd, #1, released on evil rabbit records, dec.2006, pictures a group that is immensely versatile with improvised music that ranges from intens sensitivity to masculin power play. The recordings were made on the first occasion of the group as a 6-tet, in Cologne, jan 2006.

CD's:
#1 (2006), Evil Rabbit Records (ERR03)