Four years after their spectacular show in Canada’s national capital, The Willem Breuker Kollektief returns to Canada, and you simply cannot afford to miss it. In the meantime, the ensemble has toured Western Europe, Russia, Australia, India, China, Japan and the United States with spectacular success.
The Willem Breuker Kollektief has performed for over 30 years on the international jazz/improv scene, and is possibly the longest regularly performing jazz band in the world, with no plans for retirement. In his native country of The Netherlands, Breuker was in 1998 named Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion. Not bad for a guy who was refused from a music high school due to a “lack of talent.”
Some tout the Kollektief as “the Dutch reply to American Avant-Garde.”
Breathtakingly eclectic, unpredictable and unconventional, the 10-piece collective is a hybrid of circus, theatre and orchestra. Its unique musical signature is inspired by fanfare, theatre and vaudeville and the show leaves no one indifferent.
Led by the master of jazz improvisation Willem Breuker, all the orchestra’s members are superb improvisers and curious journeymen, who are not afraid to cut across tradition and convention with experimentation in search for innovative ways to express their creativity. They fool around and play with genres, ranging from traditional jazz, free jazz, swing, and marching band to circus music, tango, waltz, vaudeville, lounge-lizard, pop and classical. The result is the humorous and surprising performance, underlined with a fine sense of irony.
Breuker’s compositions comprise more than 500 works, ranging from solos, ensembles, chamber music, brass band, symphony orchestra, fanfare orchestra, film, theatre, and music for carillon, barrel organ, choirs, and for the Willem Breuker Kollektief itself.
Monday, November 3, 2008 at 7:00 PM
National Arts Centre Fourth Stage, Ottawa
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at 8:30 PM
La Sala Rossa, Montréal
