Each a Dutch jazz icon in his own right, but each from a different scene and generation, the quartet of saxophonist Benjamin Herman, pianist Peter Beets, double bassist Ruud Jacobs and drummer Han Bennink played together for the very first time as The Quartet on New Year’s Eve 2013. Since then, every one of their performances has offered something fresh and surprising. A highlight of their collaboration was a series of performances in 2016 dedicated to the music of Misha Mengelberg, in 2016, which were captured on an album on ICP Records.
‘Herman had made earlier recordings of Mengelberg’s music and Bennink had performed with the pianist for almost as long as he’d been playing, both in and aside from their pairing in the ICP Orchestra. Jacobs has accompanied virtually every American jazz legend to visit the Netherlands since the early 1960s, and there’s practically nothing that Beets can’t do on the piano. The quartet often switches from unorthodox expression to by-the-book melodies, but whatever it does is always playful and adventurous’ (de Volkskrant).
Benjamin Herman saxophone, Han Bennink drums, Peter Beets piano, Ernst Glerum (will replace Ruud Jacobs) bass