AB BAARS’ Fish-Scale Sunrise

Ab Baars, tenor saxophone, clarinet, shakuhachi
Kaja Draksler, piano
Joe Williamson, bass

Ad Baars’ music has been characterized as joyfully obstinate, but surely appealing and as colourful as it is astonishing. It embodies the best typically Dutch improvised music has to offer. Although he seldomly uses recognizable song forms or ongoing swing rhythms, the music stays catchy, because it is stripped to the essence and clearly presented. Ab Baars has been internationally acclaimed for his solo music, but he has also been a member of different ensembles, like Ab Baars Trio, Duo Baars-Henneman and the ICP Orchestra. He will launch the 2022 SAXGO festival series with his trio with the Canadian bass player Joe Williamson and the most successful Slovenian jazz musician, pianist Kaja Draksler. Ab Baars’ trio Fish-Scale Sunrise, named after a poem by Wallace Stevens, signals a broadening spectrum of possibility for Baars’ composition and improvisation. Utilizing the piano, featured for the first time in an Ab ensemble, allows a new weight to nuances of timbre and dynamics as well as harmonic richness rivalling that of an orchestra. The drummerless setting draws the music out of the jazz idiom, giving the bass a unique place in the overall sound. The ensemble performs original compositions by Baars alternated with free improvisations.