Jazz as creative music
In the 1970s, the drive for innovation became the norm thanks to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and the New York loft scene, where artists such as Wadada Leo Smith freed jazz from fixed structures and approached it as an open system.
This direction – seeing jazz as creative music – was continued in the downtown scene in New York, where musicians like Bill Frisell developed a unique soundscape in which improvisation, composition, and influences from folk and Americana converged. In line with this, Julian Lage is also on the festival program, continuing this tradition with a contemporary approach to guitar playing and musical form.
In the work of Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith, who are performing together, composition, improvisation, and social urgency converge. Kris Davis, Patricia Brennan and Tomeka Reid represent the current generation of musicians who are carrying this drive forward while pushing the boundaries of form and sound ever further.
European improvisation
A unique style of improvised music began to develop in Europe in the 1970s. In the Netherlands, this was shaped by Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink. But across Europe more broadly, an approach emerged in which improvisation became entirely autonomous. That trend is reflected at the festival by the Italian Artchipel Orchestra, which pays tribute to Mengelberg’s work with special guest Michael Moore, and by Pierre Courbois’s group, which also performed at the first edition of North Sea Jazz.
In the years that followed, a new and first generation of conservatory-trained jazz musicians broke through the dividing line between jazz and improvised music. Benjamin Herman, Eric Vloeimans, and Yuri Honing played a key role in this, notably in the Michiel Borstlap Sextet in the 1990s, where styles were blended together. This open approach is being continued by a younger generation, including Reinier Baas and Ben van Gelder, who are further extending this freedom.
