Magpie Music Dance Co.

In Holland in the 1960s, Bennink was quickly recognized as an uncommonly versatile
drummer. As a hard swinger in the tradition of his hero Kenny Clarke, he accompanied
touring American jazz stars, including Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, Wes Montgomery, Johnny
Griffin, Eric Dolphy and Dexter Gordon. He is heard with Gordon on the 1969 album "Live at
Amsterdam Paradiso" (on the Affinity label) and with Dolphy on 1964’s "Last Date"
(PolyGram). At the same time, Bennink participated in the creation of a European
improvised music which began to evolve a new identity, apart from its jazz roots. With
fellow Dutch pioneers, pianist Misha Mengelberg and saxophonist Willem Breuker, he founded
the musicians collective Instant Composers Pool in 1967. Bennink anchored various bands
led by Mengelberg or Breuker, and appeared in their comic music-theater productions.

In 1966, Bennink played the US’s Newport Jazz Festival with the Mengelberg quartet. From
the late 1960s through the ’70s Bennink collaborated frequently with Danish, German,
English and Belgian musicians, notably saxophonists John Tchicai and Peter Brötzmann,
guitarist Derek Bailey and pianist Fred van Hove. Bennink’s many recordings from the 1980s
include sessions with Mengelberg’s ICP Orchestra (where he remains), South African bassist
Harry Miller, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonists Roswell Rudd and George Lewis,
and big-bandleaders Sean Bergin and Andy Sheppard.

From 1988 to ‘98 Bennink’s main vehicle was Clusone 3, with saxophonist and clarinetist
Michael Moore and cellist Ernst Reijseger, a band noted for its free-wheeling mix of
swinging jazz standards, wide-open improvising, and tender ballads. Clusone played Europe
and North America, West Africa, China, Vietnam and Australia, and recorded five CDs for
Gramavision, hat Art and Ramboy.

These days he is frequently heard with tenor saxophonist Tobias Delius’s quartet and in
a trio with pianist/keyboardist Cor Fuhler and bassist Wilbert de Joode, and he still
collaborates occasionally with jazz luminaries such as Johnny Griffin, Von Freeman and Ray
Anderson.

A conspicuous feature of Bennink’s musical life since the 1960s is the spontaneous duo
concert with musicians of many nationalities and musical inclinations; in the ’90s he
recorded in duo with among others pianists Mengelberg, Irene Schweizer and Myra Melford,
guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, trumpeter Dave Douglas and tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin.