“In art, making demands on people means believing in them.”
– Helmut Lachenmann
from his liner notes to “Das Madchen mit den Schwefelholzern,” (ECM New Series 1858/59, 2004), pg. 26.†
The second half of the Free Fall tour started off both bad and good. A long trek from St. Johann to Zagreb, Haavard dealing with food poisoning the whole way. After a long train combination the trio played at a new concert space for me, not KSET, and the general energy in the concert hall made our exhaustion all the harder to overcome. But Haavard played his ass off before going back to the hotel to collapse. For me, the best part of the evening was getting to hear Ab Baars’ Quartet again, and the band sounded great. Quite incredible to see them on one of the first gigs during their North American tour, on the 17th of April in Chicago, and then again after four weeks of playing together each night. The depth of communication and spontanaeity of their music was startling. And on this great concert, one of the highlights was getting to hear Ab’s unaccompanied tenor performance of Duke Ellington’s “Solitude;” a real masterpiece.
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