LOOT | Oscar Jan Hoogland & Han Bennink

Oscar Jan Hoogland & Han Bennink

The name LOOT says a lot about this quartet: a four-letter word, consisting of four straight lines and two circles. A clear image, without diagonals, with hooks and different shapes in counterpoint. Like the music that is played. LOOT in Dutch means branch: a new shoot on the family tree of the Amsterdam piano avant-garde, to which Misha Mengelberg, Guus Janssen, Cor Fuhler and Michiel Scheen also belong.

LOOT in English means stolen goods. Jazz stolen by European improvisers. LOOT is the quartet of pianist Oscar Jan Hoogland, in which he plays together with Ab Baars on tenor sax and clarinet, Uldis Vitols on bass and Onno Govaert on drums. After twenty years at the forefront of Amsterdam improvised music, Hoogland now comes for the first time with a complete album with his own compositions, which stand in the tradition of Thelonious Monk and Misha Mengelberg. Both complex and direct music, which wakes up the ear and puts a smile on the face.

Before LOOT, Oscar Jan Hoogland will give a duo concert with drum giant Han Bennink, who also designed the cover for the album, which will be released on the famous ICP label. 'Hoogland has his own sound, whether it emerges through hall-of-mirrors bebop deconstructions or molasses-slow ballads. It's one of the best things I've heard this year.' (Peter Margasak)