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Willem Breuker Kollektief

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Willem Breuker Kollektief was a Dutch ten-piece jazz orchestra, founded in 1974 by the saxophonist and clarinettist Willem Breuker. Breuker, born in 1944, played in the 1960s with the percussionist Han Bennink and the pianist Misha Mengelberg and founded the Instant Composers Pool with them. He was also a member of the Globe Unity Orchestra and of Gunter Hampel's group. With his own Kollektief he chose a different path: jazz that was theatrical and often unconventional, with elements from theatre and vaudeville.

Music and breakthrough

The group toured Western Europe, Russia, Australia, India, China, Japan, the United States and Canada. In 1974 Breuker founded the record label BV Haast, on which many of the Kollektief's albums appeared, such as W.B.K. '79 from 1979, Driebergen-Zeist from 1983, Bob's Gallery from 1988 and Metropolis from 1990. From 1977 he organised the annual festival Klap op de Vuurpijl in Amsterdam, and his publishing house Haast published his scores. In 1999 the book Willem Breuker Kollektief: Celebrating 25 Years on the Road appeared, with two albums.

Influence

In 1997 Breuker also produced a forty-eight-hour radio documentary about Kurt Weill. In 1998 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. He died in Amsterdam in 2010, and since 2017 the Willem Breuker Prize for contemporary composers has existed. The Kollektief showed that Dutch jazz could be spectacular, humorous and yet musically serious.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a recording by the Willem Breuker Kollektief, for example from the album Bob's Gallery, and notice the sudden changes of style. Can you hear how a number can leap from swing to circus music or a march?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Categories: Artists