Rara Avis

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After ten years together and five recordings, these three eccentric jazzers from Holland decided to move on to other ventures, and this 1999 recording represents their final statement -- barring a reunion, of course. Drummer Hans Bennink, especially, has a reputation for unpredictable behavior, and stories have long circulated regarding the group's habit of subverting (or ignoring) each other on stage during concerts. But reveals Bennink as a consummate team player (and least while the tapes were rolling), and the combination of Bennink's drums, Ernst Reijseger's cello and Michael Moore's alto saxophone and clarinet achieves the very highest level of interaction and inspiration. Indeed, these three musicians anticipate each other so well, and improvise so fluently, that they could just as easily have decided to disband simply because they realized that they had done everything as a group that they could possibly do.

One of the strengths of the Clusone 3 throughout its tenure has been its consistent filtering of experimental tendencies and virtuosity through the medium of actual popular songs, some of which are of the most hackneyed and common sort imaginable. As the title suggests, this CD has a "bird song" theme, i.e., songs about birds, or with the names of birds in their titles. "Turkey in the Straw" didn't quite make the cut (although it apparently received serious consideration), but "El Condor Pasa" did, as well as "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob Bobbin' Along." Also included were more legitimate jazz standards such as Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark," and "Baltimore Oriole, " the Carmichael/Johnny Mercer collaboration. This mixture of the sublime and ridiculous, of show tunes, pop tunes, jazz tunes, novelty tunes and ethnic tunes, gives the Clusone 3 maximum license to accent, reinforce, undermine or destroy the essence of the particular tune, and in the process group members conduct a clinic in the history of jazz. "Red Red Robin" is turned into a jaunty, slapstick Dixieland romp, and Moore takes up the clarinet for the Jobin's "O Pato," turning it into a Brazilian/Dixieland hybrid, with Bennink flailing exuberantly in the background. Likewise with "Tico-Tico No Fuba," which is played at breakneck speed and becomes something of a showpiece for the trio's collective dexterity. Reijseger opens "El Condor Pasa" by strumming his cello like a overgrown guitar, whereupon Moore fastens onto the melody's modal structure and gradually slips into Coltrane country, tearing off sheets of sound while nonetheless remaining true to the structure if not the spirit of the song. As befits a jazz classic, "Skylark" is played straight (and beautifully), but "Baltimore Oriole" opens with 80 seconds of simulated birdsong on sax and cello before easing into the melody, and Moore can't resist throwing a little post-bop skronk into the middle of Irvin Berlin's "My Bird of Paradise." Rara Avis has a musical surprise waiting around every corner, and contains everything a discerning jazz listener would ever want -- wit, charm, passion, virtuosity and variety.