Drummer Han Bennink

Andrey Henkin

Contributor since 2001

Recent articles (211 total)

Published: March 13, 2003

Bennink, self-taught on the drums and whatever other percussive device he may find or create on the spot, feels that true improvisation is at odds with the jazz programs cropping up everywhere. "I think if you are an improviser, you should never go to an institute or to a school. It saves your parents lots of money and just because you say I've been with Professor this or that, I don't believe it at all," says Bennink. "Why is the other person interested in what I'm playing. He should be interested in his own cultural background. Why make that choice? Why is he playing the drums?"

Ever the iconoclast, Bennink has firm ideas about where his music is going. He intensely dislikes the record label reissues of music he did 30 years ago: "I live now. I'd rather have money now to work on a new project than people reissuing the old stuff." And for someone with so much experience, he never takes anything for granted and never looks back. "I always travel to play concerts, you always hope that it is your best concert because it can be your last concert. And sometimes you can be exhausted or circumstances are not the right one or the winds not blowing from the right angle. Whatever, that happens. That's improvised music, that's life. That's why I have to do it everynight again. I start from zero."

Photo Credit
Emiliano Neri

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