Han Bennink/Myra Melford/Mary Oliver, Arch St. Music House, Berkeley CA 1/22/12

Disaster Amnesiac had the great pleasure of attending this show with Andrew Joron and Joe Noble, shlepping over to Berkeley in the rain. Han Bennink is the kind of musician that one should not be deterred from seeing.
Han brings fun to the Avant Garde of Jazz, and he can play his ass off. The man has chops and humor and undeniable presence.
Pianist Myra Melford is one of the great post-Taylor players; she can play with incredible control on the keys, using scads of technical prowess to get the desired sound. The S.F. Bay Area is lucky to have her.
Violin player Mary Oliver was a pleasant surprise to Disaster Amnesiac and my pals. None of us had heard before. We were blown away by her techniques, which ran the gamut from Jazz to micro-tonalism to Classical sounds.

The net musical result of this trio was a romping set, comprised primarily of several compositions by Dutch pianist Misha Mengleberg, spiced with tons of improvisatory fire (especially from the ever-puckish Bennink).
The evening's proceedings ended with UC Berkeley electronic musician David Wessel joining in. His clanging laptop-generated sounds clearly made Han very happy!

If you get a chance to see any of these musicians play, do take it. No mere storm can stop a guy like Bennink!