WigAb Baars / Ig Henneman

Ab Baars Trio

2011

""The Ab Baars Trio embodies the heights improvisational music can scale. The trio glides effortlessly between delicately detailed and gently intricate work and the geometrically grandiose, but never falls prey to sneering gaudiness. The trio’s creations, when at their peak, are transcendent works created by true soulmates of sound." -Barb Stewart "

Ab Baars

2010

"This is a varied recording, a generous offering of personable, personal, and pleasingly experimental songs. Baar's employs just the right amount of stream of consciousness to soulfulness in his melodies to make 'Time to do my lions' a fascinating one. -Paul Acquaro, All About Jazz"

Baars Henneman Mengelberg

2009

""And Mengelberg, the patient, pensive wit, picks his moments to enter, ruminates on the voicings of his chords so that each conveys a different shade of feeling, adding a touch of jazz here or late Romanticism there. Quite often, he is the tonal anchor of the improvisations, while Henneman and Baars daub color and asymmetric lines around him. The contrasts are stark, even surreal at times, but there’s always a sense that they are walking together arm in arm through this unusual musical landscape." -Ed Hazell"

Ab Baars Trio & Ken Vandermark

2008

"This pairing is as comfortable as a reunion of grade school classmates. Recorded live at Amsterdam's Bimhuis at tour's end, Goofy June Bug finds both men splitting their time between tenor saxophone and clarinet (backed by Baars' regular rhythm section of Wilbert de Joode and Martin van Duynhoven) and both honor each other's musical traditions: Baars' compositions are as likely to carry a '60s free jazz influence as Vandermark's are to contain European classical elements."

Duo Baars Henneman

2007

"Eminent Dutch multi-reedman Ab Baars is known to skirt the fringes of modern jazz within a variety of mechanisms. Stof presents a largely minimalist portraiture of his craftsmanship, within a tight-knit duo framework with cellist Ig Henneman. Consisting of improvisations that are occasionally embedded into structured compositional elements, the artists pursue freedom of expression throughout. -GLENN ASTARITA, All About Jazz"

Duo Baars - Henneman

2006

"Eminent Dutch multi-reedman Ab Baars is known to skirt the fringes of modern jazz within a variety of mechanisms. Stof presents a largely minimalist portraiture of his craftsmanship, within a tight-knit duo framework with cellist Ig Henneman. Consisting of improvisations that are occasionally embedded into structured compositional elements, the artists pursue freedom of expression throughout. -GLENN ASTARITA, All About Jazz"

Ab Baars Quartet

2005

Ab Baars + Mariëtte Rouppe van der Voort

2003

"…Rouppe van der Voort performs miracles in dexterity on the piccolo in "E si fussi pisci", turning it into a penny whistle sliding out of control. Stopping on a dime 45 seconds before the end of the piece, she prompts a quiet and fragile coda that is so perfect you'll go back to the booklet to make sure it was not scored. Other highlights include the busy and playful title track, the tender "Duet for John and Bob" and "Bells," where Baars launches into a soulful non-idiomatic tenor sax solo. Veer and Haul is a title that evokes big ships performing clumsy maneuvers, but Baars and Rouppe van der Voort's lines are sketching a fascinating dance".
--François Couture, All Music Guide "