Han Bennink on Cheese Kit Diptych - Part 2/3

Cheese Kit Diptych is an installation by artist Walter Willems consisting of two drum kits. In one, full rounds of real (mainly Dutch) cheese sit atop drum stands; in the other, plastic cheese replicas usually found in store display windows are employed. In this absurd setting Willems reinforces the international stereotype of the Dutch by using a classic Dutch export product as its main ingredient.

Cheese Kit Diptych was created specifically to be played by world-renowned Dutch improvisational jazz drummer Han Bennink. Bennink, ambassador of the Dutch free jazz scene, is known for his ability to drum on any surface, teeming with humor, virtuosity, and creativity through his animated style. Willems considered his installation incomplete until Bennink played both of the drum kits.

The drum performance by Han Bennink was recorded on June 17, 2005 at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art where the Cheese Kit Diptych installation was a featured artwork in the Demons Stole My Soul: rock 'n roll drums in contemporary art exhibition. As part of the performance Bennink also played a conventional drum kit and a pair of wooden shoes.

Directed and produced by Walter Willems.
DVD available at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada.

©2006 Walter Willems, All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction, copying and rental of this recording is prohibited by law.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Han
• Bennink
• jazz
• alternative
• improvisation
• drum
• solo
• cheese
• Walter
• Willems
• art
• installation
• performance

[kmal16]

Once you reach certain technical abilities, then it's good time to go beyond your technique and truly develop a way to begin expressing your emotions and feelings, your own color palette to the point where you can say what you absolutely want to say, without any impediments. Technique is only there to help you get to that point.

[Dallas1411]

this guy's awesome and hilarious

[danielion999]

brilliant. And I thought he was just going to play the cheese.

[kindbeats]

Thank you for posting this video! I can relate to this approach in playing much more than mindless shedding. I love discovering new drummers! #RepKindBeats

[dacloo]

I love artistic, I hate artsy fartsy. The hell with his cheese kit

[concernedanonymous]

I don't know why everyone is saying he has bad technique. He's got amazing technique, it's just nonstandard technique. It's just like on several woodwind instruments, some notes can be fingered in a nonstandard way with equivalent or better effect than the normal fingering, but people don't just because that is the way they were taught, and it's been done that way for centuries due to strange historical reasons.

[ADURG1]

thank you fuzznecky! thank gAWd fer Han!!!!

[kmal16]

@sweetlikeADAM haha, I would concur, and you know many times I've seen great artists with poor technique, but who were able to express so much, and then others that had excellent technique but pretended to have none, hahah, and often their audiences were fooled. Captain Beefheart was one of those.

[sweetlikeADAM]

@kmal16 Although I think he has terrible technique, this was such an awesome performance.

[kmal16]

@kenychi Yes, you're right indeed. It happens a lot, and truly what touches people is really our own individual voices, and that is what at the end of the day I believe people look for in art.