We have officially released the first official book of Misha Mengelberg compositions, MISHAKOSMOS: The Music of Misha Mengelberg (ISBN 978-90-824144-7-9). It is a "real book": hardcover and professionally spiral-bound, featuring more than 75 pieces of Misha's music ready to play or otherwise engage with, designed for fans, teachers, students, and especially the performing musician.
Curated and collated by Michael Moore, the list of compositions includes Blues After Piet, Peer's Counting Song, the Rollos, Gare Guillemins, Samba Zombie, Who's Bridge, and of course the perennial favourite De Sprong O Romantiek der Hazen, but also plenty more.
Pianist Uri Caine on MISHAKOSMOS:
I first heard Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink on Eric Dolphy’s last recording “Last Date” as a teenager and loved Misha’s composition “Hypochrismutreefuzz” both for the music and the title. Later when i heard him play live with the ICP I enjoyed the marriage of total freedom, creative anarchy and absurdist humor coupled with the reverence for the music of Monk, jazz tradition and swing. His is a music of imagination, irony and inside jokes as well as lyricism, angularity and emotional contrast.
He and the ICP created their own tradition that included diverse musical styles, quick changes and references to older music, relentless swing (thanks also to bassist Ernst Glerum and drummer Han Bennink) that was ahead of its time and influenced many younger musicians. I am happy his compositions are being published so that we may all share his music.
Enjoy!
Quantities are limited! If you'd like to place an order (€35 not including shipping), please send us an email at subdist@gmail.com (with a Subject line of MISHAKOSMOS and your shipping address included) and we'll get you sorted out.
Below: the pre-bound version.
