Misha Mengelberg (Kiev, 1935) studiò composizione al Royal Conservatory de l'Aia. Come improvvisatore, Mengelberg subì le influenze della musica di Thelonious Monk e Herbie Nichols. Nei primi anni '60 prese parte ad eventi teatrali musicali, ispirato dal movimento Fluxus. Dal '64 diresse l'ormai leggendario quartetto con Piet Noordijk e Han Bennink, che si esibì al Newport Jazz Festival. Nel 1967 Mengelberg, Bennink e Willem Breuker fondarono l'Instant Composer Pool (ICP) e partirono organizzando progetti, e realizzando la prima etichetta d'Europa completamente dedita alla musica improvvisata. Quando Breuker lasciò la ICP nel '73, Mengelberg e Bennink continuarono. Alla guida della ICP, che diresse in varie formazioni, Mengelberg produsse opere teatrali musicali. A parte i lavori originali, negli anni più recenti l'omaggio che la ICP Orchestra offre all'approccio musicale di Mengelberg è caratterizzato da una straordinaria tensione tra l'atteggiamento formale del compositore, una cieca avversione per la mentalità "servile" della maggior parte dei gruppi, ed un'avventurosa, satirica posizione, non solo nei confronti della tradizione jazz americana, ma anche della musica folk europea e della pomposità del fare musica "seria".

English

Misha Mengelberg was born in Kiev in 1935 - the son of a Dutch composer/conductor/pianist and a German harpist - but is a lifelong resident of Amsterdam, where he teaches counterpoint at the Sweelinck Coservatory. He wrote his first piece for piano at age four and has been composing pretty much ever since, in the jazz and classical fields. Crucial early influences include jazz pianists Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols, the composer John Cage, whom he heard lecture at Darmstadt in 1958, and the absurd-art movement Fluxus, with which he was involved in the 1960s.
Mengelberg graduated from the Royal Conservatory in the Hague in 1964. The same year he made his first issued recording, Eric Dolphy's "Last Date". That album also features drummer Han Bennink, with whom Misha has had a longstanding duo. In 1966 Mengelberg's quartet appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in the USA. The following year Mengelberg, Bennink and Willem Breuker founded the Instant Composer Pool, a landmark in the development of the independent Dutch improvised music, which draws on jazz but does not restrict itself to any one style or esthetic (by the time of its  30th anniversary in 1997, ICP Records was the longest-running musician-owned label in improvised music). In the same period he wrote several "game pieces" for musicians, notably "Hello! Windyboys" (1968), over a decade before such gaming became common.
In the 1970s Mengelberg was artistic director of the electronic music workshop STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music), served as first chairman of the Dutch improvising musicians' union BIM, and began leading the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra. He also recorded in trios with Bennink and either South African saxophonist Dudu Pukwana or German reed player Peter Brötzmann, and in duet with is wife's parrot Eeko. Along with Breuker, Mengelberg is largely responsible for the creation of Dutch "music theater", which contains heavy doses of absurdity and improvisation, musical and theatrical.
In the '80s Mengelberg presented many music theater productions and embarked on repertory projects exploring the music of Herbie Nichols, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington, with ICP (documented on their CDs "Two Programs - the ICP Orchestra Performs Nichols-Monk" and "Bospaadje Konijnehol I", both on the ICP label) and in quintets with Bennink and saxophonist Steve Lacy, heard on the albums "Regeneration" and "Change of season" (Soul Note). His recordings in the '90s include two acclaimed trio CDs taped in New York with drummer Joey Baron, "Who's Bridge" (Avant) and "No Idea" (DIW); the solo piano recital "Mix" (ICP) and a duo recording with Bennink, "MiHa" (both on ICP), and "Jubilee Varia", a 1997 recording by the ICP Orchestra (hatOLOGY). He also participated with improvised meetings with various European and American musicians, for several labels.
Mengelberg's many compositions for reading musicians include "3 Pianopieces" (1961) and "In Memorium Hans van Zweeden" (1964 - early minimalism, from his Fluxus years) for solo piano, "Dressoir" (1977) for the wind Orchestra De Volharding, "Rokus de Veldmuis" for the electro-acoustic ensemble Hoketus (1983), and "To a Deaf Man's Ears", a 1996 cantata scripted by Dutch write J.Bernief. His orchestral compositions include "With Well-Kind Regards from the Camel" (1974), "3 Intermezzi" (1981), "Zeekip Ahoy" (1984) and "Beestebeest versus Hertie" (1995). "Onderwg" (1973) and his 1980 saxophone concerto (played by Ed Boogaard) can be heard on the CD "Misha Mengelberg" (Pierrot Lunaire/Associazione di Idee) recorded by the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, cond. Ernst van Tiel.
Mengelberg continues to lead the ICP Orchestra, usually an octet with German trumpeter Thomas Heberer, and the cream of musicians based in Hollad: drummer Bennink, reedists Ab Baars and Michael Moore, trombonist Wolter Wierbos, cellist Tristan Honsinger and bassist Ernst Glerum. That band serves as a forum for all Mengelberg's interests: composition, improvisation, conducted improvisation, and music theater.