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VPRO GIDS Duende always comes without warning The Dutch Flamenco Biennial shows all the facets of the intense Andalusian folk music and dance. From pure cante jondo to daring crossovers, like the Spanish quartet Ultra High Flamenco forging an alliance with Dutch jazz musicians. By Dieter van den Bergh What do you get when you put three Dutch jazz musicians in a room with four Spanish flamenco buccaneers? Instructions in four languages, Spanish, French, English and Dutch, and free-­‐style flamenco flying in all directions, as show the rehearsals at the new the Splendor theatre in the centre of Amsterdam. It's a learning process, as the expression goes. What do you play to a bass clarinet as an Andalusian guitarist? As a jazz pianist, how do you respond to an up-­‐tempo bulería, the twelve-­‐beat metre of flamenco, on the cajón? 'Just do as you feel you should,' one Dutchman tells another. 'We're still in the sniffing around stage,' Oene van Geel tells me during a break on the second day of rehearsal. 'The structure, the notes, the scores... What shape are we going to give it?' At the fifth Flamenco Biennial, Van Geel (1973), winner of the 2013 VPRO/Boy Edgar Award, Maarten Ornstein (sax/clarinet) and Tony Roe (piano) will form an alliance with the young Spanish quartet Ultra High Flamenco. The idea was mooted by festival director Ernestina van de Noort. She introduced the musicians to each other, first in a restaurant, then on a stage. After all, if you can't have dinner with each other, you can't play with each other. And they hit it off. Ultra High Flamenco, founded in 2007, built up an international reputation with groundbreaking flamenco full of improvisation. Van de Noort hopes that this project will get the Spaniards to push their boundaries even further. 'I would love that', beams double bass player and band leader Pablo Martín (1974). But for the moment, it's pretty hard work. 'The hardest thing is deciding how to approach the material. Half of it is our own, the rest is Dutch jazz. And for jazz, we need scores. But we have two native flamencos from Seville and Jerez in the band, and they can't read music. Van Geel, slightly embarrassed: 'I can't deny that we gave them some pretty tricky pieces. But they loved the challenge. 'I've got it! I've got it!", one of the Spanish guitarists exclaimed in delight yesterday. Those are great times." Nerd It's challenging for the Dutchmen too. Maarten Ornstein: 'When you are listening to flamenco, you think: wow, that's wonderful! But when you have to play it, you think: My God, what's going on here?' While the Spaniards want to go all out as soon as possible, the Dutch musicians like to take their time. Oene van Geel certainly does. 'I'm a complete nerd. If it was up to me, I would take five days to do my research and really learn the grammar of the music before actually going on stage.' The violinist is not completely new to flamenco. 'The rhythms of flamenco are absolute fascinating. The players are always skirting around the beat, with all kinds of syncopated rhythms. That gives it a liveliness that is totally unique.' Flamenco players have a great toolbox; if you can use all those tools, the sky is the limit.' Flamenco is said to come from way down inside. But you don't have to be a native to play the music well, according to Martín, who grew up in the Basque country and studied classical music in Vienna. Since he moved to Madrid fifteen years ago, he has been studying flamenco intensively. Flamenco is 'a matter of understanding', he says. 'It goes beyond music pure and simple -­‐ it's a culture. It's about how you talk, how you dance, how you play. If you feel that and you really get it, you are flamenco.' His great source of inspiration is legendary guitarist Paco de Lucía (1947-­‐2014), with whom he was lucky enough to play. 'The revolution started with him. He was the prime mover of all new flamenco.' Magic Just as saudade is integral to the Portuguese fado, duende is the undefinable feeling of flamenco, a magical groove in which everything comes together for a musician or dancer. But they haven't reached duende yet during the rehearsals in Splendor, says Martín. 'Duende always comes without warning. For the time being, what we are doing is working hard, but I feel duende is on its way. The magic will come!' 'And the money too!' van Geel adds, his eyes shining. 'And the wine and women!' Ornstein yells. 'Yeah, right,' laughs Martín, maybe later, but we have work to do. Clearly, there's no lack of chemistry between the Dutch and the Spanish. Ultra High Flamenco ft. Oene van Geel, Maarten Ornstein, Tony Roe: 18 January LantarenVenster in Rotterdam, 25 January Bimhuis Amsterdam, 29 January TivoliVredenburg Utrecht. Dutch Flamenco Biennial, 16 January -­‐3 February, Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven.