Michiel Braam (piano) - Frank Nielander (saxes & violin)

Two Penguins In The Desert was established for the purpose of the final exam at the conservatory of the Institute for the Arts at Arnhem (The Netherlands). Originally the duo played music from the Tristano-school, with pieces such as ‘Wow’ and ‘Sax of a kind’, but the performances of the pieces never had the goal to imitate the original performances. The duo made it one’s object to being creative with the material and to add its own ideas to the notes of the original composers. Later on older jazz standards (a.o. ‘The man I love’, ‘Honeysuckle rose’) and bebop material (‘Salt peanuts’, ‘Bebop’) were added to the repertoire and this season the duo plays a ‘Hoagy Carmichael’-program, in which the immortal songs of the American composer are manipulated by the duo.

Compact Disc
‘Jazzs’ (Peng9401)

The Press:
The two read each other blindly. Or how is it otherwise possible to play unison in a tempo mortale without the accompaniment of a bass and drums, or this seamlessly connect improvised and written parts?(DE GELDERLANDER)

Virtuoso deconstructions with unexpected depth.(VOLKSKRANT).

Compositions that everybody expect to being played far too often are given a treatment by Braam and Nielander that make them sound as new. Delicious!(JAZZ NU)

Information and bookings:
Bik Bent Braam, Spoorstraat 32, 5451 GB Mill, The Netherlands
Telephone and telefax: +31 485.455.330
E-mail: bik.bent.braam@pi.net