CMU can have jazz week too

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ While the traditional jazz is blaring from Pitt this week, neighboring Carnegie… ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ While the traditional jazz is blaring from Pitt this week, neighboring Carnegie Mellon’s got some more unusual sounds swinging around campus. ‘ ‘ ‘ Amsterdam native Willem Breuker, a saxophonist and clarinetist, assembled his ‘Kollektief’ (note: Collective) back in 1974 and has been churning out some of the most mind-bending, dream-like avant garde jazz ever since. The 11-piece group has toured the world, including tours in China and Hong Kong, Mexico, Russia and, of course, Pittsburgh ‘mdash; the collective will blow the doors off Carnegie Mellon’s CFA Alumni Concert Hall tonight. ‘ ‘ ‘ To listen to Breuker’s take on jazz is an experience quite unlike your average jazz fare ‘mdash; Louis Armstrong, this is not. Rather, Breuker’s music plays more like music from the smokiest of underground jazz clubs that you hear while in a state of lucid dreaming. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ High concept? Just a little bit ‘mdash; but it still knows how to punch in with engaging solos and enough orchestral finesse that you’d be hard pressed to find a sleepy eye in any venue when the Kollektief comes to town.