It's probably not that easy to stand out in the world of Dutch avant-garde jazz, with the likes of Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink, and Willem Breuker rattling around in the scene for decades. Yet Michiel Braam has managed to do just that, leading his Bik Bent Braam large ensemble (which has proven to be just as worthy of international attention as the ICP Orchestra or Willem Breuker Kollektief) or taking off in smaller outfits, or even flying completely solo. When Braam takes his customary place at the acoustic piano, he can be just as inventive as Mengelberg, drawing upon influences from the traditional to the cutting edge, from Sousa to Monk and beyond, but in a sense he can be even more far-reaching, heading to places his Dutch compatriots would tend to avoid, or maybe even run screaming from. For all their justifiably lauded forays into instant composing, nu-swing, improvisation-composition blending, and pure abstraction, the Dutch lions usually shy away from such philistine areas of investigation as pop/rock and funk. Yes, Bennink may play with the Ex on occasion (throw in some anarchist punk and the street-cred quotient grows immeasurably) and expat Michael Moore has a bit of avant surf-rock in his background in the persons of the Persons, but one would be hard-pressed to recall an instance of Mengelberg jamming out on a Wurlitzer 200A electric piano over a groovin' funk vamp, as Braam does here. The second Wurli Trio CD, 2009's Non-Functionals!, finds electric and semi-acoustic bassist Pieter Douma and drummer Dirk-Peter Kolsch nailing the rhythm (as they did on premiere trio disc, Hosting Changes) while Braam has a great old time leading the charge, putting the fun and funk into music whose title suggests no other high-falutin' purpose.

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