Han Bennink

Biography

Han Bennink (born April 17, 1942) is a Dutch jazz drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist. Bennink was born in Zaandam, the son of a classical percussionist. He played the drums and the clarinet during his teens. Through the 1960s he drummed with a number of American musicians visiting the Netherlands, including Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy (he can be heard on Dolphy's final studio recording, Last Date (1964)). He subsequently became a central figure in the emerging European free improvisation scene.