Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio - Physics

Evan Parker: tenor & soprano saxophones
Alexander von Schlippenbach: piano
Paul Lovens: selected drums & cymbals

Review

by Eugene Chadbourne

Physics? This is more like a plate of steaming clams, or better yet a big pot of hot fish soup. It is 74 minutes of thick, steaming music played by the group that never dies, served up in two lengthy courses. This was recorded early into their second decade of existence. By then the trio had clearly proved the inaccuracy of certain notions that fixed groups do not work in the free improvised genre. Then again, the Schlippenbach trio has a clear connection with the jazz tradition, something that some of the other groups from the European free improvisation scene don't. One can sense a link between the final period of Coltrane, for example, and the playing of Evan Parker, Alexander Schlippenbach, and Paul Lovens, although eliminated is the need for grandiose theme statements to kick the jams into gear. Since modern jazz in the early '90s had been largely running away frightened from the late Coltrane model and retreating into more conservative, commercial realms, one could say this is the trio that is physically carrying the history of jazz forward. Whatever they are doing, it's top notch.(from AMG)

1991 PHYSICS

Manfred Schoof - European Echoes

Enrico Rava: trumpet
Manfred Schoof: trumpet
Hugh Steinmetz: trumpet
Peter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone
Gerd Dudek: tenor saxophone
Evan Parker: soprano & tenor saxophones
Paul Rutherford: trombone
Derek Bailey: guitar
Fred Van Hove: piano
Alexander von Schlippenbach: piano
Irène Schweizer: piano
Arjen Gorter: double bass
Peter Kowald: double bass
Buschi Niebergall: double bass
Han Bennink: drums
Pierre Favre: drums

The lineup says it all. Derek Bailey, Peter Brotzmann, Fred Van Hove, Alexander von Schlippenbach, just to name a few, are all here. I’ve always put this album in context by thinking of it as the non-idiomatic improvisational cousin of Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz. There is the all-star lineup, the big group moving and swaying and surging, just as there is in Free Jazz. Each player would go on to do even greater things individually or in new configurations. Yet this album, at least from an American perspective, is much less celebrated, which I’ve found curious.

Part of that can be geographic, obviously. Another reason for the supremacy of Free Jazz on these shores is Coleman’s ties to traditional US folk music, where his abstractions would be broken up, or kept in context, by fleeting phrasings (or rephrasings) of memorable tunes. Here there is much less recognizable in terms of melodies under the fray. In this way, it is a more European version of Coltrane’s Ascension. Of course, that is fine praise. And, it is my guess, if you’re a fan of Free Jazz, but enjoy a harsher edge, like Ascension, but want less clutter, then European Echoes is right up your alley.

Unlike some other giant group affairs, this plays slightly more like Bitches Brew in that this record breaks up its storms with a lot of individual showcasing. There is just less going on at one time for a decent number of stretches. In this way, you can hear this as a fresher approach, one that resembles the smaller group free improv of today. The other great thing about this record is that many players are still active, or were at least active recently. This allows you to see how they play in the context of new groups comprised of players that grew up with this sort of thing as respected music rather than a radical statement.

All in all, this is one of the better records posted to KiC, and hopefully a new rip, improved cover art, etc. will help it continue to gain in esteem.(from KILLEDinCARS)

1969 EUROPEAN ECHOES

Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio - Pakistani Pomade

Alexander von Schlippenbach: piano
Evan Parker: soprano & tenor saxophones
Paul Lovens: drums

British saxophonist John Butcher recently asked me why his music is considered jazz. Sure, it's based on improvisation. Is that enough of a qualification? There are some connections with the American avant-garde from the '60s, including atonal experiments by Cecil Taylor and expansions of the saxophone's sound by Coltrane and Ayler. But in the end, as much as we all like categories, Butcher's music does not fall into any neat bin. "European free improv" is about as close as you can get, and even that is a murky moniker at best.

The genesis of this so-called school has its roots in '70s experiments in England (and specifically London) by rotating collectives. The Continental variety drew from the tricky dadaism of the Dutch school and the more seriously expressionistic variety from Germany. (The French, for the most part, were too busy eating Brie.)

In the case of 1972's Pakistani Pomade, originally released on the FMP label, the group includes pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach, saxophonist Evan Parker, and drummer Paul Lovens. (German, English, and German, respectively. They still perform today.) The group carries a stalwart emphasis on color, texture, and density—of both the timbral and harmonic kind.

That manifests itself through the wide-ranging play of Parker, who in this case stays toward the brighter end of the spectrum, ranging from light thrusting whispers to squeaking, squawking cries. Lytton has his rare moments of linear timekeeping and outright melodicism, but for the most part he emphasizes rise and fall, twist and turn, crest and boundary.

Schlippenbach, for his part, takes a particularly oblique approach to harmony, with dense clusters and irregular intervals tending to crowd out the more open and resonant moments. As both a player and a composer, he adopts an architectural approach to sound. Three improvisers, playing as intensely and interactively as they possibly can, are barely enough to assemble the craggy structures that emerge here. So in some sense Pakistani Pomade is both a reflection of open possibilities and concerted effort.

Atavistic's Unheard Music Series has brought this recording back to print in an edition with four additional tracks (the 11 minute plus "Pakistani alternate #1" being a particularly dramatic example), original art, and newly unearthed photos of the group. (Man, what hair. What sweat. What serious concentration.) Nearly 20 years later the trio would record the similarly crisp Elf Bagatellen, another essential FMP classic.

European improv never sounded better.(from ALLABOUTJAZZ)

1972 PAKISTANI POMADE

Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio - Bauhaus Dessau

Alexander von Schlippenbach: piano
Evan Parker: tenor saxophone
Paul Lovens: drums

There are times when you (me) curse musicians like Evan Parker for being so damn hermetic in their playing, or like Von Schlippenbach for being far too abstract or too concrete yet hard to pigeonhole, or someone like Paul Lovens for seeming to be unconcerned about rhythm despite being a drummer, or all of them being so totally out there in their own solipsistic adventurous journey that they completely forgot they still need someone (you, me) to listen to their music and enjoy it.

Then there are times when these three icons of European avant-garde music play together and the result is magic. This is such a moment. Yes, it is abstract, it is hermetic at times, it is an adventurous journey, but one that is strangely accessible, with an openness and a kind of creamy texture (am I influenced by the cover art here? but no the music is creamy too) that is pleasing throughout.

The biggest strength of the album is its forward-moving dynamics, as opposed to the in-the-moment creation of sounds of so much free improv, that take you along, like a boat on a musical river, you're part of it, rather than watching it from the shore how things arrive and disappear, no, here you're floating along, which gives you the great pleasure of being able to follow the flux, evolve with its developments, whether through thundering rapids or ballad-like slower movements.

The biggest strength of the album is its warmth, its gentle and welcoming sound, despite its abstract nature, with Evans' tenor being quite expressive in his short staccato bursts full of multiphonic inflections and subtle nuance, or maddening hypnotic in his long circular breathing bouts, all accentuated by Lovens' storytelling on percussion, unusual, elegant and or disorienting, and Von Schlippenbach is the power that holds it all together, gives context, backbone and direction, although all three are quite volatile concepts in an environment like this one.

The biggest strength of the album is its fantastic interplay by three musicians who've seen it all, done it all, without any need to confirm themselves other than the ambition to exceed the quality of their art: to make it more eloquent, more expressive, offering new vistas into music, sound, texture, timbre ...

And now that we're at it : the biggest strength of this live album, is the enthusiastic audience that gives the three musicians the level of applause they rightly deserve.

This is music made for listeners. (from FREEJAZZ)

2010 BAUHAUS DESSAU