Peter Brötzmann, Fred Van Hove, Han Bennink - FMP 130

PETER BRÖTZMANN, FRED VAN HOVE, HAN BENNINK - FMP 130 (FMP, 1973)

Peter Brötzmann: clarinet, alto, tenor, baritone and bass saxophones
Fred Van Hove: piano, celeste
Han Bennink: drums, khene, rhythm-box, selfmade clarinet, gachi, oe-oe, voice, tins, home-made junk, elong, dhung, kaffir piano, dhung-dkar.

1. For Donaueschingen ever (03.40)
2. Konzert für 2 klarinetten (04.07)
3. Nr. 7 (03.20), Wir haben uns folgendes überlegt (02.56)
4. Paukenhändschen im blaubeerenwald (05.56)
5. Nr. 9 (01.35)
6. Gere bij (05.25)
7. Nr. 4 (04.45),
8. Nr. 6 (05.33)
9. Donaueschingen for ever (02.27)

 Originally, this 1973 recording was released without a title; Atavistic's 30th anniversary reissue is titled FMP 130, after the original album's catalog number, which is how most fans refer to it. Unlike most albums including this trio of players (reedsman Peter Brötzmann, pianist Fred Van Hove, and percussionist Han Bennink), which usually feature two side-long group improvisations, FMP 130 consists of ten concise pieces, each one credited to a single composer. This makes the pieces more focused, while still retaining the fearless improvisational spirit that powers their other work. Brötzmann's overdubbed "Konzert Fur 2 Klarinetten" is one of his most squealing, cacophonous works ever; parts of it sound like the amplified screech of nails on a blackboard. Other tracks, such as Van Hove's "Wir Haben Uns Folgerdes Uberlegt" (which features an otherworldly sound akin to Tuvan throat singing, apparently coming from Brötzmann, though it's nearly impossible to tell if this is a vocal or instrumental sound) are more sedate. "Number 6," for example, consists of largely unaccompanied solo lines from each of the three players, that fade in and out in a drifting, eddying sound that includes passages of near-silence, resulting in a genuinely contemplative mood. Because of this varied dynamic and the brief, accessible song lengths, FMP 130 is an excellent introduction to this circle of composer/performers for the cautious neophyte.(from AMG)

HERE

Peter Brötzmann, Peter Ole Jørgensen, Peter Friis Nielsen & Johannes Bauer - The Wild Mans Band

Peter Brötzmann, Peter Ole Jørgensen, Peter Friis Nielsen & Johannes Bauer - The Wild Mans Band (Ninth World, 1997)

Peter Brötzmann: clarinet, tenor saxophone, tárogató
Peter Friis Nielsen: bass
Peter Ole Jørgensen: drums
Johannes Bauer: trombone

1-DT 104
2-Nymphalis Antiopa
3-Dead Mans Camp
4-Unfaithful Ant
5-Towers
6-Omnibus
7-Mad Cow Disease

Recorded in Copenhagen in 1997, this quartet is truly a group of wild men. The three Peters on reeds, bass, and drums, respectively, and trombonist Johannes Bauer create a new European improvisation music that is full of humor, rage, abstraction, and even perversion. Playing through a brief introduction of sequence variations, the disc really opens with "Nymphalis Antipoa," a six-minute tonal study that features Bauer exploring the nether regions of his instrument while Brötzmann plays through a restrained dark melody before giving way to a fragmental bass solo by Jørgensen on electric bass. Nothing rises above a whisper and no statement is played for more than a note or three on the way to tonal equity. This is short-lived, however, as the entire record explodes into a war-zone free for all on "Dead Man's Camp." This is the kind of music one would expect from this bunch and it never stops from here on out. Brötzmann is the gang leader and his wailing skeins of cascading scalar fury infect the rest of the band. Bauer answers his lines in a free kind of counterpoint and then extends the broken harmonic into a timbral circus. Friis Neilsen is the one who is most on his own though, as the short, clipped basslines give him little to go on except for the "texture" of rhythm. But on he goes, digging deep into his cymbals for ballast and pushing forth great heaving sighs of tom-tom thrumming atop the scattered rim shots that punctuate both saxophone and trombone. This is an exhaustive and exhausting exercise in free jazz tomfoolery of the best and wildest kind. (from AMG)

HERE

Peter Brötzmann, Günter Sommer + Barre Phillips - Réservé

Peter Brötzmann: alto, tenor & bass saxophones, bass clarinet
Günter Sommer: drums
Barre Phillips: bass (track2)

Review

by Thom Jurek

This 1998 recording by the duo of super-lunged saxophonist Peter Brötzman and percussionist Gunter Sommer with bassist supérieur Barre Phillips entering later was a reunion from the Total Music Meetings of the early '80s. None of the trio had played together for five years and -- suddenly -- here they were, together again for what proved to be a 75-minute set of spiritual and musical renewal. Phillips and Brötzman had been active in many ways during the break, but Sommers had explored a different path, one that landed him at the end of critics' barbs. This meeting was a chance to see not only if they could still play together and find the fire necessary to make sculptures of notes in midair, but to showcase how each man had grown as a musician. The first half-hour that comprises the title track has the duo coming out screaming, puncturing the air with ribbons of sound with nails attached. This is where each man establishes the ground he will speak to the others from. Phillips, not yet present, must have been astonished at what he heard from bongos and trap drums to voices. No wonder he wanted in so badly. He enters in the second half on "In Walked Beep." Phillips becomes the bridge by which true communication can happen. His bass playing filters each sound, each utterance, and mirrors it back to another player changed only by his own imagination, which clarifies -- not distorts -- the view of each soloist. This is not a cutting contest; this is a defining moment in the career of Sommers, who has more fire in his belly here that he had exhibited in the previous ten years combined. Phillips is the reason, the waterbearer who offered a safety net and a ledge to walk out on. This is what Coltrane talked about when he spoke of music that transcended music and became a cosmic language. The only difference being that, in these three men, there is no need for the cosmos when the earth is so full of passionate, unspeakable forces that need to be given utterance. By the end of the set, a short eight-minute improv named after some cigars Sommers had given Brötzman, the bridges are built, the towns erected, and the mountains moved. Communication has come from the silences of isolation and entered into the community of sound. Not a miracle, but an accomplishment to be sure.(from AMG)

1988 RESERVE

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

Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann, Kent Kessler, Michael Zerang - The Damage Is Done

Joe McPhee: trumpet, alto saxophone
Peter Brötzmann: alto & tenor saxophones, tarogato, b-flat clarinet
Kent Kessler: bass
Michael Zerang: drums

This live date features legendary free jazz pioneers Peter Brotzmann and Joe McPhee, and Chicago's leading rhythm section, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Michael Zerang. The four also make up 4/10 of Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, maybe the most successful large new music jazz ensemble ever assembled.

As they have in the past while touring with the Tentet, they step away and perform in this more intimate lineup. This quartet has released two previous recordings, Tales Out Of Time (hatOLOGY, 2004) and Guts (Okka, 2007), with The Damage Is Done's two discs recorded live at Alchemia in Krakow, Poland in March of 2008.

While the players can (and do) perform volatile energy jazz here, their preference is for music that's dissectible enough for the players to be distinguished in parts and direction.

The obvious reference point here is the legend of Albert Ayler and his brother Donald. Brötzmann has never shied away from his admiration for free jazz's holy ghost. With Brötzmann on tenor and McPhee sporting the trumpet role, the attention to Ayler can be heard on "With Charon" and the title track (all 30-plus minutes). Brotzmann and McPhee's stamina, both nearing 70, is impressive. The pair delivers an onslaught of energy with a relentless attack, the only pause being for Zerang and Kessler's solos. With that, the pace slows, allowing Brötzmann to paint from a different palette. This gentler approach acts as a collection point before the music again spreads its energy patterns outward.

Kessler and Zerang open "Alchemia Souls," with itchy bowed bass and sound effect brushes on drums. Brötzmann enters, playing a persistent tarogato before McPhee's twitchy alto joins. The rhythm section maintains the energy through constant motion. The more affable music making here comes at the urging of the rhythm section. Slowing down the pulse or playing with mallets coaxes the horn players to decelerate and clarify the sound.

The breadth and power of these four players comes through with an exhaustive clarity in this crisp and vigorous live recording. (from ALLABOUTJAZZ)

2009 THE DAMAGE IS DONE (part1/part2)

Peter Brötzmann, Harry Miller, Louis Moholo - The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat

Many thanks to zuckerwurzel for this rarity

Peter Brötzmann: bass- e-flat & a-clarinets, soprano alto & tenor saxophones
Harry Miller: bass
Louis Moholo: drums

Saxophone terrorist Peter Brötzmann brought this group to the 1979 FMP Festival in Berlin and was promptly accused of retrenching; the sound of the trio hearkened back to the solid feel of black free jazz rather than splintering the brain with the seeming anarchy of the European free jazz scene of the time. The late bassist Harry Miller and drummer Louis Moholo both have South African roots and busily provided rhythm section support, together and in a variety of other combinations, for many different European players of a variety of persuasions. While listeners of the time might have felt Brötzmann was holding something back, the performance actually predicts the saxophonist's later activity, especially his '90s collaboration with players such as Hamid Drake and William Parker. While much of the European scene at the time veered toward inexplicable intensity, this performance is reminiscent of players such as Pharoah Sanders, with a slow, steady build toward a musical inferno guided by a similar feeling of intense spirituality. Live recording of the concert is quite good, with drummer Moholo perhaps a trifle under-miced, with highlights including the title piece and "Kucken Und Drucken," both extended performances. (Eugene Chadbourne, AMG)

1979 THE NEARER THE BONE, THE SWEETER THE MEAT

Peter Brötzmann - one night in Sana'a

Peter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Michael Zerang: drums
Abdul-Aziz Mokrid: violin
Khalid Barkosch: cello
Achmed Al-Khalidy: kanun
Ali Saleh: ney
Yasir Al-Absi: darbuka

Quoi ?? Brötzy qui donne dans la world ? Non t'as pas rêvé. Bon, c'est pas une franche réussite, la rencontre rate, mais ça vaut le coup d'oreille. Et pour une fois que papy ferme un peu sa gueule - bon, évidemment, quand il commence à l'ouvrir, on le sent passer... Ambitieux, raté, curieux.

ICI

SONORE (Brötzmann/Gustafsson/Vandermark) - No one ever works alone

Mats Gustafsson: tenor & baritone saxophones
Ken Vandermark: tenor & baritone saxophones, b-flat clarinet
Peter Brötzmann: alto, tenor & bass saxophones, tarogato, a-clarinet

2003 NO ONE EVER WORKS ALONE
Review

Peter Brötzmann & Michael Zerang - Live in Beirut

Peter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone, tarogato, b-flat clarinet
Michael Zerang: drum set, darbuka, percussion

2005 LIVE IN BEIRUT
Reviews

Peter Brötzmann, William Parker & Milford Graves @ CBGB'S (29/03/2002)

Peter Brötzmann: reeds
William Parker: bass
Milford Graves: percussion

2002 Live at CBGB (Bootleg)