KARL BERGER – We Are You (LP-1972, Japanese press)

Label: Trio Records – PA-7017

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Japan / Released: 1972

Style: Free Jazz

Recorded November 1971, Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg

Composed By – Karl H. Berger

Artwork [Cover Art], Design – Carolyn Clarck

Photography By – Horace, Ica Vilander, Tai M. Lüdicke

A1 - Vibes First ......................................................................... 5:50

A2 - We Are You (I) .................................................................. 5:16

         Lyrics By – G. Malerba, Karl H. Berger

A3 - Marimba Dance ................................................................. 2:50

A4 - The Positive ...................................................................... 9:03

         Lyrics By – Sivananda Sarasvati

        Easy Suite .................................... 18:08

B1 - When I Sing  ..................................................................... 9:10

         Lyrics By – Tagore

B2 – Easy .................................................................................. 6:20

B3 - We Are You (II) .................................................................. 2:38

         Lyrics By – G. Malerba, Karl H. Berger

Karl Berger – vibraphone, piano, marimba

Peter Kowald – bass

Allen Blairman – drums, percussion

Ingrid Berger – vocals, percussion

“The thing that struck me as unusual about Karl Berger when I first heard him playing at the Mercer Arts Center in the 1970s was how much at home he sounded with some of the best young players in the New York jazz scene. To my ears then, most European jazz musicians were derivative at best, and often out of touch with the leading American improvisers. But this guy from Germany played as if he'd grown up in New York. How could that be?

 Karl Berger / Don Cherry: The Creative Music Studio in Woodstock

Strongly influenced by Monk and Ornette, Karl Berger created a sound of his own, at once airy and precise, harmonically advanced yet anchored in a destinctive hard swing. He counterbalanced the inherently rich overtone range of the vibraphone by removing (accidentally at first) the vibrato mechanism. Building on a solid bebop base but ranging far afield melodically and harmonically, Berger's music sounded “free” but was set in an unfailingly rhythmic framework. Tempos might shift dramatically within the same composition, but they were always there. This meant that listeners coul lose themselves in the harmonic nuances and still feel grounded by the strong pulse of his playing, a pulse that was abetted by like-minded young players, including bassists Dave Holland, David Izenzon, and Henry Grimes and drummers Barry Altschul, Allen Blairman, and Ed Blackwell. A unique musical atmosphere characterized by lush harmonies, ethereal overtones, and precise rythmic propulsions continues to mark Karl Berger's music today. One the vibes especially, Karl floats like a butterfly, stings like bebop. He has the magical quality of being penetrating and clear at the same time tures are a constant suprise...

From Thelonious Monk, Karl learned the value of “using dynamics and grace notes - grace notes are very important on piano and vibes.” And so in the midts of a swinging solo, or in a softly voiced duet, one note from the vibes will suddenly ring out alone like a brass gong in a silent meditation hall.

We shouldn't forget the compositions themselves, many of which for all their modernity already have the feel of old favorites, the kinds of melodies you might hum while leaving the theater - if you could just remember all their subtleties. This music is timeless in the best sense, and, in Duke Ellington's elegant phrase, “beyond category.” That is its blessing and its potential liability for the composer. The danger of playing music that is free of categorization, or what Karl calls “exercise pieces for a world beyond categories, based on rythmic and melodic parameters that you can find in almost any kind of music,” is that the musician may fail to end up in any easily marketed pigeonhole, But the sales department's loss is our gain. Because if we can never quite get used to Karl Berger's music, we can never get tired of listening to it either.”

By Peter Occhiogrosse, Village Voice

Read this:

Karl Berger and Ingrid Berger: Interviews

https://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/karl-berger-and-ingrid-berger-interviews/

If you find it, buy this album!