JOACHIM KÜHN – This Way Out (MPS/BASF Rec. ‎– 2921752-3 / 2LP-1973)

Label: MPS/BASF Records ‎– 2921752-3

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP / Gatefold sleeve / Country: W. Germany / Released: 1973

Style: Free Jazz, Modal, Free Improvisation

Recorded in January 1973 at MPS Studio, Villingen, W. Germany.

Design [Cover], Photography By – Bernhard Wetz

Photography By [Liner Photos] – A.C. Besgaard, Anne Delmas, G. Hasenfratz, R. Kühn

Produced by MPS-Records, Villingen

Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, etched): A 0666 121 S 1 / 2921752-3 -1

Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, etched): B 0666 121 S 2 / 2921752-3 -2

Matrix / Runout (Side C runout, etched): C 0666 122 S 1 / 2921752-3 -3

Matrix / Runout (Side D runout, etched): D 0666 122 S 2 / 2921752-3 -4

side 1

A1 - Brother Rolf ....................................................................................................... 1:53

A2 - Byg Bridge ......................................................................................................... 5:53

A3 - Amok ................................................................................................................. 5:50

A4 - She's A Beauty .................................................................................................. 4:30

A5 - Spaced In .......................................................................................................... 4:28

side 2

B1 - Body And Soul ................................................................................................... 5:11

B2 - Phallic Dance ..................................................................................................... 6:03

B3 - Juxtaposition ...................................................................................................... 3:46

B4 - All The Things You Are ...................................................................................... 3:35

B5 - Paris '72 ............................................................................................................. 0:58

side 3

C1 - This Way Out ..................................................................................................... 4:51

C2 - Do Dat Dudek .................................................................................................... 5:25

C3 - Sound Color One ............................................................................................... 2:00

C4 - Sound Color Two ............................................................................................... 1:16

C5 - Other Way Out ................................................................................................... 3:45

side 4

D  -  Unison Union .................................................................................................. 20:25

Musicians:

Joachim Kühn – piano, alto saxophone

Gerd Dudek – tenor & soprano saxophone, flute

Peter Warren – bass, cello

Daniel Humair – drums, percussion

JOACHIM KUHN "This Way Out" (1973 German, 16-track double LP on MPS, with red labels and 2921752-3 catalogue prefix, front laminated gatefold sleeve with 0666 121 overstickered catalogue number. Stunning advanced Jazz here from a label that putout some of the very best, forward thinking, and often glorious sounding Fusion records of the seventies.

Joachim Kühn is joined by Daniel Humair, one of Europe’s most celebrated drummers, along with bassist/cellist Peter Warren, whose play has graced the albums of such diverse greats as Clarla Bley and John Scofield. The impressionistic miniature Brother Rolph serves as an introduction, the up-tempo Byg Bridge spans over to the helter-skelter of Amok, while the well-named ballad She’s a Beauty precedes the straight-ahead swing of Spaced In. Kühn tenders a personal solo-rendering of the classic Body And Soul, then switches to alto sax on the harsh, ritualistic Phallic Dance.

Juxtaposition features contrasting solo and group dynamics, and the trio show their standards chops on the medium-tempo All The Things You Are. The musical snapshot Paris 72 book-ends the 10 trio pieces. German saxophonist Gerd Dudek, whose playing credentials include Carla Bley and Don Cherry, joins the trio on the next six pieces. He takes up soprano on the Latin-like This Way Out, while he’s on tenor and Kühn on alto with hell-bent free solos on Do Dat Dudek. Sound Color One and Two are miniatures that explore the possibilities of musical textures. Other Way Out is a free dialogue between piano and soprano, and Unison Union brings the quartet together in a display of intuitive inspiration. 16 pieces of creative brilliance.

If you find it, buy this album!

ALBERT MANGELSDORFF QUARTET / QUINTETT – Never Let It End (LP-1970) and – Birds Of Underground (LP-1973)

Label: MPS Records – MPS 15274

Format: Vinyl, LP; Country: Germany - Released: 1970

Style: Free Jazz

Recorded March 23rd, 1970 Walldorf Studio, Frankfurt, Germany.

Engineer – Torsten Wintermeier

Producer – Joachim Ernst Berendt

Fotos by Inge Werth, cover and graphic work by Günter Kieser

A1 - Wide Open . . . 3:45

A2 - Never Let It End . . . 9:48

A3 - Certain Beauty . . . 9:14

B1 - The 13th Color . . . 6:54

B2 - Open Mind . . . 4:17

B3 - Roitz And Spring . . . 7:14

B4 – Nachwort . . . 1:50

Albert Mangelsdorff – trombone

Heinz Sauer – saxophone (tenor, alto)

Günter Lenz – bass

Ralf Hübner – drums, percussion

Jazz in Germany – the 60s/70s

The music critic and producer Joachim-Ernst Berendt took an eminent position at this time, influencing German jazz mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. Without him, neither the European Free Jazz, even as individual musicians like Mangelsdorff, Doldinger and others, would have gained the importance that they have for the German jazz today. Berendt was the first and only global player of the jazz critics and producers of the German jazz scene, who introduced jazz from Germany abroad.

The best-known jazz groups in West Germany were the quintets of Albert Mangelsdorff (with Heinz Sauer and Günter Kronberg), Michael Naura (with Wolfgang Schlüter), and the quartet of Klaus Doldinger (with Ingfried Hoffmann.) Innovators were also the Lauth Wolfgang quartet (with Fritz Hartschuh) and the trio of Wolfgang Dauner (with Eberhard Weber and Fred Braceful). Musically there was a deliberate but careful delineation of the American model. With their growing popularity, Doldinger and Mangelsdorff could also perform abroad and publish records. Naura had to retire from active life as a musician because of illness, and later became an editor of the Jazz part of the NDR (Northern German Broadcast). For the GDR, the Manfred Ludwig sextet has to be mentioned,originally for a long time the only band, which turned to the style of modern jazz.

In 1965, the quintet of Gunter Hampel, a moderate Free Jazz maintainer, with musicians such as Manfred Schoof, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Buschi Niebergall and Pierre Courbois, arrived on the German jazz scene and performed many concerts in the "province". Free jazz, without compromises, could be heard from the Manfred Schoof quintet (Voices) and an octet by Peter Brötzmann (Machine Gun). Especially in the smaller towns of western Germany, jazz music clubs disappeared with the advent of the Beat. From the mid-1960s on, in the GDR, the trio of Joachim Kühn (who migrated to the West in 1966), Friedhelm Schönfeld, and Manfred Schulze found their own ways into free jazz.

Label: MPS Records – 21 21746-9, BASF – 21 21746-9

Format: Vinyl, LP; Country: Germany - Released: 1973

Style: Free Jazz

Recorded September and December 1972 at Walldorf-Studio, Frankfurt/M.

Design [Cover Design] – Günter Kieser

Liner Notes – Claus Schreiner

Photography By – Ralph-B. Quinke

Producer – MPS Records

A1 - Wobbling Notes And Fluted Crackle . . . 14:18

A2 - Grive Musicienne . . . 5:42

B1 - Birds Of Underground . . . 11:37

B2 - Xenobiosis . . . 11:42

Albert Mangelsdorff – trombone

Heinz Sauer – alto saxophone, tenor saxophone

Gerd Dudek – tenor/sopran saxophone, flute

Buschi Niebergall – bass

Peter Giger – drums, percussion

The 1970s were marked by the globalization and commercialization of the German jazz world. Jazz was combined with various other music genres. Successful jazz musicians such as Klaus Doldinger, Volker Kriegel and the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble followed this trend in the direction of rock music in West Germany. At the same time, younger musicians like Herbert Joos, Alfred Harth and Theo Jörgensmann garnered public acknowledgment and aroused the attention of the jazz scene with their music. It is noteworthy that the German musicians achieved an acceptance with the local audience on par with American jazz musicians. For example, the Theo Jörgensmann quartet, an avant-garde jazz group, was even in the Best-of Lists of Popular Music in the Music-Yearbook Rock Session. At the same time the German record labels FMP, ECM and ENJA established in the market. Also acoustic-romantic performances by Joachim Kühn and other pianists like Rainer Brüninghaus came into fashion. In Moers and other West German towns, festivals were held that focused on these new developments in jazz.

In the 1970s, scholastic learning of jazz was also achieved in West Germany. The annual summer course at the Akademie Remscheid (Remscheid Academy) was very popular among young jazz musicians. There is hardly a professional jazz musician, born between 1940 and 1960, who did not attend this course as a student or teacher.

After 1970, the mighty government ministries of East Germany gave up their antagonism towards jazz music, giving the "explanation" that jazz had become an integral part of East German culture and politics. But Klaus Lenz and the Modern Soul band found its own way to the Fusion of rock and jazz music. In East Germany in particular, free jazz musicians developed their own gestures and improvised first on apparently East German-specific material in such a way that the idea of an "Eisler Weill Folk-Free jazz" could take hold abroad. The self-assertion was more strongly pronounced in East than in West Germany. Among the better-known artists of this era were Conny Bauer and Ulrich Gumpert (Zentralquartett), as well as Manfred Hering and Günter "Baby" Sommer. This music resonated with a very broad young audience, and was very successful. The jazz journalist Bert Noglik noted in retrospect: "In the course of the seventies in the GDR in the evolution of jazz the Free Jazz (in a broader sense) has crystallized to be the form of the major direction of practice and its majority passes, and exists both in quantitative and qualitative respects. This statement refers to the musicians, the audience and also the organizational structure of the concert and tour management. All of this is even more astonishing when one considers that in the eastern and western neighboring regions, there always flowed a relatively strong mainstream music."...etc

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HEINER STADLER – Brains On Fire (2CD-2012) - [2LPs-1973/’74 + previously unreleased tapes]

Label: Labor Records – LAB 7069

Format: 2 × CD, Album - Released: 02/28/2012
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded at Nola Penthouse Sound Studio, NYC 1966 & recorded at O' Brien's Studio, Teaneck, NJ 1971/1973
Artwork [Illustration] By – Johann Feindt
Design By – Conni Lechner; Photography By – M. De Chiara
Engineer – Orville O'Brien / Tony May
Producer, Composed By – Heiner Stadler

Music that stretches boundaries and, yes, might sizzle the brain pan a bit.

ARTISTS:
Jimmy OWENS – trumpet (CD1: track 1; CD2: track 4); Tyrone WASHINGTON – tenor saxophone, flute (CD1: tracks 1-3; CD2: tracks 2-3); Garnett BROWN – trombone (CD1: track 1; CD2: track 4); Heiner STADLER – piano (CD1: tracks 1-3; CD2: tracks 2-3); Reggie WORKMAN – bass (CD1: tracks 1-3; CD2: track 1); Brian BRAKE – drums (CD1: track 1); The Big Band of the North German Radio Station: Manfred SCHOOF, Gerd DUDEK, Albert MANGELSDORFF, Wolfgang DAUNER, Lucas LINDHOLM, Tony INZALACO (CD1: track 4); Dee Dee BRIDGEWATER – vocals (CD2: track 1); Joe FARRELL – tenor saxophone (CD2: track 4); Don FRIEDMAN – piano (CD2: track 4); Barre PHILLIPS – bass (CD2: track 4); Joe CHAMBERS – drums (CD2: track 4)

Some recordings should come with a sticker which states: for those willing to be challenged. German-American composer, producer, pianist, arranger and bandleader Heiner Stadler’s reissued, remastered, restructured and expanded release, Brains on Fire (which initially came out as two separate vinyl volumes in 1967, which are often rare to find), certainly qualifies for such a caveat emptor. For some, Stadler is known as an interpreter of other musicians’ material, due in part to last year’s remixed reissue of his 1978 outing, A Tribute to Monk and Bird, which was also put out on Stadler’s Labor label. Stadler has also reissued other titles from his back catalog, including 1976’s Jazz Alchemy (which came out in 2000) and the 1996 compilation Retrospection (reissued in 2010). This year it is time to reevaluate one Stadler’s most original efforts, Brains on Fire. This CD version contains three tunes never before heard and marks the first CD presentation of five other works.

One reason to listen to the two-disc Brains on Fire is to hear then-current and up-and-coming jazz luminaries dig deeply into material which spans the perceived gap between avant-garde, post-bop, tone-row experiments and European serialist composition. The eight long pieces (four per disc) were recorded between 1966 and 1974 and feature 17 artists (as well as an orchestra), including trumpeter Jimmy Owens (who worked with Miles Davis in the '50s and was a founding member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra), bassist Reggie Workman (notable for his work with John Coltrane, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Yusef Lateef), and future stars such as saxophonist/flutist Joe Farrell (who subsequently had crossover success on the CTI roster) and a young Dee Dee Bridgewater (a few years before fame found her, when she was still singing with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra).

Stadler uses several ensemble configurations ranging from a bass/vocals duet to a quartet (on four tracks) to a big band. The first CD’s opener, “ No Exercise ” (taken from a 1973 session but making its debut here) features a sextet with a three-horn frontline (Owens on trumpet, Tyrone Washington on tenor sax and Garnett Brown on trombone) with a three-piece rhythm section (Stadler on piano, Brian Brake on drums and Workman). The 12-minute workout starts with Workman’s arco bass, followed by Owens’ warm trumpet and then the rest of the group steps up to help present Stadler’s avant-garde blues which is shaped by a 12-tone row. Workman’s astute bass is a highlight during this spontaneously-surging piece, but so is Washington’s unfettered sax. Since Washington later left music because of a religious conversion, Brains on Fire is one of the few places listeners can hear the obscure sax player display the width of his skills. Washington is also heard to great effect on three other tracks. The post-Coltrane “ Three Problems ” (a 1971 performance never before released) crosses the lines between hard bop and free jazz, and is an often-chaotic construction with Washington’s lacerating sax leading the charge. Workman adds a transcendent bass solo, which temporarily ebbs the high-energy level, but for the most part “ Three Problems ” is almost 13 minutes of roaring density. “ Heidi ” has a slower, spiritual treatment and listeners initially may find this to be the most coherent cut, although “ Heidi ” also eventually edges to a tumultuous portion where written and improvised sections are fused to the point where it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other commences. The other quartet tunes, “ U.C.S ” and “ All Tones ” (both on CD2), are parallel explorative compositions which delve into variations on texture, phrasing and theme akin to Coltrane’s brilliant free recitations such as Interstellar Space or Ornette Coleman’s vitality-fueled Free Jazz, where the music is elaborately extemporized and not easily absorbed in a single listen. Howard Mandel’s liner notes advise listeners to let “ U.C.S ” and “ All Tones ” sweep the listener along and it’s a good recommendation.

Two of the longer compositions employ very different approaches. The 24-minute Russ Freeman-penned “ Bea’s Flat ” (a 1974 recording offered here for the first time) is a striking, customized blues given over entirely to The Big Band of the North German Radio Station, conducted by Dieter Glawischnig. Several band members are spotlighted as soloists (sax and piano in particular) and the full ensemble actually steps away at times, emphasizing single instruments. The result is somewhat like a meeting between Duke Ellington’s and Sun Ra’s groups. Reggie Workman and Dee Dee Bridgewater’s 20-minute bass/voice pairing, “ Love in the Middle of the Air ” (a shorter take can be found on Retrospection) is nearly as remarkable in a wholly dissimilar way. Bridgewater stretches, undulates and heightens beat poet Lenore Kandel’s minimal lines, phrases and words while Workman glides and rolls on his bass with perfect sympathy: his meticulous arco work in particular is an emotional standout.

Despite recordings from four studios and engineers, there is observable and high quality engineering and audio constancy over the course of the two-hour, eight-track project. Even during the most intense moments instruments rise out from the mix rather than getting washed aside, and when the heady musical concoction is confined to just a few instruments (like bass or vocals) the sound is wonderfully expressive.

_ By Doug Simpson 
 (February 22, 2012, AUDIOPHILE AUDITION)



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WOLFGANG DAUNER - SEPTETT – Free Action (LP-1967)

 

SABA LP cover (1967)

Label: SABA – SB 15 095
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1967
(CD issue - Promising Music/MPS, 2008)
Style: Free Jazz
Recorded at SABA Studio Villingen, Black Forest, May 2nd, 1967.
Producer – Joachim Ernst Berendt
Recorded By – Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer
Layout [Graphic] – Gigi Berendt
Painting [Cover Painting "free Action"] – Wolfgang Dauner
Photography By – Paul Gerhard Deker

Bass – Jürgen Karg
Cello – Eberhard Weber
Drums – Fred Braceful
Drums, Percussion [Tabla] – Mani Neumeier
Piano, Piano [Prepared], Composed By – Wolfgang Dauner
Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet – Gerd Dudek
Violin – Jean-Luc Ponty

1. Sketch Up And Dauner (8:58)
2. Disguise (6:58)
3. Free Action Shot (6:13)
4. My Spanish Disguise (12:46)
5. Collage (6:27)

Without any doubt Wolfgang Dauner is one of the world’s most versatile piano and keyboard players who has touched on literally every musical genre and – as a “ holistic artist ” - even stepped out beyond sound. From the very start of his curriculum musicae Dauner had a strong interest in overcoming clichés of standard jazz and, in every respect, developing new forms of composing and making music. At the same time he always was a down-to-earth man: He worked for TV and film, sketching soundtracks and creating music programs for children. Isolation and elite attitude was the last thing on his mind as he was always striving to mediate between jazz, rock and classical music. In the 1960s Bill Evans ’ vocabulary was a starting point for his own language and stories. ” Free Action ” , released in 1967, stands as an early and powerful manifest of some of his important ideas and until today ranges among the centrepieces of his discography. At that time Dauner was searching for a new possibility of collective composition and improvisation. He built a septet around his early trio mates Eberhard Weber (vcl) and Fred Braceful (dr): Jürgen Karg from the city of Saarbrücken is on bass whereas Krautrock legend Mani Neumeier functions as an energetic counterpart to the rather subtle playing of Braceful. The most prominent jazz violinist of that period, Jean-Luc Ponty, takes part as does tenor sax and clarinet player Gerd Dudek, also firmly anchored in the German free jazz scene. Thus, with two drummers and a bass as well as a cello player, he assembled a very unusual line-up, which allowed the musicians to focus on duos and dialogues in rarely heard constellations within the group. Before the recording session he manufactured a score for every one to enable new forms of direct interaction without the need of a band leader - interactions that also comprise spontaneity and the principle of coincidence. The five pieces on “ Free Action ” reflect different stages of unchaining from conventional forms: “ Sketch Up And Downer ” still grows out of a blues scheme, encouraging different dialogues among the musicians, “ My Spanish Disguise ” shows its origin in Iberian colours and rhythms, but than is alienated and makes use of micro-tonality. Most consequently Dauner realizes his concept of “ free action ” in “ Disguise ” and, certainly, “ Free Action Shot ” : The first one presents an Indian atmosphere at the beginning but then steers into “ free waters ” around Dauner’s prepared piano. In the latter he experiences with a new sign language conducting the musicians. Already 40 years ago Wolfgang Dauner proved to be the big explorer he remained until the present day. The original cover artwork being painted by himself this work comes as a very stimulating synthesis of the arts.

Wolfgang Dauner

From JOHN KELMAN for AAJ occasion of the release of the CD (Promising Music/MPS, 2008):

Wolfgang Dauner is yet another case of an artist who's achieved a considerable reputation in Europe, but for whom greater exposure in North America has remained elusive. The multidisciplinary keyboardist has done everything from free jazz to opera, and can be heard in fine jazz/rock form on Don "Sugar Cane" Harris' recently released 1972 MPS disc, Sugar Cane's Got the Blues (Promising Music/MPS, 2008). First released in 1967, Free Action is another MPS recording that's been long overdue for CD issue and, thanks to Promising Music, it's now possible to hear what was going on in Europe at the time, while largely unbeknownst to North American jazz fans.

Dauner's septet features three artists who have gone on to varying degrees of international recognition: reedman Gerd Dudek, bassist Eberhard Weber (heard here on cello) and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. For those only familiar with Ponty's later fusion work, his playing on Free Action will come as a surprise; it's also enlightening to hear Weber in a freer context, since his own ECM discography, while providing room for improvisation, is far more structured than the more extreme freedom of Dauner's music.

That's not to say there isn't structure to Free Action's five Dauner compositions. "Sketch Up and Downer" begins with a free exchange between Weber and bassist Jürgen Karg, with the rest of the septet—including drummers Mani Neumeier and Fred Brace—gradually joining in, leading to Dauner's knotty theme that establishes a harmonic center. Ponty's energetic solo takes place over a fiery swing, despite retaining a turbulent undercurrent. Dudek's tenor solo is more tempestuous still, as both drummers create a maelstrom with a pulse while Dauner accompanies with staggered block chords. Even as Weber becomes more unfettered and spirals further outward, Dauner's solo leads into a section that combines spontaneity with cued figures before reiterating the opening theme.

"Disguise" reflects a pervasive interest in East Indian music that began with jazz musicians in the 1960s. Neumeir switches to tabla and the group adopts a more linear approach, but freedom still reigns, with Dauner's prepared piano a jagged backdrop for in tandem soloing by Karg and Weber. The abstruse "Free Action Shot" uses graphic, rather than conventional, notation (reprinted in the CD booklet), allowing the musicians maximum liberty within a set of predefined textural parameters independent of time, pitch and tone. With a group of improvisers less concerned about personal contribution than the collective whole, Ponty still stands out, if only because it's so surprising to hear him in the context of Dauner's unconventional settings.

Dauner would go on to record a trio album with Weber and Brace for ECM (1970's Output), but the majority of his 1960s-1970s output as a leader was for MPS. A challenging record that's not for the faint-at-heart, Free Action is nevertheless a fine introduction for those unfamiliar with the pianist's work, and a welcome release for those who've been patiently waiting for its issue on CD.

_ By JOHN KELMAN
(AAJ, Published: March 25, 2008)



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MANFRED SCHOOF QUINTET – Voice (LP-1966, Re-2008)

Label: L+R Records – CDLR 710528, Bellaphon – CDLR 710528
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered; Country: Europe - Released: 2008
Style: Free Jazz
Recorded May 2nd, 1966 at Studio Walldorf / Frankfurt am Main.
Original release in 1966 as Columbia 62621
Design [Album] – Günther Kieser
Engineer [Sound] – Dieter Von Goetze
Producer – Horst Lippmann

Trumpeter/cornetist and composer Manfred Schoof isn ’ t quite as well known today as some of his peers in the free-jazz movement in Germany. Though now primarily working in radio and television music, Schoof recorded a series of extraordinary records as a bandleader in the ‘ 60s and ‘ 70s. His quintet of the mid- ‘ 60s featured saxophonist Gerd Dudek, bassist Buschi Niebergall, drummer Jaki Liebezeit (later of prog-rock band Can), and pianist/composer Alexander von Schlippenbach. The compositions are all originals by members of the group and the music here is crisp, alternately poised and volcanic. Stylistically there are clear forebears — Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri, George Russell and Albert Ayler, as well as composer Bernd Alois Zimmerman (with whom Schlippenbach studied) and the inventions of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mauricio Kagel, Arnold Schöenberg and Anton Webern. For all that, the music is a robust classic of European jazz, and one that shows its constituents to be aware of tradition whilst fighting to find new expressive avenues.



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BERLIN CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ORCHESTRA – Live In Japan '96 (1997)

Label: DIW Records – DIW-922
Format: CD, Album; Country: Japan - Released: 1997
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live at Shin-Kobe Oriental Theatre on August 6 1996, except track 2 at Nakano ZERO Hall, Tokyo on 31 July 1996.
Produced by Alexander von Schlippenbach and Aki Takase
Associate producer: Kazue Yokoi / Executive producer: DIW/Disk Union
Recorded by Kimio Oikawa （及川公生 )
Assistant engineers: Nobuhiro Makita (Nakano ZERO Hall), Satoru Nakanishi (Shin-Kobe Oriental Theater)
Mastered by Keiko Ueda at Tokyu Fun, Tokyo
Photography by Hiroyuki Yamaguchi (Picture Disk) / Cover design by Yuri Takase

Conducted by Alexander von Schlippenbach & Aki Takase

Unlike pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach's earlier large aggregation, the free music pioneering Globe Unity Orchestra, the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra was conceived as a composer's forum as much as an improviser's. In addition to Schlippenbach's own provocative scores, the 10-year-old BCJO has commissioned works from Carla Bley, Kenny Wheeler, and others. The BJCO initially intended to use Berlin musicians exclusively, but has become an international unit, which now includes a sizable Japanese contingent including pianist and co-conductor Aki Takase, and such renowned English improvisers as saxophonist Evan Parker, trumpeter Henry Lowthar, and trombonist Paul Rutherford. Live in Japan '96 provides a fine one-disc synopsis of its evolution.

The program is evenly split between compositions by Schlippenbach and Takase and repertory items, including a Takase-arranged medley of Eric Dolphy compositions ("The Prophet," "Serene," and "Hat and Beard"); Schlippenbach's extrapolation of W.C.. Handy's "Way Down South Where The Blues Began;" and Willem Breuker's semi-sweet take on the Gordon Jenkins chestnut, "Goodbye." Yet, some of the most freely improvised passages of the program occur in the Dolphy suite (Rutherford's duet with drummer Paul Lovens harkens back to their '70s collaborations, while Parker's unaccompanied soprano solo is a testament to the ongoing vitality of his 30-year exploration of multiphonic textures).

Especially in the case of the pungent improvised ensemble embellishments in the Handy piece, free improvisations are well-integrated into the structure of the works.

Schlippenbach and Takase's compositions also encompass a wide spectrum of approaches. A reprise of Schlippenbach's skull-rattling "The Morlocks" is a reminder of the pianist's contributions to the machine gun aesthetic of the German avant-garde in the '60s. His "Jackhammer," however, is the program's best vehicle for racing, hard-edged, bop-inflected blowing, particularly by altoist Eichi Hayashi and the vastly underrated tenor, Gerd Dudek. Takase's "Shijo No Ai" intriguingly brackets a bracing collective improvisation with an almost florid, Evans-tinged chart. Schlippenbach and Takase are a formidable composer/arranger/pianist/conductor tag-team; the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra is an excellent vehicle for their uncompromising work.

_ By Bill Shoemaker (JazzTimes)



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