RAYMOND MacDONALD & GÜNTER 'BABY' SOMMER – Delphinius & Lyra (2007)

Label: Clean Feed – CF086CD
Format: CD, Album; Country: Portugal - Released: 2007
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation, avant-garde
Recorded on 8 September 2005 at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow
Mixed and Mastered by – Kenny McLead
Design – Rui Garrido
Re-Design (pages: 2,3,4,5) by ART&JAZZ Studio, By VITKO
Packaging: Cardstock foldover

Here it is, naked to the bone, free jazz in all its glory, loose, intense and fur ious, not in hanger but with “ joie de vivre. ” A sax-drums duo like this, in which one of the performers is Gunter “ Baby ” Sommer, a hallowed name in European improvised music, makes you anticipate an essentialist approach to the communicative powers of improvisation. This is an encounter of generations, German percussionist and free-jazz pioneer Sommer meets a new presence on the international scene, Scottish saxophonist (and a psychologist, who uses sounds as a therapy for the mentally handicapped) MacDonald. We are all musical, the Glasgow-based MacDonald has lectured. From this universal musicality grow infra- music and hyper- music, music before and after music, nuclear and at the same time cosmic, on the path blazed by John Coltrane and Rashied Ali. The Sommer-MacDonald duo isn’t as spiritual, but the celebration of life is the same. Back in the 60s and 70s Sommer was part of the gang that included Peter Brotzmann, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Peter Kowald, Evan Parker, Leo Smith, and Cecil Taylor when the world was challenged by a new music that rejected both traditional jazz and academic classical composition. He, with his unusual drum kit and literary collaborations, is a living monument. MacDonald is far from being mesmerized by the personal history of his partner: he himself gained the status of one of the most important reedmen in the United Kingdom, with the Burt-MacDonald Quintet, the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, and gigs with Keith Tippett, Maggie Nicols, Lol Coxhill, Harry Beckett, and other notables. You can’t ignore the energy and fresh perspectives in this joint venture.

Performers: Raymond MacDonald, Günter ’Baby’ Sommer

Believe me, an album that will love you long time. Enjoy!



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