DAVID S. WARE QUARTET – Oblations And Blessings (1996)

Label: Silkheart – SHCD 145
Format: CD, Album; Country: Sweden - Released: 1996
Style: Free Jazz
Recorded on 27, 28 September 1995 at Sound On Sound Studio, NYC.
Artwork [Front Cover Art] – Miroslaw Balka
Front cover art titled "A Piece To Keep Doors Open"
Design, Layout – Jörgen Renhorn
Edited By – Allan Tucker; Edited By [Assistant] – Nicholas Prout
Executive-Producer – FS-MAB, Keith Knox
Photography By [Booklet Session Photographs] – Cheung Ching-Ming
Photography By [Front Cover Art] – Börje Svensson
Recorded By [Assistant] – Devin Emke
Recorded By [Digitally] – Nicholas Prout

This session, recorded in a superb midtown studio in New York during September 1995, shows the David S. Ware Quartet at the height of its powers. This is one of the foremost groups who played then and their performance here is captured by engineer Nick Prout with extraordinary clarity. The development of David S. Ware 's music is one of the more significant histories in today's jazz and earlier examples from the Silkheart catalogue are 113, 127, and 128.

Oblations And Blessings is certainly one of David S. Ware's best recordings, and maybe the best if you're into extended blowing vehicles. The players are inspired, the sound is well- balanced so you can hear all of them clearly, and there's plenty of variety in the pieces. And Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Whit Dickey are up to the task of playing follow the leader because no one has more to express here than Ware. It's a disc for hearing David S. Ware blow hard, long and free--he plays every second of the closer "Serpents and Visions" and doesn't go in for much laying out anywhere.

The opening 17-minute title track hits the ground running with a spiritual intensity close to late John Coltrane that in spots pushes Shipp close to McCoy Tyner territory. It builds inexorably through ebb-and-flow periods of rumbling Parker, pounding Shipp and propulsive Dickey triggering Ware's harmonic squawks before falling away to a bowed bass solo that gives Ware his first break after 10:20 of full-bore playing. 100 seconds of down time later, he's back for the duration until Shipp's lurching chords brings the piece to an exhausted close.

"Riff Unknown" is more in a classic jazz vein with Parker close to double time walking and Dickey close to swinging while Ware swirls and twists, turns and doubles back around the melody. Shipp enters in mid-song--a common device here--and his long solo retains an appealingly light texture after the density of the opener. "Of Shambhala" boasts a gorgeously spare atmospheric opening, with Ware entering crying, then ruminating and extending the lines before handing the baton over for a restrained Parker solo with Shipp's elegant support.

But "Fire Within" gets Ware off and running again with Parker whooping behind him to trigger answering yelps and buzzsaw riffing over Dickey's light cymbals. "Manu's Ideal" is an excellent return to a sort of Trane-spiritual melody with Ware's big, burry tone carrying the medium tempo before a Parker solo and Shipp's re-entrance triggers the saxophonist's closing theme statement.

Ware's outside start to "Serpents and Visions" sounds like musical visions of serpents, Shipp ripples his way in at the two-minute mark and it evolves progressively into Ware's serious pushing to get to Albert Ayler-esque shrieks and cries over Shipp's lower register hammering. You can really hear the interaction between the two on this track before into peters out in honks and silence.

Music is the last thing you should reduce to numbers but David S. Ware is literally playing on 54 of the 69 minutes (give or take one or two) of music here, a simply staggering amount. And he's playing so intensely for that long with that huge tone doing interval leaps and Ayler shrieks, high harmonics and lower-register honks, buzzsaw-quick runs and scale slurs, wringing every possible melodic permutation out of every theme.

The liner notes define "oblation" (via Webster's) as "the act of offering something as worship or thanksgiving." No one who hears Oblations and Blessings could ever doubt the generosity of Ware's offering here. The man must have been absolutely, utterly drained--emotionally, physically and spiritually--after this session.

_ Review by DON SNOWDEN



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RICK JENSEN TRIO – Live Performances 2003 / 2004 (4CDs Box Set)

Lebel: Postmoderncore – pcm035/pcm036/pmc046/pcm047 - DP001
http://postmoderncore.com/
This album is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 New Zealand License.
Format: 4 × CD, Album; DP001 Compilation; Country NZ 
Style: Free Improvisation, Experimental
Design by ART&JAZZ Studio SALVARICA - 2013
Artwork and Complete Design By VITKO

The Rick Jensen Trio/Quartet was started in New Zealand 1999, now based in London U.K. The group is a live performance ensemble that has many members come and go throuhg the years. All the music is completely improvised, making every performance and recording completely unique.

THE AGE OF ILLUMINATION
Recorded live at the Photospace in Wellington NZ in 28 July 2003

SNOWDRIFT
Recorded live at Bodega in Wellington NZ on the 29th April 2003

CITY OF CONFUSION
Recorded live at the Newtown Community Centre in Wellington NZ, April 4, 2004

THE EXCURSIONIST

Recorded live at the Newtown Community Centre in Wellington NZ on the 7th of August 2004

Many different musicians have played with the band, some only once and others have stuck around for a couple of years.Originally formed in Wellington, New Zealand, they are now based London and there are various musicians who come and go from the group, the line-up can change with each performance.The group isn't always a trio but thats usually what it works out to be. They are experimented with all kinds of combinations and instrumentation, often dictated by who was around and able to perform.The group has been as large as 6 and as small as 2. They are essentially a live band and perform as often as possible. They have 16 releases most of which were released in limited edition CDRs and are no longer in print, currently available is “ A Fundamental Problem ” and “ High Tension ” a limited CDR. They currently working on future releases. Rick is also a member of I-C-E an improvising clarinet ensemble, Nova Scotia a free form abstract trio, The Radioactive Ensemble an international music/art collective and performs in other collaborative projects. He is a photographer and has had over 20 exhibitions in NZ and the U.K. and is currently working on publishing his first book.

The Rick Jensen Trio/Quartet Archive Series Volume Four to Six: U.K live, released in April 2013

http://therickjensentrio.bandcamp.com/ 

Enjoy !

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AMM – Laminal - Aarhus 1969, London 1982, New York 1994 (3CD-1996)

Label: Matchless Recordings – MRCD31.
Format: 3 × CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: 1996
Style: Abstract, Free Improvisation, Experimental
Disc 1 recorded in Aarhus on 16th December 1969. 
Disc 2 recorded Goldsmiths' College, London on 20th February 1982. 
Disc 3 recorded at Context Studios, New York on 3rd May 1994.
Front cover artwork: Keith Rowe
Liner Notes – Eddie Prévost, Jim O'Rourke, John Tilbury, Malcolm Le Grice, Victor Schonfield
Mastered By [Restored By] – Adam Skeaping (tracks: 1-1 to 2-2)
Producer – Bruce Lee Gallanter (tracks: 3-1 to 3-6)
Recorded By – James McLean (tracks: 3-1 to 3-6)

 Cornelius Cardew, 1969

 Eddie Prévost, 1982

Keith Rowe, 1982

A triple CD set to mark 30 years of making AMMmusic. Each features an AMM concert performance.

Disc-1
The Aarhus Sequences: Aarhus 1969
Denmark 16th December 1969
1.       51:07
2.       14:23
3.       6:40
Cornelius Cardew ,Chrisoper Hobbs
Lou Gare, Keith Rowe , Eddie Prévost

Disc-2
The Great Hall: London 1982
Goldsmiths' College, London 20th Febrary 1982
1.       36:45
2.       38:56
John Tilbury , Keith Rowe, Eddie Prévost

Disc-3
Context Studios
New York 3rd May 1994
1.       71:17
John Tilbury , Keith Rowe, Eddie Prévost

John Tilbury / Eddie Prévost

Released in 1995 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of this astonishing improvising cooperative, Laminal contains three complete concerts from the early, middle, and later portions of AMM's career. For all the free music, noise, and what-have-you that was created since, the music from the 1969 Aarhus performance remains striking, assaultive, and sublimely creative. If one tries to give a comparative reference to similar music at the time, the nearest approximation might be to take the wildest, most unearthly Sun Ra explorations and filter them through the prism of Iannis Xenakis' "Bohor" to come close to providing a vague description of what occurs here. Performing as a quintet, the dual percussion of Eddie Prevost and Christopher Hobbs leads the way, solidly buttressed by Keith Rowe's guitar and electronics. Determining which musician does exactly what at any given time is a losing proposition, until a few wails at the close of the piece; if Lou Gare ever makes a remotely "traditional" sound on his tenor sax, it's impossible to detect. The music is loud (roaring, for the most part), uncompromising, enveloping, and entirely selfless -- no solos here, only pure group sound. Warning: Exposure to this recording may make it difficult to listen to much contemporary, so-called avant-garde music again; it will almost seem bloodless in comparison. By the time of the concert captured on the second disc, pianist John Tilbury, arguably the foremost interpreter of the piano music of Morton Feldman, had joined Rowe and Prevost to form the trio that would comprise the essential AMM unit in years to come. It also becomes clear, perhaps in part due to Tilbury's arrival, that a strong tendency toward quiet has asserted itself. Though the piece begins with frantic piano and raucous guitar noise, the moments of calm are more frequent than before, and seem to serve as nodes from which further exploration springs. True, this set features a larger-than-normal amount of relatively straight and loud drumming from Prevost (who is quite capable of going through a show without once making any sounds one usually associates with drums), but there is a much wider sonic palette in play. Tilbury's use of, in this context, surprisingly melodic and Feldman-esque arpeggios and clusters exerts a serene and meditative force that often, not always, persuades Rowe and Prevost to follow suit. Rowe's utilization of a transistor radio injects some humor into the affair as strains of "Love Me Do" and "Heatwave" percolate to the fore. When, from some unknown source, a woman's voice begins intoning a seemingly random series of numbers in German (code?), the effect in conjunction with the live music is nothing short of electrifying. The final recording, with the same trio, shows further steps toward a music centered on stillness, though not so much as other albums from the period such as Newfoundland. Again the set begins aggressively, again Prevost displays his impressive jazz chops, but ever more the trio returns to near silence, a rich minimalism where more and more beauty is found with less and less material. From the maelstrom of sound in its early years, AMM evolved toward a kind of musical kabuki, a sequence of gestures strengthened by extremely deep listening, where any sound, however slight, could be placed with unerring precision to form a whole. While it's impossible to capture all facets of this remarkable band in its entirety, this three-disc set serves wonderfully as both an overview of their art and a brilliant illumination of their immense sound world. Very highly recommended.

_ Review By BRIAN OLEWNICK



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HANS KOLLER & WOLFGANG DAUNER – Free Sound & Super Brass (LP-1976)

Label: MPS Records – 68.109, MPS Records – MPS 15.461
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1976
Style: Avant-garde Jazz, Free, Big Band
Recorded live at Audimax Techn. Universitat, Vienna, Oct. 4, 1975.
Design [Cover Design] – Rolf Becker
Photography By – Hans Koller
Producer – Willi Fruth

Personnel:
Hans Koller - sopranino, soprano sax, co-leader
Wolfgang Dauner - keyboards, co-leader
trumpets:
Robert Demmer, Friedrich Hujer, Conny Jackel, Herbert Joos, Ernst Lamprecht, Robert Politzer, Kenny Wheeler
trombone:
Roy Deuvall, Garney Hicks, Erich Kleinschuster, Albert Mangelsdorff
Rudolf Josel - bass trombone
Günter Lenz - e-bass
Janusz Stefanski - drums

Hans Koller was based in Hamburg through the 1960s, working as musical director of the city's Schauspielhaus at the decade's end. In 1970 he returned to his hometown of Vienna and began exploring free jazz with Wolfgang Dauner in his Free Sound Ensemble (Free Sound and Super Brass, 1975, MPS). Koller's subsequent projects included duos, the brass ensemble International Brass Company, mainstream combos, and an all-sax unit. He occasionally worked on interdisciplinary projects as well, like his 1968 ballet, New York City.

An intriguing composer and ambitious pianist, German musician Wolfgang Dauner has combined jazz, rock, electronic music, and elements of opera and theater in creating broad- based, ranging works. While at times these compositions may seem too far-reaching, Dauner's best work shows the links between idioms and genres and offers provocative musical and cultural concepts. He studied trumpet, piano, and composition at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, then joined Joki Freund's sextet in the early '60s. Dauner appeared at several German festivals, then made his recording debut heading a trio in 1964. It was one of the first European free jazz recording sessions. Dauner led Radio Jazz Group Stuttgart and wrote compositions for them in 1969. He formed the jazz-rock band Et Cetera in 1970, then, with Hans Koller, co-led the Free Sound & Super Brass Big Band. He helped organize the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble in 1975, and began featuring theater, opera, and dance segments along with his performances in '70s and '80s concerts.



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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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FRANK GRATKOWSKI / FRED VAN HOVE / TONY OXLEY – GratHovOx (2002)

Label: Nuscope Recordings – nuscope CD 1012
Format: CD, Album Country: US - Released: 2002
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded in Leverkusen, Germany on November 14, 2000 at Erholunghaus Bayer 
Mastered in Cleveland, Ohio on May 30, 2002 at the Cleveland Institute of Music
Co-producer – Russell Summers, WDR
Design [Graphic], Executive Producer – Russell Summers
Liner Notes – John Corbett
Mastered By – Alan Bise
Photography By [Cover] – Gregory J. Lawler
Photography By [Musicians] – Joseph Klaes
Recorded By – Michael Peschko, Udo Kläs

Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove has been a towering presence in improvised music for three and a half decades, though he's still perhaps best known for his monumental bouts with titans Brötzmann and Bennink in the early 1970s. While those two are still slugging it out with anyone prepared to go the distance, these superbly recorded new offerings from Van Hove reveal a delicacy and lightness of touch often lacking in the traditionally muscular world of Northern European improv.
Despite its rather unimaginative title, the Nuscope outing, recorded in Germany in November 2000, is a jewel: Van Hove leaves Tony Oxley plenty of space (more than his other frequent pianist partner Cecil Taylor), and Oxley knows just how to move into it without getting in the way of the others. Clarinettist / altoist Frank Gratkowski is perfectly at home in their company. His mastery of interval, Van Hove's harmonic finesse and Oxley's instrumentation all reveal a profound sympathy with developments in modern classical music - these pieces could conceivably be transcribed and performed as notated compositions and hold their own against contemporary repertoire. Not that they sound composed (they don't), but rather in that they intuitively partake of an idea of structure and motivic development quite in keeping with the aesthetic of European contemporary music. "Carrousel" is a case in point, growing slowly but surely from Oxley's intermittent crescendi towards the high register flurries of the ending, which collapses gently upon itself like a deflating balloon, Van Hove's glissandi dissolving effortlessly into the scales that lie behind them. "Foreplay / Vorspiel" and "Witchy" feature his ghostly accordion, complemented to perfection by Gratkowski's twitching clarinets and Oxley's delicate kit and cymbal work. Oxley is one of the great British percussionists of his generation along with the late John Stevens and AMM's Eddie Prévost, and his playing here recalls both.

_ By Dan Warburton

This is a great radio session recorded in Leverkusen, Germany, on November 14, 2000. GratHovOx embodies everything uninhibited free improv can deliver. The presence of two of the genre's most prestigious veterans certainly has something to do with it. Fred Van Hove performs most of the set on a Steinway D piano. He grabs his accordion for "Foreplay/Vorspiel." Tony Oxley produces an astounding number of different sounds from his acoustic drum kit, keeping the electronics very discreet. Between them stands reedman Frank Gratkowski, using mostly instruments from the clarinet family this time around -- his raspy alto sax makes an appearance in the 20-minute "Trenches/Tranches." The trio aims at a kind of free improvisation that leaves room to breathe and listen without getting entrenched in the sonic scrutiny of Berlin reductionism. The music has movement, grace, and moments of sheer excitement that never lose sight of the group sound -- the perfect balancing act. Highlights are numerous but nothing quite compares to "Foreplay/Vorspiel." Gratkowski has his almighty contrabass clarinet in hand, but Van Hove is handling his accordion. To match the delicate wheezes of the squeeze box, Gratkowski decides to stick to the very upper register of the instrument. It may not sound like much but it truly is an understated tour de force. The way "Trenches/Tranches" boils down in its last five minutes to reveal tiny details in the playing of all three musicians also constitutes a moment of pure delight. Simply put, GratHovOx stands as one of the best free improv sessions released in 2002 and comes heartily recommended.

_ By François COUTURE



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GUNTER HAMPEL & his GALAXIE DREAM BAND – Broadway / Folksong (LP-1972)

Label: Birth Records – BIRTH 0011
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1972
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded at Sound Ideas Studio, Broadway, New York, July 12th 1972.
Jubilee Edition: The 15 Years Gunter Hampel Group (1958 - 1973)
Engineer – George Clavin

By the early 60's Gunter Hampel was playing around Europe with his own groups, mostly playing vibes. A personal milestone of sorts happened in 1964 during the Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop's tour of Europe. Hampel was in Paris assisting the local promoter, and he put up Eric Dolphy in a house for a few days. They jammed together for long periods of time, Hampel on vibes and Dolphy on his reeds, including of course his bass clarinet. At Dolphy's suggestion they switched instruments for a while, and the American was impressed with Hampel's bass clarinet prowess. (Hampel recalls that Dolphy also demonstrated a surprising skill at the vibes.) Inspired by Dolphy's words of encouragement, Hampel developed his skill on bass clarinet, eventually arriving at his own original style.

He first saw singer Jeanne Lee (1939-2000) on a TV-performance with Ran Blake 1963 (J.E.Berendt-show on jazz in Germany). He met her at his recording session for ESP (Music from Europe) in 1966 in Holland. They fell in love in 1968.

Through the rest of the sixties, Hampel met several key artists who would play great roles in his future projects. One was the Dutch reedman Willem Breuker, and another was saxophonist Marion Brown, with whom Hampel toured in 1968-69. Perhaps most importantly, in 1966 he met singer/poet/future wife Jeanne Lee, who plays a vital role in Hampel's music to this day. These connections fell together in Hampel's first major musical statement, The 8th of July 1969, a recording featuring Breuker, Lee, Anthony Braxton, drummer Steve McCall,and bassist Arjen Gorter. Hampel had moved inexorably toward a free form of expression and group interplay which reached a full flowering on The 8th of July.

Early on, Hampel elected to take full control of his work and founded his own label, Birth records. His catalog on Birth (which begins with The 8th of July) is widely varied and includes a solo record (Dances), a duet for Hampel and synthesizer (Symphony No. 6), further work with Lee, Breuker and others (People Symphony), and even a duet recording with the flamenco guitarist Boulou Ferre (Espace).

In addition to his own projects, Hampel and his players were later employed by the composers Hanz Werner Henze and Krysztof Penderecki to play their music. Both were initially inspired by the work Hampel was doing on The 8th of July and Dances and wrote with Hampel's aesthetic in mind. With Henze, Hampel collaborated on the compositions, "so we wouldn't find ourselves in a cage form which we couldn't escape. And he also used some of my pieces."

Hampel gained an important new ally and foil in 1971. American clarinetist Perry Robinson, beginning a long-term association which has continued on and off ever since, joined Hampel and Lee for two recordings, Spirits and Out of New York. His association with the German musician was solidified as he became a member of Hampel's Galaxie Dream Band. This group, first assembled in 1973, features a regular family of players including Lee, Robinson, Marion Brown, saxophonist Mark Whitecage and various other reeds, strings and percussion.

Cover From The 15 Years Jubilee Edition (1958 - 1973) which was made for Birth 008 to Birth 0012



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JACQUES DEMIERRE / BARRY GUY / LUCAS NIGGLI – Brainforest (2006)

Label: Intakt Records – Intakt CD 107
Format: CD, Album; Country: Switzerland - Released: Feb 2006
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded November 11, 2004 at Jazzclub Uster and Nov, 12, 2004 at Loft Cologne
Cover – Gerda Steiner, Jörg Lenzlinger
Design – Jonas Schoder
Liner Notes – Philipp Alan
Mastered By – Walti Schmid
Mixed By, Edited By – Willy Strehler
Photography By – Francesca Pfeffer
Recorded By – Stefan Deistler (tracks: 7), Willy Strehler (tracks: 1 to 6)

After five years of playing together, this fabulous trio has released its first album. Named after an installation by Swiss artists Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger, it was recorded in November 2004 at Jazzclub Uster and Loft Cologne. All three musicians are Swiss-based, although Barry Guy, moves between Zurich and Ireland. They totally avoid any suggestion of a traditional jazz piano trio – partly, no doubt, because of their background in contemporary composition as well as free improvisation – and over seven immensely varied tracks show a passionate, egalitarian approach to trio improvisation. It's almost invidious to single out the role of the bass because the performances are so superbly integrated. We get an idea of what we're in for from the aural assault of Giardino calante, where Guy almost attacks the instrument. But the title track begins quietly in the depths, although with some higher register strummings from the bassist, and, as befits the title, builds almost imperceptibly into tangled thickets of intelligent improv. In the mournful La fuente de la jeventud, Guy's sonorous arco playing takes the lead. The quite brief, spiky Les envahisseurs is followed by Whalebalance, the longest track at 18 minutes, which begins with beautiful delicacy and restraint, with tiny tinkling sounds from piano and percussion, and Guy's bass pizzicato in the higl-iest registers, while his huge arco sound makes for an incandescent climax. This is a splendid album of the most penetrating and passionate kee improvisation.

_ By ANDY HAMILTON (Double Bass, Great Britain, Autumn 2006)

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GEORGE BURT / RAYMOND MacDONALD SEPTET featuring LOL COXHILL – The Great Shark Hunt (2005)

Label: FMR Records – FMRCD165-0305
Format: CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: 2005
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded Sunday June 13th 2004 at East Kilbride Arts Centre 
Track 2 recorded February 26th 2005 at The Practice Pad, Maryhill
Cover design and artwork (reproduced above) by Ewan Rigg
Mixed By, Mastered By – D.P. Johnson
Producer – David Scott, George Burt, Raymond MacDonald
Producer [For FMR] – Trevor Taylor

Recorded in East Kilbride Arts Centre, this is the fifth chapter in the celebrated saxophonist Lol Coxhills adventures with Burt and MacDonald. This new recording features the hugely successful pianist Bill Wells along with the presiding genius of The One Ensemble - Daniel Padden, a stalwart of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. Lol plays his bent soprano on this session (like a tiny alto) and features the first ever recorded duet between bandleaders George Burt and Raymond MacDonald.

_ FMR (2005)



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ALBERT MANGELSDORFF QUARTET – Diggin' Live At DUG, Tokyo 1971 (CD-1991)

Label: Three Blind Mice – TBM CD 2505
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Limited Edition, Remastered, Special Edition + bonus track
Country: Germany/Japan - Released: 1991
Style: Free Jazz
Recorded Live At DUG, Tokyo On February 15, 1971
Produced for Three Blind Mice Records, Inc.
Producer: Horst Weber originally produced for three blind mice in Tokyo
Supervisor: Takeshi 'Tee' Fujii
Recording and Digital Transfer Engineer was Yoshihiko Kannari
(Digital transfer was done on February 7, 1991)
Cover Photos: Hozumi Nakadaira; Cover Design: Ben Nishizawa

Track 3 "Boston Highway" does not appear on LP configuration.

Album Notes:

The master of multiphonics (playing more than one note at a time on a horn), Albert Mangelsdorff has been a giant of the European avant-garde for the past 30 years. He originally studied violin and worked as a jazz guitarist before taking up the trombone in 1948.

Here he is taped live at a concert in Tokyo with what was then his regular quartet: Heinz Sauer on sax, Günter Lenz on bass, and Ralf Hübner on drums.

There's a very nice blend between the leader's agile but smooth horn and the somewhat more gnarly tenor sax of Sauer, who tosses in rhythm and blues licks in much the manner of Archie Shepp. The rhythm section provides an open, loose, and flowing feel to the four extended pieces. Most of the second side is given over to "Mahüsale," a piece improvised spontaneously by the members of the group and an excellent example of this kind of musical activity.

_ By EUGENE CHADBOURNE (for AMG)



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ALBERT MANGELSDORFF / FRANÇOIS JEANNEAU – Jazz Live Trio 1972 and '79 (2010)

Label: Montreux Jazz - TCB Music SA 02222
Format: CD, Album; Country: Austria - Released: 2010
Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz, Modern Jazz
Swiss Radio Days/Concert Series, Vol. 22
Recorded live on Jan. 29, 1972 and May 12, 1979 at Radio Studio 2, Zurich.
Graphic Artwork – Kym Staiff
Executive radio producer – Peter Bürli
Swiss Radio Consultant – Yvan Ischer / RSR
Liner Notes by Klaus Koenig

German trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff and French saxophonist François Jeanneau were central figures in the European free-jazz movement of the 70?s. This release from the Swiss Radio Days series from TCB presents both musicians in individual sessions from 1972 and 1979 respectively, performing their own compositions and supported by the Jazz Live Trio of Radio Zurich. Both sessions are released for the first time in this CD.

Personnel:
Tracks 1 & 2: Albert Mangelsdorff (trombone), Klaus Koenig (piano), Peter Frei (bass), Peter Schmidlin (drums)
Tracks 3 & 4: François Jeanneau (tenor and sorano saxophone), Klaus Koenig (piano), Peter Frei (bass), Pierre Favre (drums)

Excerpt from Liner Notes:

Albert – I always called him Albertus Magnus – was our guest on Jazz Live twice. The first time, in 1967, we dutifully played a series of Standards in the mainstream style. However, in 1972 he was already so deeply involved in music that had been released from its fixed structures that he suggested we play two half-hour sets without any specific written material. We immediately agreed because all of us in the trio were already infected by the zeitgeist during those years, searching for ways to achieve a “ freer ” , less predetermined approach to music beyond the traditional song forms.
There was no playing of other people ’ s pieces from sheet music, which occasionally made our radio concerts quite stressful. So the evening was both relaxed and exciting. This is actually the ideal precondition for an artistic act. We included a recording of that concert ’ s first set on this CD.

François Janneau was the first Frenchman who we invited for a Jazz Live concert. He sent us a series of themes, which we carefully prepared. When I asked him about the tempos of the pieces during the rehearsal, he laughed and said that there were no set tempos, that it was free music. But the themes definitely had harmony structures, as well as a form. We were excited by this challenge of filtering unknown results from very traditional pieces and accepting the composed patterns solely as a general reference point and not as binding structures.
Experiments for a freer approach to the composed material were in the air at that time and had also cast their spell on us. Peter Frei and I were somewhere in the middle between free and fixed playing. Our drummer Pierre Favre had spent many years in total dedication to the free jazz movement, so he obviously was not opposed to Janneau ’ s concept.

_ By Klaus Koenig



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