FREE MUSIC QUINTET – Free Music One And Two (ESP Disk' / LP-1968)

Label: ESP Disk' – ESP 1083

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Holland / Released: 1968

Style: Free Jazz, Acoustic, Free Improvisation, Experimental

Recorded June 24-25 1968 in a brick barn in Baarn, Holland.

Producer, Engineer – Onno Scholtze

Cover Design – Erwin Somer

Photographs by – Job Otten

A - Free Music No. 1 . . . . . 19:04

B - Free Music No. 2 . . . . . 18:33

Boy Raaymakers – trumpet, bugle, percussion

Peter Van Der Locht – soprano / tenor sax, piccolo flute, percussion

Erwin Somer – violin, vibes, percussion

Ferdinand Rikkers – bass, percussion

Pierre Courbois – percussion, drums set

Very rare ESP release from 1968, Dutch free jazz group playing in an uniquely European manner.

One of the most uncompromising free jazz records ever made, this one-off improvisation by a group of Dutch players, led by percussionist Pierre Courbois, is an archetype of the style. Free jazz doesn't just require a lot of unrestrained blowing and freeform noise, although there are passages of that here. The two lengthy improvs build from placid beginnings, as each member adds various percussion instruments to the growing cacophony, before reedsman Peter van der Locht (at times playing two saxes at once á la Rahsaan Roland Kirk) and trumpeter Boy Raaymakers let loose. All five players get their chances to lead the quintet, although there's a minimum of soloing. Courbois drives both improvs, and there's a five-minute stretch starting about seven minutes into "Free Music Number One" where he simply explodes, bashing a trap kit and a variety of other objects like the cartoon Tasmanian Devil on a dozen espressos, armed with a pair of baseball bats. There's an impressive sense of dynamics to the improvs, both of which have sections of near-silence mixed in with the explosions, and there's a structural unity to each improv despite the lack of musical themes or other familiar signposts.

_Review by STEWART MASON 

If you find it, buy this album!