MACHINE GUN – Machine Gun (MU Records ‎– MU 1001 / LP-1988)

Label: MU Records ‎– MU 1001

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: US / Released: 1988

Style: Experimental, Jazz-Rock, Free Improvisation

Side A recorded live at the Court Tavern, N.B., N.J.

Side B recorded live at CBGB's N.Y.C., except Trinity Rain recorded

at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.

All tracks improvised

Cover design by – Thi Linh Le

Produced by – Robert Musso

Engineered by – Tom Ruff

Mastered by – Howie Weinberg

℗ 1988 MU Records / Printed in Canada

Matrix / Runout (A-Side Runout, Etched): MU 1001 SA QΔ 1-1

Matrix / Runout (B-Side Runout, Etched): MU 1001 SB QΔ-X 1-1

side 1:

A1 - In Court ............................................................................................................. 5:53

A2 - The Opening Of Entry ....................................................................................... 3:30

A3 - Fancy Products ................................................................................................. 3:46

A4 - Prancing In Your Bed ........................................................................................ 4:48

A5 - Dive ................................................................................................................... 3:50

side 2:

B1 - Myffy's 1st Date ................................................................................................ 2:49

B2 - The .8 Factor .................................................................................................... 3:58

B3 - One For The Chipper ........................................................................................ 2:04

B4 - Trinity Rain ........................................................................................................ 3:21

B5 - Hierocryptics ..................................................................................................... 5:52

Personnel:

Thomas Chapin – saxophone, flute

Robert Musso – guitar, 6-string bass, electronics [ambient tapes]

Jair-Rohm Parker Wells – electric bass

Bil Bryant – drums [acoustic and electric drums]

John Richey – electronics [vocal cut-up's, tapes]

with guests:

Sonny Sharrock – guitar

Karl Berger – melodica, voice

Thomas Chapin (March 9, 1957 – February 13, 1998) was an American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist. Though primarily an alto saxophonist, he also played sopranino, as well as soprano, tenor, baritone saxes and flute.

Many of his recordings as a leader featured his trio with drummer Michael Sarin and bassist Mario Pavone, occasionally joined by guests, as well as founding Machine Gun, a free-funk-free-jazz-rock band with guitarist/producer/engineer Robert Musso.

Chapin studied with Jackie McLean and Paul Jeffrey.

Chapin died of leukemia three weeks before his 41st birthday. He last played two weeks before his death, at a benefit concert.

Karl Berger / Sonny Sharrock

For all practical purposes, this is the very first Machine Gun record, comprised of two live performances in New Jersey and New York. Machine Gun was a band that played hybrid forms of rock, jazz, and funk, all from an outsider's perspective. Personnel were the late saxophonist Thomas Chapin, guitarist Robert Musso, drummer Bill Bryant, bassist Jair-Rohm Parker Wells, and vocalist and electronic cutup artist John Richey. Special guests on these dates included the late guitarist Sonny Sharrock and Karl Berger (melodica, voice). From the opening skronk of "In Court," it's obvious that Machine Gun plays high-energy, visceral music. There are riffs and form, but lots of improvisation follows that form, and mutates it further into other forms. Feedback, tape manipulation, and hard rock and punk attitude are at the heart of the Machine Gun approach to music and noisemaking. On "Fancy Products," a striated funk riff is wound around itself and a vocal until it becomes a harmolodic jazz riff that collapses in on itself before remerging as a colossal free improv jam where Chapin and Musso trade out eights for the remainder.

On the New York CBGB's date, which covers the latter half of the disc, percussion and guitars create sparkling shards of rhythm as Berger plays a melodica through the center of "Muffy's 1st Date," turning around a small lyric idea until it gradually expands out to involve the entire band in its hypnotic simplicity. Here again, there is little refinement to the approach -- just an insistence on energy and forward thrust as the dynamic range collapses by the seventh or eighth track. This is very interesting.... and performance promise incredible sense of space and sounds, and in the end you get it all in the best possible manner .... Great album!

(Review by B. Bismount)

If you find it, buy this album!

MEV – United Patchwork (Horo Records ‎– HDP 15-16 / 2LP-1978)

Label: Horo Records ‎– HDP 15-16

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold cover / Country: Italy / Released: 1978

Style: Experimental, Free Improvisation

Recorded Rome, November 15 and 16, 1977, Mama Dog Studio.

Antonio Ortolan / art direction

Sandro Lodolo / cover art

Maria Tereza Tannozzini / cover design

Raul Matta / graphic design

Aldo Sinesio / producer

Gianni Gualberto / assistant producer

Raimondo Caruana / recording engineer

Joachim-Ernst Berendt / liner notes

Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side A): HDP 15-16 - 2 A

Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side B): HDP 15-16 - 2 2

Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side C): HDP 15-16 - 2 3

Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side D): HDP 15-16 - 2 4

side 1:

A  -  Via Della Luce  (Richard Teitelbaum) ............................................................... 23:24

side 2:

B1 - Fox  (Steve Lacy) .............................................................................................. 9:43

B2 - Cross Over One  (Karl Berger) .......................................................................... 2:25

B3 - Slugging Rocks  (Garrett List) ........................................................................... 6:48

side 3:

C1 - Psalm  (Alvin Curran) ...................................................................................... 14:07

C2 - What Is Freedom?  (Frederic Rzewski) ............................................................. 5:25

side 4:

D1 - Dewline  (Steve Lacy) ....................................................................................... 7:54

D2 - Cross Over Two  (Karl Berger) .......................................................................... 3:14

D3 - Cross Over Three  (Karl Berger) ....................................................................... 3:06

D4 - Sea Line  (Steve Lacy) ...................................................................................... 5:25

Musicians:

Frederic Rzewski – piano, electric piano, composer

Alvin Curran – synthesizer, piano, vocal, flugelhorn, composer

Richard Teitelbaum – synthesizer, shells, composer

Karl Berger – vibraphone, piano, electric piano, melodeon, composer

Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone, composer

Garrett List – trombone, composer

One of the most mythical experimental groups of all time, Musica Elettronica Viva was formed in 1966 by a group of American composers in Rome, its nucleus comprised of pianist Frederic Rzewski, sound improviser Alvin Curran, and the improvisatory keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum. Taking cues from John Cage and David Tudor, MEV employed open, limitless structures, using found instruments, toys, a homemade synthesizer, and the first Moog to reach mainland Europe. Improv and critical listening practices aimed to liberate listeners from the constraints of bourgeois capitalism and as their sound evolved, forms of Jewish mysticism and surrealist automaticism pointed to transcendent potential.

An abortive US tour in 1970 split MEV into three units, but the Kabbalistic Dixieland band later reformed with Rzewski, Curran, and Teitelbaum joined by saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonist Garrett List, and keyboardist Karl Berger. The resultant double album United Patchwork, a return to classic form for MEV – after some of the more tripped-out experiments of the early 70s, recorded in November 1977 at Mama Dog for Horo Records, captures MEV in all of their discordant, improvisatory glory, from Teitelbaum's side-long opener, "Via Della Luce", to the honking noise of Lacy's "Fox", the excessive keyboard meanderings of Curran's "Psalm", Berger's vibraphone folly, "Cross Over One" and Rzewski's ponderous "What Is Freedom".
But, the whole album is, thanks to a very freewheeling sense of improvisation, a stunning mix of free jazz and electronics.

Note:

Richard Teitelbaum, an electronic artist, keyboardist and composer who combined an interest in non-western musical languages with a focus on experimental practice, died on Thursday, April 9, 2020 at HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston, N.Y.

If you find it, buy this album!

MUUN MUSIC UNIVERSE (Ing Rid / Karl Berger / Dave Holland and friends) – Vol. 1 - The Peace Church Concerts (2LP-1974)

Label: Creative Music Communication – CMC 00101

Series: CMC Series – 1

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold / Country: US / Released: 1974

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded in concert on May 25 and May 22, 1974 at the Washington Square Church, New York City.

Recording Engineer By – Bob Cummins

Cover Design – Joan Eliott

Photographs – Ray Ross

Concept and written compositions by Karl H. Berger

Distributed in the USA – India Navigation Company

Matrix / Runout (Label side A) [etched]: A- 00101-1 A

Matrix / Runout (Label side B) [etched]: B- 00101-2 B

Matrix / Runout (Label side C) [etched]: C- 00101-1 C II

Matrix / Runout (Label side D) [etched]: D- 00101-2 D II

        SPACE IN TIME

A  -  Part I: Live Time ............................................................................................ 14:40

B  -  Part II: Dance Now Is We Are ....................................................................... 24:10

        SILENCE IN SOUND

C1 - Part I: The Continual Pattern ........................................................................ 14:35

C2 - Part II: Music Is .............................................................................................. 9:40

D  -  Part III: Tune In Time In ................................................................................ 22:10

Musicians:

Ing Rid – vocals, percussion

Karl Berger – piano, vibraphone, percussion

Dave Holland – bass

Richard Teitelbaum – instruments [various], synthesizer

Bob Moses – percussion (tracks: A, B)

Betty MacDonald – violin (tracks: A, B)

Garrett List – trombone (tracks: C1, C2, D)

Ilene Marder – flute (tracks. A, B)

Tom Schmidt – bass (tracks. A, B)

Eva Berger and Savia Berger – voice, sounds [initial sounds] (tracks: A. B)

Very rare original 1974? US private pressing on Creative Music Communication (Woodstock NY) (catalog # CMC 00101 / CMC Series No. 1) recording from Washington Square Church (Peace Church) with original gatefold sleeve. This two record set was recorded by Bob Cummins and distributed by his India Navigation label, but was a production of the Creative Music Foundation.

This is wonderful work in spacy and spiritual atmosphere. It's never released on a CD.

If you find it, buy this album!

ROLF + JOACHIM KÜHN QUINTET – Transfiguration (LP-1967 - Re-LP-1972)

Label: MPS Records – CRM 637

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue / Country: W. Germany / Released: 1972

Original released: / SABA – SB 15 118 ST (LP-1967)

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded January 19, 1967 at Peter von Zahn Studio, Hamburg.

Design [Graphic Work], Layout [Lay-out] – Gigi Berendt

Painting [Cover] – Wojciech Fangor

Photography By – Josef Werkmeister, Maria Rehfuß-Oberländer

Engineer – Henning Rüte

Producer – Joachim E. Berendt

Comes in a gatefold-sleeve

Matrix / Runout (Side A): 599392 -A / SB 15 118 - A

Matrix / Runout (Side B): 599392- B / SB 15 118 – B

A1 - Transfiguration ....................................................................................... 13:48

A2 - Lunch Date .............................................................................................. 8:22

B1 - Solo Flights ............................................................................................ 12:30

B2 - But Strokes Of Folk ................................................................................. 9:00

Personnel:

Rolf Kühn – clarinet, bass clarinet

Joachim Kühn – piano

Karlhanns Berger – vibraphone

Bab Guérin – bass

Aldo Romano – drums, percussion

One of the best records ever cut by the brothers Rolf and Joachim Kühn – a beautiful set of modally influenced tracks that show the strong modernist tradition in European jazz of the 60s! The album's quite sharp-edged for MPS in the mid 60s – and Karl Berger's vibes join the clarinet of Rolf and piano of Joachim – with rhythm support from Beb Guerin on bass and Aldo Romano on drums – both players whose own sense of freedom really unlocks the main soloists! Berger's vibes add a nicely chromatic quality to the record – and the whole thing's relatively free overall – starting with modal impulses, but hardly rhythmic at all, given the way the drums and bass move as freely as the other instruments. Titles include "Lunch Date", "Transfiguration", "Solo Flights", and "But Strokes Of Folk". (Heavy red label MPS pressing, with deep groove!

(Dusty Groove, Inc.)

If you find it, buy this album!

FREDERIC RZEWSKI – Attica / Coming Together / Les Moutons De Panurge (LP-1974 / Opus One – Number 20)

Label: Opus One – Number 20

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: US / Released: 1974

Style: Experimental, Contemporary, Minimal

A and B1 composed in 1972 and recorded April 20, 1973 at Blue Rock Studio in NYC.

B2 composed in 1969 and recorded at the University of Northern Illinois DeKalb, Illinois, 

May 10, 1973.

Engineers – Eddie Korvin (track A), Jan Rathbun (track B1), Steven Ovitsky (track B2)

Producer – Mike Sahl

Written-by [Text] – Sam Melville (track A), Richard X. Clark (track B1)

Composed By, Liner Notes – Frederic Rzewski

Design [Cover Design] – Herman Zaage

The inks of this cover are fluorescent.

Sponsored in part by the Ford Foundation and Anthony Keashey.

Matrix / Runout (A-Side Runout Etching): OPUS #20 RE <1> CF

Matrix / Runout (B-Side Runout Etching): OPUS No. 20 Side 2 JF

A  -  Coming Together ...................................................................... 19:15

         bass – Richard Youngstein

         piano, electric piano – Frederic Rzewski

         alto saxophone – Jon Gibson

         synthesizer – Alvin Curran

         trombone – Garrett List

         vibraphone – Karl Berger

         viola – Joan Kalisch

         voice [speaker] – Steve Ben Israel

B1 - Attica ......................................................................................... 6:30

         bass – Richard Youngstein

         piano – Frederic Rzewski

         alto saxophone – Jon Gibson

         trombone – Garrett List

         piccolo trumpet – Alvin Curran

         vibraphone – Karl Berger

         viola – Joan Kalisch

         voice [Speaker] – Steve Ben Israel

B2 - Les Moutons De Panurge ........................................................ 16:15

         Blackearth Percussion Group:

         percussion [almglocken] – Garry Kvistad

         percussion [nabimba] – Richard Kvistad

         vibraphone, glockenspiel – Christopher Braun

         xylophone – Anne Otte

Note:

Cover has different typesetting for composer's name (stacked as opposed to on a single line) and lettering is in blue/violet instead of gold. This cover is fluorescent.

Labels on disc are reversed (A-label on B-side). Album has a piece of typewritten paper inserted stating the following:

"Please note: the labels on this record are reversed. We regret the inconvenience."

This brilliant early recording of Frederic Rzewski (unfortunately unavailable of 2002.) showcases the composer emerging from a period in which he was largely involved with free improvisation (with the group Musica Elettronica Viva) and beginning to investigate more structured writing.

The lineup on this recording is pretty amazing. Rzewski himself plays piano. Jon Gibson, who has worked with the big four minimalist composers (Young, Riley, Reich and Glass) as well as being an excellent composer himself, plays alto sax. Composer Alvin Curran, also of Rzewski's MEV group, plays synthesizer. Garrett List, whose beautiful LP "Your Own Self" already on this blog, plays trombone. Karl Berger play vibes, and has played on some classic ESP jazz recordings as well also working with Don Cherry. Violist Joan Kalisch has played on recordings by Don Cherry and Alice Coltrane, and Richard Youngstein has worked with Paul Bley. The reading is done by stage actor Steve Ben Israel, who was a member of New York's Living Theatre.

Here the burgeoning minimalist movement was a prime musical influence, although on two of the pieces what strikes the listener first and foremost is the political content. "Coming Together" melts a wonderfully undulating and propulsive score that just won't give up with the impassioned reading (by Steve ben Israel) of a text written by Sam Melville an inmate at Attica prison documenting both his woes and his impressive resolve not to knuckle under. The words are repeated with increasing ferocity as the music goes through several permutations, eventually matching the speaker in a roaring finish. When other prisoner Richard S. Clark was released from prison in 1972, he was asked by a reporter how it felt to leave Attica behind him. His response, "Attica is in front of me," provides the text for the powerful and haunting second work here. His words are spoken in additive fashion -- first just "Attica" then "Attica is" -- in a soft, almost ghostly fashion over a gently percolating score that combines sorrow and hope in a complex and rich fabric.

"Les Moutons de Panurge," a completely instrumental composition, uses the same basic structural idea. A 65-note melody is performed in the sequence 1, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4, and so on, until the entire melody has been read with the understanding of the near-impossibility of the ensemble staying in unison for the duration. Here, as performed by the Blackearth Percussion Group, it takes on the character of a wild gamelan orchestra, perhaps slightly tipsy. It's utterly invigorating, as is the entire record. Very highly recommended.

_ Review by Brian Olewnick

This LP was recorded is on the excellent Opus One records - all the covers of LPs on the label were meant to respond to black light!....... Trippy.



If you find it, buy this album!

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!

CLIFFORD THORNTON NEW ART ENSEMBLE – Freedom & Unity (Goody LP-1969)

Label: Goody – GY 30001, Goody – GY 30.001

Goody Series Vol. 1

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Unofficial Release

Country: France - Released: 1969

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded on July 22, 1967 at Sound City Studios in New York City.

(Track 2 - ''Babe's Dilemma'', bonus track, is not on the original release)

Engineer – Orville O'Brien

Liner Notes – Archie Shepp

Photography By – Philippe Gras

Producer [Serie Directed By] – Claude Delcloo, Jean Luc Young

For those who don't know better, the free jazz movement is considered a sharp break with the past heritage of the music. That really wasn't the case. As Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp hearkened back to field hollers and very basic folk forms, musicians like Clifford Thornton went in the opposite direction, building on the music of the sophisticates and expanding the possibilities for jazz. Listening to music with this much space in it, it might be hard for some listeners to hear the Mingus. But it's there. And because that's there, Ellington is here in heaping handfuls as well. Sure this stuff is rough in spots. But the myriad of tones this man uses to express himself keeps things interesting and alive — the bright clarion of cornet and trumpet, the somber, thoughtful vibes, and a rhythm section that embraces two bass players to keep things rooted. The leader plays valve trombone, an enormously flexible instrument that allows him to meld with a variety of moods and produce music at once heartachingly simple and brain-twistingly complex.

For those with open ears — and minds.

Trombonist/trumpeter Clifford Thornton, is a natural extension of the music of Ornette Coleman.

Recorded one day after John Coltrane’s funeral, this session features Trane sideman Jimmy Garrison on two tracks and Joe McPhee (playing trumpet) on three. Thornton, who rehearsed across the hall from Ornette’s trio, certainly was listening. His piano-less quintet and extended New Art Ensemble pursue Coleman’s breakthroughs in melody and rhythm with different instrumentation. They certainly prove that free principals can be applied to the vibes, as Karl Berger does here and on later recordings with Don Cherry. Alto saxophonist Sonny King (we should find out more about this guy) tears through songs bridging bebop and freedom principles.

Thornton’s valve trombone is the payday here. He floats lines, setting moods or barking replies to the cornet. Thornton’s trombone later recorded with Sunny Murray, Sun Ra and Archie Shepp. The liner notes point out he was denied a visa to enter France because they suspected him of belonging to the Black Panthers. His revolutionary music and self-produced LP’s received little attention in the mainstream press, as he had no access to distribute his music, and in the late 1960s and 1970s, American record companies were withdrawing their support of creative music. The Cecil Taylors, Anthony Braxtons and Joe McPhees of this world either became exiles or recorded for small foreign labels. Clifford Thornton moved to Europe and died in relative obscurity in the mid-80s. This document of significant music calls for further exploration of the ever-neglected free jazz past.

 _ By MARK CORROTO,

Published: November 1, 2001 (AAJ)

Originally issued on Third World Records in 1969 as Third World LP 9636.

http://www.restructures.net/Thornton/thornton_disco_home.htm

http://www.jazzdisco.org/clifford-thornton/discography/

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/JAZZ-LP-CLIFFORD-THORNTON-NEW-ART-ENSEMBLE-FREEDOM-UNITY-THIRD-WORLD-/181410145726

If you find it, buy this album!