PETER KOWALD QUINTET – Peter Kowald Quintet (LP-1972)

Label: FMP – FMP 0070

Format: Vinyl, LP; Country: Germany - Released: 1972

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live January 19, 1972 at Akademie der Künste in Berlin

Artwork – Danny, Dietrich Maus, Geges Margull, Gerd Hanebeck, Heiko Hösterey, Krista Brötzmann, Paul Miron, Peter Paulus, Tomas Schmit, Toon Lem, Winfried Gaul, Wulf Teichmann

Producer – P. Kowald

Recorded By – Eberhard Sengpiel

Supervised By – Jost Gebers

"It was recorded at a concert in Berlin, during a Free Music Festival January 19, 1972 , and is a thoroughly excellent example of the kind of music to be heard at such events all over Europe....this LP is highly recommended."

A1 - Platte Talloere . . . 13:16

A2 - Wenn Wir Kehlkopfoperierte Uns Unterhalten . . . 7:06

B1 - Pavement Bolognaise . . . 14:00

B2 - Guete Luuni . . . 2:49

Peter van de Locht: alto saxophone

Günter Christmann: trombone

Paul Rutherford: trombone

Peter Kowald: double bass, tuba, alphorn

Paul Lovens: percussion

The informal freemasonry among European practitioners of the New Music grows daily stronger. Although the Continentals are rarely allowed to play here (thanks to antiquated regulations), British musicians now regularly cross the Channel to appear side-by-side with the best players Europe has to offer.

This album represents just such a collaboration, with trombonist Paul Rutherford taking his place in the band of German multi-instrumentalist, Peter Kowald, which itself contains one Belgian (van de Locht) and one Dutchman (Lovens).

It was recorded at a concert in Berlin, during a Free Music Festival last January, and is a thoroughly excellent example of the kind of music to be heard at such events all over Europe.

The work of the trombone team is what catches the ear first; Rutherford produces his vast array of technical effects, and manages to make music out of them all the time. Near the end of “Pavement Bolognaise”, for instance, he plays a long unaccompanied passage made up of long, low growls, ending with a delicious smear, which is quite riveting.

Christmann is a rather more straightforward player (though not much) and makes a fine complement. When he, Rutherford, and Kowald (on Alphorn, I think) play together on the short “Guete Luuni”, the effect is like a brass band lament from outer space.

The leader himself has some impressive moments on bass, particularly on “Platte Talloere”, where he plays a long solo made up of strange scratching sounds (caused by pressing the bow down hard on the strings) and is beautifully accompanied by Lovens – who seems to have calmed down a lot since I first heard him a couple of years ago.

Van de Locht sounds like a very promising young musician, giving his best work in the ensemble improvisations, when he provides an upper line with a poignant, bitter-sweet flavor.

A quintet, then, which is integrated as well musically as it is nationally; and a LP of informal, enjoyable music, which is highly recommended.

_ By RICHARD WILLIAMS

from: Melody Maker, June 17, 1972

If you find it, buy this album!

IRENE SCHWEIZER – Live At Taktlos 1984 (LP-1986/CD-2005)

Label: Intakt Records – Intakt CD 001
Format: CD, Album; Country: Switzerland - Released: Aug 2005
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded live 4th & 5th February 1984 at the Taktlos Festival, Rote Fabrik, Zürich.
Recorded live at Taktlos 1984 by Peter Pfister
Grafic Design: Ruedi Wyss
Executive Production: Patrik Landolt
First released as Intakt LP 001 / 1986

Schweizer’s Live at Taktlos—taped in 1984 at the first annual incarnation of the Swiss festival bearing the same name—marked the first LP release on Intakt. Reissued on CD the album presents the pianist in three extremely fertile situations with fellow improvisers from Europe and America. Peter Pfister, most-renowned these days for his impeccable engineering work for Hatology, handled the recording and while the fidelity isn’t blemish free it still captures the players with true-to-life sound. The disc's three main pieces accord ample space for extended free improvisation, the longest among them swallowing up a good twenty minutes. “ Every Now and Then, ” a manically-paced match-up of vocalist Maggie Nicols with pianist Lindsay Cooper works as coda. “ First Meeting ” teams Schweizer with trombonist George Lewis for a lengthy extemporization that is startling in its degree of close convergence, so much so that parts, particularly the puckishly tuneful conclusion, sound pre- composed. A wealth of unorthodox patterns and phrases pour forth from both players, often at telegraphic speed, but the whole constructed from these parts never loses a guiding sense of symmetry.
Less easily accessible is the trio of Nicols, Schweizer and Günter Sommer who convene on the enigmatically-titled “ Lungs and Legs Willing? ” Nicols ’ operatic, largely abstract vocals soar and swoop, leaving pianist and drummer to shape a sequence of ground-swelling collisions, soft and stentorian, that serve as terrestrial counterpoint in a crowded exchange. “ Trutznachtigall ” delivers an even most challenging experience via what on the surface seems the most conventional instrumentation. Bassist Joëlle Lèandre brings her full repertoire of capricious techniques to the event, sawing down tree trunks with her bow, punishing her strings with chest-pounding pizzicato flurries and, if the snapshot in the CD booklet is to be believed, even playing her instrument upside down. Her gruff and often outrageous vocals add to the turbulent atmosphere, veering from banshee wails to romantic cooing and back again. Lovens’ percussive idiosyncrasies fit right in, the fractious, but precisely intentional clatter from his kit complimenting Schweizer’s frequent forays under her piano’s hood to pluck and damper hammered strings. Attaching a play-by-play to all the delirious, irreverent action and reaction ends up a pointless pursuit within mere minutes. A marker for various partnerships that have since made good on their promises tenfold, this music still packs an enjoyable jolt on par with its initial release twenty years ago.

_ By DEREK TAYLOR, All About Jazz, USA, November 2005

Irène Schweizer, Günter Sommer, Bauhaus Dessau, DDR, 1986. - Photo: Patrik Landolt

Note:
Most independent recording labels have their bellwether artists, those musicians on the roster central to the label's identity and mission. Hatology has Joe McPhee. Peter Brötzmann is commonly associated with FMP. Tzadik revolves around John Zorn. In the case of Intakt it's Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer. Schweizer has been playing actively for nearly half a century and the last several decades of her career have been faithfully documented on Intakt. Ideally, labels and artists share a reciprocal relationship. It's the charge of the label to act as advocate for the artist and the job of the artist to supply the label with meaningful creative capital. Schweizer's partnership with Intakt represents a model of this sort of mutually sustaining arrangement.
INTAKT RECORDS:  http://www.intaktrec.ch/



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ALEXANDER von SCHLIPPENBACH TRIO – Pakistani Pomade (1973) - 2003

Label: Atavistic – UMS/ALP240CD
Series: Unheard Music Series – , Archive FMP Edition –
Format: CD, Album, Reissue; Country: US - Released: 2003
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded: November 1972, Bremen, Germany. 
Originally issued in 1973 on FMP 0110.
Mastered at AirWave Studio. Tracks 9 to 12 not on original LP
Artwork By – Benjamin von Schlippenbach
Cover design (reproduced above) by Peter Brötzmann
Engineer – Dietram Köster; Mastered By – Kyle White
Reissue Producer – John Corbett

Alexander von Schlippenbach

                                                                                                                  Evan Parker

Paul Lovens

Essential Free Jazz 

One of the truly legendary recordings from the early period of European free improvisation, and the opening statement from a band that – improbably – continues to exist, 1972’s Pakistani Pomade is essential music. The three players heard here on their maiden recording voyage – pianist/leader Alexander von Schlippenbach, saxophonist Evan Parker, and percussionist Paul Lovens – met through the activities of the important Globe Unity Orchestra, a roving collective wherein all the future luminaries of European free music first began to associate in the late 1960s (Atavistic has issued some early recordings, and there are some beauties still available on FMP). But beginning with this session, they have gone on to stake out their own patch of the music; and with over 10 recordings (some of which are currently available, though hopefully Atavistic will get around to reissuing beauties like Anticlockwise and The Hidden Peak) and several decades of work together, this trio now seems like one of the central workshops for each player’s individual and group music.

Schlippenbach, for example, has really benefited from this continuous improvisational vehicle. Though he works in occasionally quite aggressive areas – making uses of clustered chords and very fast fractured runs of notes – it would be misleading to say he’s more than customarily influenced by American players like Cecil Taylor. The space and formal sense in his playing is probably more akin to pianists like Ran Blake or Paul Bley who, though they don’t actually come through in the sound of Schlippenbach’s playing, were probably formative influences on his approach to the music (along with his avowed love for bop players Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols). Listen to the opening dialogues with Lovens on "Sun-Luck Night-Rain" or to the killer title track for evidence. Parker’s relationship to jazz saxophone – his early inspiration in Rollins and late period Trane, from which he subsequently launched his playing into the harmonic and textural stratosphere – is fairly familiar. On this recording he combines the delightfully quirky pops and burbles for which he is renowned with a harsher, more shriek-filled voice that is less well-documented. It’s still defined by the same concerns – duration, tonal micro-management, overtones, and false fingerings – but represents a side of his playing that Parker has largely left behind. Lovens, a superbly gifted colorist, has the incredible talent for combining the sheer momentum of classic jazz rhythms with little to no overt reference to them, filling the tone field with thuds, scrapes, rustles, and thwacks that create their own rhythmic syntax. Listen to his superb duet with Parker, which opens "Butaki Sisters." "Ein Husten für Karl Valentin" and the multiple miniatures on this recording tend to be very sparse and pointillistic, showcasing the range these fellows had even early on. As if the reissue alone weren’t glorious enough, there are four "Pakistani Alternates" which comprise an extra 20 minutes of heady listening. Rawer and more edgy than their later recordings, Pakistani Pomade is still defined by the listening and generosity of these players.  
A must have recording.

_ By JASON BIVINS
(Dusted Reviews, date: Aug.11, 2003)



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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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JOËLLE LÉANDRE – At The Le Mans Jazz Festival 2005 (2CD-2006)

Label: Leo Records – CD LR 458/459
Format: 2 × CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: 2006
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live at the Le Mans Jazz Festival In April/May 2005, France
1-1 and 1-2 recorded live at l'Espal, April 26, 2005
1-3 to 1-5 recorded live at Collégiale Saint-Pierre-La-Cour, April 29, 2005
2-1 to 2-3 recorded live at Collégiale Saint-Pierre-La-Cour, April 27, 2005
2-4 and 2-5 recorded live at Abbaye de l'Epau, May 1, 2005
2-6 to 2-9 recorded live at Palais des Congres, April 30, 2005

In April/May 2005 Joelle Leandre was a resident artist at the Le Mans Jazz Festival. She performed with Les Diaboliques (Maggie Nicols - voice, Irene Schweitzer - piano), William Parker - bass, India Cooke - violin, Markus Stockhausen - trumpet / Mark Nauseef - percussion, electronics, Paul Lovens - drums / Sebi Tramontana - trombone / Carlos Zingaro - violin. These magic performances are documented on the double CD which contain over two hours of music. There is no question this is the strongest CD by Joelle Leandre in the Leo Records catalogue.

". . . in any disc by the brilliant European-based jazz bassist Joelle Leandre. The question is, Is it worth the effort? Yes. The deal-with-it factor is especially prominent with the Les Diaboliques Trio featuring the frankly weird vocals of Englishwoman Maggie Nichols and the angular piano of Irene Schweitzer--almost always worth hearing--which takes up about 60% of the first disc of this two-disc set. I can't say I'm a huge Maggie Nichols fan, but the trio is unique in contemporary jazz and, indeed, in jazz history, so all my reservations kinda bow before the big albeit outré concept operating here. And I've gotta admit that, no matter how skeptical I am of this kind of vocal weirdness, there's a certain indisputable presence in Nichols's caterwauling that, as much as it's alien to me, I'm not going to gainsay. In fact, the more I listen to it, the more taken I am not only by her sheer virtuosity, but by the eldritch vibe she conjures. Really, Is there anyone on the scene who does what she does? One thinks of Shelley Hirsch or Theo Bleckman, but I'm thinking Maggie Nichols is the champ of out vocals, not only by virtue of her uncanny range and timbre, but also because her voice conjures such a great variety of moods and textures.

The other four encounters--duo sessions with William parker (bass and whistles) and India Cooke (violin), a trio session with Mark Nauseef (percussion, cheap Casio) and Markus Stockhausen (trumpet, flugelhorn), and a quartet session with Paul Lovens (percussion, drums), Sebi Tramontana (trombone) and long-time associate Carlos Zingaro (violin)--each offer their own pleasures, but the real action goes down with the Les Diaboliques Trio. Joelle Leandre is certainly among the most adventurous and accomplished practitioners on her instrument (double-bass), and it is entirely worthwhile encountering her in this wildly eclectic instrumental environment. Has hardly left my disc player since I acquired it. Highly recommended for anyone with ears to hear. The timid should avoid."
– Jan P. Dennis

Some people will notice with slight disappointment that the album features no new partnerships, only lineups that are already documented. That's true, and that's probably why Joëlle Léandre at the LeMans Jazz Festival is not a five-CD box set, but only two discs worth of highlights, which makes it all the better. All five concerts were recorded by master sound engineer Jean-Marc Foussat.



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X-COMMUNICATION (Martin Schütz / Hans Koch) – X-Communication (1991)

Label: FMP – FMP CD 33
Format: CD, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1991
Style: Free Improvisation
Track 1 recorded on November 3, 1990 during the 'Total Music Meeting' at the 'Quartier Latin', Berlin.
Track 2 recorded on December 15, 1990 at the Von-der-Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal. (This recording was commissioned by the Westgerman Radio/WDR-Köln).
First published in May 1991
Music By [All Music By] – X-Communication
Painting [Drawing] – Hal Foster; Photography By – Dagmar Gebers
Producer – Jost Gebers

                                                                                                         Hans Koch
Review:

X-Communication is a band that is not a band, a group of improvisers who come together to play concerts once in a while and hopefully document them with a recording or two, like this one. With Schutz and Reichel you have a strong component, in Morris you have a brass component, with Koch you have reeds which brings drummer Paul Lovens into the fold, along with vocalist extraordinaire Shelley Hirsch, violinist Jason Hwang, and trombonist Dino Deane.

                                                                                                    Shelley Hirsch

                                                                                                     Martin Schütz

There is no comprise in the music played by X-Communication. This is a group that looks for freedom at every turn, every window, and every pace. They look to turn each musician loose from the ensemble to explore with the support of the ensemble whatever it is she or he feels compelled to journey toward. The manner in which this group communicates its findings is for an entire article perhaps to discuss. The sounds, tones, textures, and timbral relationships encountered here are unique to this band; they have not been touched on before, and they will not be encountered again. These colors, so many shades of the dark, are beautiful to hear, to feel, and internalize. That they are beyond rational sense and discussion, and are facts worth celebrating.

 ~ by Thom Jurek



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SCHLIPPENBACH QUARTET – Hunting The Snake 1975 (2000)

Label: Atavistic – UMS/ALP213CD
Series: Unheard Music Series –
Format: CD, Album; Country: US - Released: 2000
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded September 10, 1975, Sendesaal Radio Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Engineer [Recording] – Ramie Köster; Mastered By – John McCortney
Painting [Cover] – Michael Snow; Design – PM Froehle
Photography By [Photo Portraits] – Roberto Masotti
Producer – John Corbett; Recorded By – Peter Schulze

Note:

The material on Hunting the Snake -- four lengthy improvisations, each in the 20-minute range -- comes from a live 1975 radio performance but was not released until 2000. It features all three members of the long-running Schlippenbach Trio (pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, saxophonist Evan Parker, and percussionist Paul Lovens) along with Peter Kowald on bass. The music here is dense, kinetic, atonal, and often harsh, but while not easy listening, this album is not entirely remote or inaccessible, either. The group's playing is very physical and energetic, and though it is recognizably distinct from most American free jazz, the jazz roots are, at this point, still readily discernible. The real interest comes in listening to the quartet's interplay, which is less refined than on some of the Schlippenbach Trio's later work, but which has a certain ragged cohesiveness and charm of its own. Parker's scraping saxophone, Lovens' junk-pile percussion, Kowald's feverish bowing, and Schlippenbach's atonal piano clusters contribute equally to the music's flow -- there isn't a real separation of "lead" vs. "rhythm" instruments during most of the album. Occasionally, however, Parker steps out on his own and lets loose with an extended high-pitched squall, as he does on the standout title track; these abrasive solo moments are especially interesting (or hard to listen to, depending on your take). Its near-80-minute running time is exhausting, but Hunting the Snake is worth tackling in more manageable doses, as it continues to sound daring and alive more than 25 years after its creation. AMG.

         

                                              Parker                  Kowald

Review:

The Schlippenbach Trio remains one of the most redoubtable ensembles in creative improvised music due in no small measure to the sum of its formidable parts. Schlippenbach, Parker and Lovens need no introduction to those the least bit familiar with free jazz. The seemingly unsurpassable stature of their union was forged over the course of sporadic meetings and recordings and though the group has been in existence for decades only a handful of albums are represented in its discography. Several occasions over the years have
afforded a chance for a fourth to join the fold most commonly either Alan Silva or Peter Kowald on bass. This treasure trove date unearthed through the efforts of producer John Corbett recounts one such meeting early in the trio ’ s existence with German bass impresario Kowald joining the triumvirate for a session recorded by Radio Bremen.

The music contained herein stretches the running time of the disc to its limits threatening to spill over the eighty-minute mark. Four long pieces make up the program and each one is loaded to the gills with furious and furibund interplay. On the opening “ Glen Feshie ” Schilippenbach ’ s lyrical chords flank Kowald ’ s keening arco streaks. Lovens overruns his kit with raucous clatter and chatter, though an underlying fragmentary pulse pervades even his most verbose stick work. After an initial extended shriek Parker drops out leaving the group convulsing heatedly in trio formation. Kowald saws off splintered harmonic shards in a solo interlude before Lovens and Schlippenbach, worrying his piano innards zither-style, rejoin him. Parker ’ s soprano descends soon after in a whinnying swirl of multiphonics before ascending heavenward in a harmonic arc trailed by bowed bass and cymbals.

         

                                              Lovens                 Schlippenbach

Lovens opens “ Moonbeef ” with a cyclic metallic cranking over which Parker ’ s suspiring tenor takes hold. Kowald and Schlippenbach annex much of the remainder of space with elastic tears and chiming clusters. Racing across the keys on the title track Schlippenbach vertical wall of self-immolating clusters. Further on in the piece Parker ’ s serrated soprano sustains create an eerie counterpoint to the pianist ’ s more lyrical musings. Kowald ’ s worried bow dogs his strings creating an almost continuous spray of charged particle harmonics. Parker ’ s solo statement that dominates the second half of the track delivers a deliciously drawn out sample of his long-lauded circular breathing style. Whistling wind chimes and the songs of humpback whales are just some of the auditory images conjured by his extended techniques. So much is packed into each piece that despite the disc ’ s lengthy duration, temporal density dissipates swiftly. The rarity of this recording alone is enough to announce its value. Couple this with the wealth of improvisatory energy channeled consistently through the music and the disc is made indispensable.

By DEREK TAYLOR, Published: October 1, 2000 (AAJ)



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