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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XHOL – Hau-RUK (LP-1971) - CD-2002

Original LP cover

Label: Garden Of Delights – CD 076
Format: CD, Album, Reissue; Country: Germany - Released: 2002
Style: Free Jazz, Jazz-Funk, Krautrock
Recorded live 1st & 2nd July 1970 at Center, Göttingen, Germany.
Track 3 is a bonus track
Original LP Cover Design [Covergestaltung] – Igor Ihloff
Engineer – Bob Woolford
Licensed From – Venus;  Manufactured By – P+O Pallas
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Ohr;  Copyright (c) – Garden Of Delights
Recorded At – Center, Gottingen

Tracklist
1. Breit   24:13
2. Schaukel   20:20
3. Süden Twi Westen (bonus)   21:55

Öcki Brevern – keyboards
Tim Belbe – tenor saxophone
Klaus Briest – double bass, cymbal, gong
Skip Van Wyck – drums

There are many different things about this album that I love, but the one thing that always lingers in me long after I've spun it, is the overall impression of 'feel'. Now as daft as that may sound to some of you out there, I still stand by my statement. This album, with its wonderful title Hau-RUK, is perhaps the benchmark of what you can do musically, when all you have at the front wheel is feel.

Sure all music revolves around feel, and so it should, but with Xhol(remember this is after they ditched the Caravan part of their name) - and especially this album, there is little to hold it all together in form of chords, structure and what have you. This does however not mean that the music is unmelodious or mad - on the contrary; this is some of the most alluring and bobbing music out there.

Two long cuts, and if you've got a hold of the reissue one like I have, then you additionally get yet another 20+ minute track. Think Doors mixed up with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band seriously on acid - and then move this rather rambunctious setting into a more playful psychedelic jazz rock costume.that quite literally sounds as if the music was made in high seas on a river raft. So much bounce to this mother, you wouldn't believe it!

The drums are caveman raw, the organs sound like a bottom dwelling sea creature throwing up rhythmically and in tune, and still there is an imminent sense of chill about Hau-RUK - a characteristic about the whole thing that allures the listener out in deep hypnotising stints, where you feel like running through a maritime carnival in ultra slow motion.

In all fairness though, and just to play devils advocate, this record shouldn't work. It really shouldn't. This is basically jams with no preconceived idea of where to venture next. So you get this snaking thing that writhes and bobs - grows enormous and minuscule, frail and gentle - heck at times it even metamorphoses into something sensuous on accord of the sax - and yet I don't get anything meandering about it. Too many wicked rocking grooves and beautiful serene organ lead sections for that to be true.

I think all musicians know how it feels when everything falls into place - the times where you really cook and take off..........somewhere, and it feels like sex and drugs and everything in between. You catch each other in the music, and wield each other in, dance around, play and communicate through soundscapes, gestures and hidden sonic languages. Hau-RUK is exactly one of those times! Now whether that's down to high doses of mescaline, or just through the sheer power of music, I honestly don't know - and who really gives a flying feck anyhoo?

Xhol/Caravan(the first incarnation of the band), were actually one of the first Krautrock bands ever. They were part of the initial wave together with acts such as Amon Düül, CAN, Kraftwerk, Floh de Cologne, Tangerine Dream and Kluster, but I think it's fair to say that they were the first to merge the psychedelic Kosmische universe with jazz. Later on groups like Embryo, Exmagma and Kraan would go on to further evolusionise this branching of the Krautrock tree, but this was where it all started - with Xhol. This is however not your everyday jazz rock. It feels infinitely more sluggish and larval - like it moves forward on its tummy in huge sweaty gulps - mimicking the kind of early blues infatuated jazz rock feel you'd get from an album like Valentine Suite, although Colosseum and these Germans sound nothing alike. Yep makes no sense whatsoever, but that's how I roll...

The one thing that originally put me a little off with this album, was the sudden change of pace during the second cut, where you suddenly are met with a trashy and somewhat archaic take on the old BB King classic 'Rock me Baby'. This is a thing of the past, and ever since I started eating small children - I've really been digging it. Again - we're talking about feel. The live-in-your-face-untethered-imaginative and highly seductive musical experience that sometimes gets caught on tape, but far too often remain hidden brain polaroids in the back of long lost hippies... Well not this time. This is the real deal.

Catch this one for its thick gooey organ work - better yet get it because of its sensuous and at times wonderfully chirping saxophone spurts - or maybe for it's way of edging you into a murky dream state with everything around you exuding the type of melted reality you encounter in a Salvador Dali painting.

_ Review by Guldbamsen



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