HAN BENNINK / PETER BRÖTZMANN / FRED VAN HOVE
FMP0130
(Atavistic) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
2003 reissue, originally released on FMP in 1973, with Brötzmann on clarinet, alto, tenor, baritone, bass saxophones; van Hove on celesta, piano; and Bennink on drums, khene, rhythm-box, selfmade clarinet, gachi, oe-oe, voice, tins, homemade junk, elong, dhung, kaffir piano, and dhung-dkar.
Number One Of Three
(Atavistic) Used CD $6.00 (Out-of-stock)
Conceived and structured as one long piece divided into ten untitled parts, this 1998 album captures “the extreme intensity which defined Swans in a new fashion: it completely avoids lyrics in favor of instrumental flow, build, and atmosphere, from solo acoustic guitar to a full-on band attack, with instrumentation ranging from flugelhorn to hammered dulcimer to melodica, all carefully interwoven throughout.” Digipak
Symphony No. 2 – The Peak Of The Sacred
(Atavistic) Used CD $8.00
This magnificent, resonant, clangorous soundscape of almost imponderable density and length swell to maximum volume and maintains a high level of intensity for over an hour with little relaxation. The unpredictable but intended interplay of overtones and acoustics, evoked by Branca’s mallet guitarists and percussionists, adds considerably to the music’s power, sense of space, and cosmic scope. First edition from 1992 with gold sticker as front panel artwork
Fuck De Boere (Dedicated to Johnn Dyani)
(Atavistic) Used CD $10.00 (Out-of-stock)
“Two of the most explosive, riveting pieces of music to come out of the European vaults — never before released, mastered from original radio master tapes — by larger groups led by the German saxophone legend, both recorded by Hessischer Rundfunk at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival, in 1968 and 1970. First is an unheard alternate version of Brötzmann’s groundbreaking Machine Gun, this time with a nine-piece group (same as the LP, adding tenor saxophonist Gerd Dudek), recorded three months before the BRO/FMP record was made. Then there’s a forty-minute masterpiece from 1970, with a large group featuring three tenors, three trombones, no bassist, Fred van Hove on organ, Derek Bailey on guitar, and Han Bennink and Sven-Ake Johansson on drums. It’s a monumental piece, featuring some of the most extreme Bailey on record (sounding at times like Masayumi Takayanaki from five years later), and tremendous interplay between Brötzmann, Evan Parker and Willem Breuker. Twelve-panel foldout booklet with liner notes and period photographs.
More Nipples
(Atavistic) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
This session from April 18, 1969, put British improvisers Evan Parker and Derek Bailey into a once-in-a-lifetime sextet with Brötzmann and Buschi Niebergall, and Dutch radicals Han Bennink and Fred van Hove. “The title track is 17 minutes of some of the most important music in the history of European free jazz,” Pitchfork assures us. “As it unfolds with duos and trios crystallizing from the splinters of the entire group’s nuclear mass, it’s … apparent how well these guys understood each other’s playing, to the point of being conscious of what the group performance sounded like as a whole…. Don’t let the fact that these are outtakes scare you away from this disc, because this stuff is essential to anyone interested in how Herr Brötzmann earned his status as one of the most devastating forces to ever touch a saxophone.”
For Adolphe Sax
(Atavistic) Used CD $10.00
The German tenor saxophonist’s first, recorded with bassist Peter Kowald and drummer Sven-Ake Johansson. This is intense, unrelenting free jazz with little in the way of clear structure or melody. Apart from a few brief moments of quiet during “Sanity,” this stuff just doesn’t quit, with Brötzmann’s consistently abrasive, high-pitched wailing leading the charge and the other two members stirring up a pretty good ruckus themselves (Kowald especially gets in a good string-sawing bass solo on “Morning Glory”).
Sun
(Atavistic) Used 10-inch $7.00 (Out-of-stock)
“Sun” is a fantastic mix of fierce playing from the band and aggressive, intentionally dirty production. “*” sounds something like a drunk jazz band late at night with Matt Jones muttering low vocals in the distance. The extended “Unit System” closes the disc with a low, clattering drumbeat in the distance, guitar, bass and keyboard parts emerging from the production murk and a lengthy movie or interview segment unfolding throughout.
Heavy Days Are Here Again
(Atavistic - ALP207CD) CD $11.00
Pianist, composer, unsung hero of Dutch creative music, member of the first incarnation of the Willem Breuker Kollektief, Cuypers brings Han Bennink and Breuker back together after a somewhat fractious split. The reunited band toured, made a national TV appearance, and then recorded this killer studio LP (BVHAAST 1981).
Unlawful Noise
(Atavistic) Used CD $18.00
The energy of this group — Kees Hazevoet, Peter Bennink, Peter Brotzmann, Han Bennink, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo — is truly incredible and will likely cause waves of both emotion and thought in receptive listeners. Although there are noticeable spots where individual reedists shine, many of the most exhilarating moments on this 1976 recording come when three or four of them unite in bursts of sonic joy. The fury on exhibit might not be revolutionary anymore but when Bennink breaks out the bagpipes, and it remains nearly impossible to discern who is playing what. Always a good sign. Moholo delivers blistering patterns akin to Rashied Ali or Sunny Murray but with a greater sense of rhythm if not outright swing. Hearing him beat the hell out of his cymbals at the end of the first track will do the soul some good. Traycard has a promo cut on one spine.
Convulsion
(Atavistic) Used 12-inch $4.00
Industrial rock / noise from the mid-1980s by Kurt Kellison, Paula Froehle, Casey Rice, and Elliot Dicks. With price tag and radio station music director’s notes in magic marker on the front cover (“very weird / wayout art / durge [sic] stuff from Ohio”) and check marks next to selected tracks on the back.
Trinity
(Atavistic) Used CD $6.00 (Out-of-stock)
Outer space jazz, blues, and avant soul recorded in the parish hall of a Catholic Church. Atavistic’s 2000 CD reissue from the master tapes blows away the sound quality of the original groove-crammed LP (CjR 1971). On the spatially expansive “Ionization,” drummer Harold Smith moves through polyrhythms at blinding speed while McPhee recontextualizes without overcompensating, and Mike Kull enters pianissimo, throwing the energy into a tailspin of dynamic response. “Astral Spirits” has Kull playing an electric piano, McPhee roots his tenor playing in groove and nuance, while Smith dances on the cymbals. On the expressionist work “Delta,” Kull gets into an avant funk, McPhee goes modal, playing deep blues and Memphis soul without regard for bars and measures. The track is grease and fire personified, the cry of a bluer-than-black blues, cut through the belly with ghostly funk and a free jazz aesthetic. It slips in the back door almost undetected and wails its gospel-like roar as it exits.
BelleView I-IV
(Atavistic) Used CD $6.00 (Out-of-stock)
One of the earlier percussionists / electronicists to be inspired by the non-idiomatic group improv of AMM, Günter Müller and his work with the cooperative trio Nachtluft are strikingly presented on this 2000 Unheard Music Series reissue of an LP originally issued in 1987 on Unity Records. “With Andres Bosshard on cassette machines and Jacques Widmer on percussion, Müller creates abstract soundscapes where traditional melody and rhythms are entirely absent, but which boil and bubble with ceaseless and fascinating activity. The pieces vary from eerie, humming sections evoking a desolate landscape a-crackle with random electronic discharges to thrashing percussive firestorms. Throughout, a strong consciousness of sonic space is maintained, the pieces feeling very solid and palpable whether filled with noise or near silence. Punched barcode
Elixir
(Atavistic) Used CD $6.00 (Out-of-stock)
This 1979 live recording documents a show where Russell, vibraphonist George Southgate, and bassist Russ DiTusa are joined by saxophonists Mars Williams and Spider Middleman. The tension and sweet release on Elixir, comparable to the sound of the post-Russell NRG Ensemble, uses the framed juxtaposition of individual voices and contrasting meters that seem complicated in theory, but are surprisingly natural in practice.
On The Waiting List
(Atavistic) Used CD $6.00 (Out-of-stock)
2004 reissue of this Italian free music rarity recorded in Rome in 1973, originally released by King Universal in 1975. An outstanding jazz outing with Schiano on alto sax, organ, and voice, along with co-founders of Gruppo Romano Free Jazz Bruno Tommaso (bass) and Giancarlo Schiaffini (trombone).