All Categories — All Formats  

The title sounds like an old R&B song from the 50s, but the album's a searing collaboration between three of the boldest improvisers in 70s European jazz – Peter Brotzmann on reeds, Harry Miller on bass, and Louis Moholo on drums! Although Miller and Moholo can have warmer moments when working in British Ogun modes, they're definitely well-matched here with the young Brotzmann's energy – very freewheeling on both of their instruments, and rising to Peter's challenge to find new sounds at just about every twist and turn of the record! Titles include "Long Time Service", "Kucken und Drucken", "Schnell Im Biss", and "The Nearer The Bone The Sweeter The Meat".

A landmark in the European avant scene of the 60s – the first self-released album by pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach – an all star session that features work by Peter Brotzmann, Manfred Schoof, Paul Rutherford, Han Bennink, and others! The work here is very free and a spacious – with slow-building, tentative rumblings from all players involved, gently feeling out the space between them as the set goes on – energy levels increasing with confidence as tighter and stronger movements emerge. Titles include "The Living Music", "Into The Staggerin", "Tower", "Wave", "Past Time", and "Lollopalooza". Greatness!

One of the earliest albums on the Free Jazz Productions label – a large group session led by trumpeter Manfred Schoof, and featuring a wealth of great talents from the European avant garde of the 60s – including Peter Brotzmann on tenor, Enrico Rava on trumpet, Irene Schweizer and Alexander Von Schlippenbach on piano, Derek Bailey on guitar, Evan Parker on soprano sax, Paul Rutherford on trombone, and both Han Bennink and Pierre Favre on drums! The album features one long track – Schoof's "European Echoes" – the kind of extended, freewheeling, large group improvisation that was exemplary of the united front being expressed across nations by the free jazz movement of the late 60s. Still as powerful today as it was back then!

Features Brotzmann on e flat clarinet, tarogato, tenor, alto, and baritone – plus Harry Miller on bass and Louis Moholo on drums.

A trio of well-matched players – really stretching out on some long improvised passages! The album's a live one – a concert performance at London's Vortex – and features two very long sets that really demonstrate the mature improvising talents of the trio – boldly blown tenor and soprano sax from Evan Parker, incredibly complicated work on bass from Barry Guy, and electrifying percussion from Paul Lytton! There's definitely an FMP vibe to the playing, yet the overall feel is looser and more London, too – if we can say that – and together, the tracks offer up nearly 80 minutes of music in all.

An amazing second chapter from this extremely inventive trio – a marvelous matching of the talents of Paul Rutherford on trombone, Barry Guy on bass, and Phil Wachsmann on violin! All three players use a fair bit of electronics, too – very much in the best FMP mode of mixing live acoustic improvisation with additional improvised electronics – creating this electro-acoustic mode that goes way past any staid academic form of the genre! Most tracks here are long live improvisations – brought together in a massive three CD set that really documents the uniqueness of the group – with tracks that include "Dieptaur", "Veprol", "Eiverl", "Stoleri", "Vendia", "Epis", "Panshanton", and "Phelgstar".

A really great quartet that works together beautifully here – bass from Joelle Leandre, trombone from Sebi Tramontana, violin from Carlos Zingaro, and drums from Paul Lovens – all well-trained players for open improvisations like this – coming together in ways that recall some of the best FMP live work from the 70s! The music is free, but never without consideration – sounds that come out of nowhere, yet somehow fit perfectly together – although in ways that go far beyond conventional jazz, even that of the avant variety. The set features five tracks – titled "Sudo 1", "Sudo 2", and so on!

A pair of very different albums from John Tchicai – both hard to find, and brought together here on a nicely priced package! Strange Brothers is overlooked brilliance from reedman John Tchicai – a late 70s session recorded for the FMP label, and easily one of the most soulful sets on the imprint at the time! The album's a tremendous showcase not only for Tchicai's work on soprano, alto, and bamboo flute – but also for the hard-edged tenor of Simon Spang-Hanssen – a player we don't know well, but who really unfurls with a nice sense of force on the set – pushing John even more than usual! Rhythms are great too – very bold, but focused enough to provide a strong pulse on the record – almost a modal groove at times – thanks to work from Peter Danstrup on bass and Ole Romer on drums. Titles include "KW", "I En Kaelder", "Darktown Highlights", "Mao", "Increasing Cosmopo", and "Cloak N Dagger". Put Up The Fight is one of the most electric records we've ever heard from reedman John Tchicai – not on his own instrument, but in the use of guitar and keyboards in the set – sometimes in modes that are nicely rhythmic, other times quite abstract! Tchicai's tenor, soprano sax, and bass clarinet are definitely the main focus of the record – but the settings change nicely throughout, thanks to work from Bent Clausen on vibes, guitar, and keyboards; Peter Danstrup on electric bass and keyboards; and Ole Romer on drums, percussion, and more guitar! At some moments, there's almost a New York 80s avant vibe to the record – but at other times, things have the more soulful feel of Tchicai's older work. Titles include "Put Up The Fight", "Adieu Tristesse", "Mai Mai", "Yoke Them Johnny", "Colomentality", and "Barbe Better".

A wild set of duets, with a really unique feel – a rare date that brings the drums and percussion of Gunter Sommer into play with these massive musings on pipe organ from Hans Gunthe Wauer! There's only one other record we can think of like this – an FMP set that had Fred Van Hove taking similar liberties with the enormous instrument – and Wauer's range of sounds here is breathtaking – from mad runs that must have rumbled the entire studio, to moody atmospheric passages that are punctuated beautifully by Sommer's percussion! We always love Gunter in a spare setting like this, and his work on the record really adds a lot – sometimes just by adding a little. Titles include "Lydische Toccata", "Ech Meissen Crash", "Verschrantke Konstruktion", "Entlang Am Rohrenklang", and "Gesorte Klangflache".

Bold sounds from this German quartet – a group who certainly deliver one of the most striking avant jazz sessions on the legendary Amiga label! The set's got a free frenzy that's right up there with the 70s best from FMP – played by musicians who often made key appearances on that label too – including Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky on saxes and flute, Conrad Bauer on trombone, Ulrich Gumpert on piano, and Gunter Sommer on drums and percussion! The album takes off with a machine gun-like energy at the start – a real blast of sound that shows all the revolutionary power of this generation of German jazz – but then as things progress, the players explore some wonderful tones and textures that reflect a more contemplative mode as well – still very groundbreaking, but in a more subtle way. Titles include "Traumtanzer", "Quartett Diskurs", "Holzland", "Kommit Ihr G'Spielen", and "Post Aus Vogelsang".

A rare chapter in the career of Peter Brotzmann – and a very smoking set cut on the Finnish scene of the early 70s! The quartet features Brotzmann on tenor and alto – playing alongside the tenor and flute of Juhani Alaltonen – both of them completely all-out and unbridled, working with the same sort of ferocious free jazz style Peter used on his initial FMP recordings! Other players include Peter Kowald on bass and Edward Vesala on percussion – the last of whom can really shift between full-on intensity and quieter, more sensitive sounds. Titles include "Hot Lotta", "After Pam Pam", "For Dee Deep Finnish Forest Cymbal Governor", and "Kippis".