Peter Brötzmann & Han Bennink  – Atsugi Concert, Gua Bungue GBLP 3388, 33 1/3 rpm (JAP), 1980

Very rare japanese lp, 300 copies ?

This is such a package! One of the most beautifully designed LP´s ever in the free jazz/ improvised music-  business. Silver fold out sleeve…with a fantastic photobook attached! Killin photos and amazingly well assembled.

The FEEL is 100%!!!

It weighs very nicely in your hands….

And music is of course absolutely pulverizing. The vinyl came out in 1980, so Brötzmann & Bennink had already been playing together for a good 20 years +…. And you can hear it…

Bennink is all over the place with using and misusing various  windinstruments and beating the crap out of his percussive arsenal…

Brötzmann is standing on steady feets and blowing his guts out… as well as hammering the piano (!) i n the greatest way…

Few records has a greater feel. And this baby never shows up these days…

This record only came out in Japan back in the day and the music has never showed up anywhere else…  one of the hardest in the extensive Brötzmann discography!

( the hardest being perhaps The new  jazz in Altena vol 2:

http://matsgus.com/discaholic_corner/?p=1553)

Atsugi concert is ESSENTIAL!

Peter Brötzmann – tenor and baritone sax, clarinet and piano

Han Bennink – drums , c – mel saxophone, clarinet,  trombone, piano, xylophone etc

Peter Brötzmann – Machine Gun, BRÖ 2, 33 1/3 rpm (GER), 1968

Very rare 1^st edition, max 500 copies

The record that defines it ALL!

The Music that Brötzmann and his comrades were doing in combination with the raw, raaaaaaaaw sounds of the recording and the visuals of the cover made this the ULTIMATE classic of European free jazz!

The start of the title track is just overwhelming. The first time you hear it… it is a schock… 2^nd time as well…. and so it goes on…

It is a mindblowing experience to get into the free improvisations of the group at the beginning of the starting piece and after a while get transported out through the window, door and sealing at the same time at once- with that massive wall of noise that suddenly hits you like a hurdle of buffalos, mammuts and Alaskian ice trucks all at once… no other way to describe it. (sorry about that)

The music continues with some absolute amazingly grim and evil playing by especially Evan Parker, Willem Breuker and Brötzmann himself… the flow is immense!

And  the “song” is over before you know it.

The interaction between the eight players are wild and full of energy in all directions. It is a real treat to listen how the two bass players, Peter Kowald and the mighty mighty Buschi Niebergall, are playing together… moving the music forwards, with some amazingly creative drumming from drum maestros Johansson and Bennink, behind, over and under the ensemble!

A very sax dominated sound, of course…. with 3 of the most hard hitting tenor players ever around… and it is a joy to hear the fantastic and very inspired Belgian piano player Fred van Hove in the middle of it all… in the eye of the storm… commenting and contra punctuating the music in way that only he can do.

Brötzmann had early the vision of copying the 4 line of sax players in the Lionel Hamptons Big Band, playing in unison as a wall of sound.

Attempts to link this epic recording to Coltranes Ascension or  Ornette´s Free Jazz is discarded by Brötzmann, that rather prefer to link his influences to Charles Ives, “Flying Home” by Lionel Hampton and Rock n Roll!!!

It is ALL there!!!

This music has been re- released a number of times… on vinyl on FMP and recently on another german label: A – music. As well as on many CD versions by a.o. FMP and Atavistic/ Unheard Music with bonus tracks and all.

BUT… this is the one… the first silkscreened one… the feel. the vibe…. And the fact that this IS how it originally came out! Put together by Brötzmann himself back in the day.

BRÖ 2 … Legendary and for always the BOMB!

The title “Machine Gun” has nothing to do with “obvious” political connections and vietnam war of the time etc etc… it is simply the nick name that Don Cherry was using for Brötzmann during those vibrant years.

Machine Gun…. The record that defines it ALL!

Peter Brötzmann – tenor and baritone saxes

Evan Parker – tenor sax

Willem Breuker – tenor sax

Fred Van Hove – piano

Peter Kowald – bass

Buschi Niebergall – bass

Han Bennink – drums

Sven – Åke Johansson – drums

Peter Brötzmann – For Adolphe Sax, BRÖ 1, 33 1/3 rpm, (GER) 1967

Very rare 1^st edition. Max 500 copies

The European free jazz EPIC!

Brötzmanns first recording in his own name… with mighty German bass player Peter Kowald (as well as Brötzmann also based in Wuppertal his whole life) , in company of Swedish jazz drummer Sven – Åke Johansson, that left his native country with his drumkit only some years earlier and met with Brötzmann & Kowald in Belgium by accident… managed to find his way to Wuppertal, on a mysterious and full-of-myth-path, to continue his musical research with the two Peters.

This is simply just beautiful music —- full of high energy freee jazz blowing of the highest possible quality, with a very very unique interaction between the three players —- this beast will BLOW you away.

“Morning glory”…. Just listen to it… and be swiped away!!!

It has a very definite sound and the music is the earliest example (recorded june 1967) of what later media and educationists wanted to call the German school… we don’t care about those definitions really… we can just confirm what we hear…. And that is a treat!

The music is… ACTIVE, in  a way… that just makes this record a CLASSIC and something that everyone neeeeeeds to hear in order to fight the stupidity back

The 1^st edition on Brötzmann´s own BRÖ label, comes with a beauuuutiful silkscreened black& white cover and hand stamped labels. KILLING!

The whole estetique…. The ROAR of the music… the rarity… the sound… the feel… we tell you:

The FEEL! Makes this a MUST have – whatever it takes!

The music later came out on FMP with a similar cover, but the vibe… the thing… is with this one edition.

Peter Brötzmann – tenor and baritone saxophones

Peter Kowald –bass

Sven- Åke Johansson – drums

Peter Brötzmann – Balls, FMP 0020, 33 1/3 rpm (GER), 1970

Very rare 1^st gallery edition, 200 copies

A bomb… what else to call it, then a bomb?… a rhino in a glass gardenhouse? A complete and truly mind shatterer? A sonic cluster chaos frenzy?… a “bomb” is probably just right!

A bomb with balls. BALLS!

NO title has ever been more appropriate.

Balls is one of the true classic masterpieces by Brötzmann and friends… this is the trio that changed it all.

Music IS freakin DNA – changing.

Recorded 1970 and still fresh as a rose…

After the roars… the flowing high octane energy of Brötzmann´s previous For Adolphe Sax and Machine Gun releases , this is somehow where the freer European playing takes over… where Brötzmann/ Van Hove / Bennink defines what is free improvised music… many records, tours and festivals followed after this classic recording… with this legendary outfit!

Open, spontaneaus and simply full of energy and creativity! This record has something very very special to it that just freakin rips the flesh out of ya.

This very first gallery edition was made in only 200 copies and was the second release on the classic FMP label runned by German pioneer producer Jost Gebers.

Gebers started as a bass player (his other German producer collegue Manfred Eicher  – of ECM fame – started funny enough also out as a bass player ), but went soon on to create amazing platforms from this music to exist! With the legendary festivals “Total Music Meeting” and “Workshop Freie Musik” he created the platforms for many many classic recordings and productions to come with its very typical designs (often made by Brötzmann himself ) and fonts that became the trademark of FMP – Free Musik Productions!

The silkscreened iconic and historic  cover with its many photos of the three musicians in action, plus photos of engineers and producers, gives a genius commentary to the music and makes sense on all levels possible.

comes complete with a sheet of paper in yellow that has listings of all BRÖ label records, schlippenbach on Quasar and other related items…. heavy and historic!!!

Fuckin beautiful. As simple as that.

Peter Brötzmann –  tenor sax

Fred van hove – piano

Han Bennink – drums

Springboard – Polydor special 545 007, 33 1/3 rpm (UK) 1966

Rare British LP

This music is spectacular! This LP is spectacular! This cover is spectacular!

Recorded in 1966… this music is another musical BOMB, forseeing the free improvised music to come only years later.

The music is very much based in a Free Jazz / Ornette Coleman – tradition… looking for new ways, new paths to follow… and most of all creating its own musical language.

Together with the more experimental records of Joe Harriott and the SME´s Challenge  LP on Eyemark, this is a music that really defines the borderline between a European free jazz tradition and the openness to come.

Extremely interesting period in the history of jazz, if you ask DC!

Trevor Watts dancing around in melodic frenzy and beauty! KILLER playing by him.

And the rhythm section of late great bass player Clyne and Stevens himself are just mindblowing and swinging like mad! Ian Carr is making some of his very finest moments of his recorded output with this amazing Springboard unit!

We love the cover drawings made by a young family member of the Steven´s. Also with very on-the-spot liner notes but the very same 6 year old Richie Stevens.

NOV 2012: essential PS……… DC has been talking to Mr Trevor  Watts about these recordings and the general times in UK around mid 60´s. There seem to have been a missing bit, to be added to the puzzle about how and when the free improvisation movement ( or whatever you wanna call it…) was born and developed in especially the vibrant UK.

True is that the starting point of more freer jazz in the UK and Europa started around the release of this LP Springboard and the first Lp w SME that came out before Springboard: Challange on Eyemark

http://matsgus.com/discaholic_corner/?p=879

What was not known to us, is that the main inspiration, except the concept of playing with various percussive techniques on all instruments, is that fact that John Stevens got tremendously inspired musically after a trip to Denmark in 1964! He heard the legendary saw player Niels Harrit ( also playing sax  as a member of the danish pioneers The Contemporary Jazz Quintet!!!) – came back to England and wanted to develop new forms for jazz, entirely different from the jazz structures and forms existing at the time!!!

According to Mr Watts, this trip to Denmark was very essential for the development of the new music! and John Stevens is to blame… and not least Niels Harrit. we can only recommend to find those GREAT and mind bending records by The Contemporary Jazz Quintet!!!!

Trevor Watts – alto sax

Ian Carr – cornet

Jeff Clyne – bass

John Stevens – drums

BASIL KIRCHIN – Worlds within Worlds, vol 1. EMI SCX 6463, 33 1/3 rpm (UK), 1971

Very limited edition

This is one of the rarest beasts of European experimental music and one of the hardest to get in the respectively extensive Evan Parker and Derek Bailey discographies. And it’s a complete KILLER! Music is spectacular. Recorded at Pinewood Studios, London. Originally scheduled to be a soundtrack for a film, but made into this classic masterpiece of concrete music / cut up – collage piece. Animal sounds transformed into possibilities for improvisers to interact together with.

Definitely an experiment, but with an amazing result musically. This music sounds like definitely nothing else.

There is a vol 2 (part 3 & 4) released that is a bit easier to find with additional material from the same material and concept as vol 1(part 1 & 2).

Mutant Sounds explains:

“This was the 1971 predecessor to Kirchin’s much more well known/distrbuted Worlds Within Worlds Pts. 3 & 4 and involves a similar universe of grotesquely morphed and pitched sonic treatments, only here, legendary improvisors like Derek Bailey and Evan Parker are to be found growling, plinking and spluttering amidst this melee, making this a monster rarity for fans/followers of them as well.”

But the freshness and the attack of the ideas is mindblowing on vol 1. This is yet another holy grail of  music and unfortunately very very hard to come by these days.

Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide explains:

“In 1964, Kirchin began pursuing an approach he dubbed World Within Worlds — essentially, he began combining traditional instruments with wildlife sounds and the amplified noise of insects, painstakingly editing and manipulating the results to create beautiful yet utterly alien soundscapes that clearly anticipated the subsequent ambient experiments of Brian Eno, as well as a generation of electronic artists like Aphex Twin. Not until the Swiss tape recording manufacturing firm Nagra issued their next-generation tape machines and microphones in 1967 was Kirchin able to acquire the technology necessary to fully realize his vision — his source material grew more and more obscure, and his tape manipulations grew more and more extreme with each new project, discovering new “inner sounds” virtually inaudible at standard playback speeds.”

Basil Kirchin – composition and collage

Derek Bailey – guitar

Evan Parker – soprano sax

THE SME – Challange, Eyemark EMPL 1002, 33 1/3 rpm (UK), 1966

Very very rare UK LP

Another holy grail of british free music — the very first Spontaneuos Music Ensemble  (SME) record. And what a debut record! This is music that is in search of something… and it does find it. A music trying to define the rules, to define the music…. But always exploring and making research.

Few records has this amazing collision / conflict  of two different genres. On one hand it is free jazz,  inspired by their US collegues Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor… on the other hand this is the very starting point of something very new.

There is only a handful records made from this time that reflects this ”conflict” and this might be the most important one.

This ensemble was put together by the icon of british free improvised music, the teacher of them all:  drummer and improvisor John Stevens. Forming his first version of the SME . An ensemble that in such a remarkable way rewrote the whole history of music in the 60´s and 70´s.

But this rare piece of vinyl, with its remearkable constructive cover, is really one of the most important starting points of what to come.

And it SWINGS!

A very young Kenny Wheeler is playing phrases that can cut canadian timber down and the mighty Trevor Watts is delivering something very very unique and totally mesmerazing – his alto is yet piercing, yet warmer then british bitters –  on top of that we have a young Paul Rutherford (who later formed ISKRA together with Barry Guy and Derek Bailey) blowing  like no one else.

This is not just a document. This is another British CLASSIC!

John Stevens – drums

Kenny Wheeler – flugel horn

Paul Rutherford – trombone

Trevor Watts – alto and soprano sax

Bruce Cale – bass

Jeff Clyne – bass

DEREK BAILEY – ONE MUSIC ENSEMBLE , Nondo DPLP 002, (GB), 1974

Exteremely rare UK LP, 99 copies

This is one of the holy grails of European improvised music! And especially in the extensive Derek Bailey Discography, the others three being Cybernetic Serendepity Music, Basil Kirchin´s Worlds within worlds and of course the Incus Taps, The reel –to – reel tapes that was made on demand for a very short period by Derek himself.

The Nondo LP was made in only 99 copies in 1974 with solo music by Derek Bailey , recorded in 1973 , and with the label owner David Panton on the B – side, playing a variety of instruments.

It was quite common in the UK that records on smaller label were pressed in 99 copies only. This is because of the PRS regulations, the rules of the british copyright bureau, in order to avoid paying copyrights and taxes for the record, it was made in a run below 100 copies!

This music is something else! Very different form Bailey´s other productions from this time,  with his extreme  use of feedback… and the way he controls the feedback, how he makes music with every twist of the angle of his electric (!) guitar. This LP is woooooooorth looking for! It came in a variety of covers… always the yellow paper with it paper flip construction, but with different prints on top. We are showing two different versions here.

A CLASSIC!

Derek Bailey – guitar

—-

David Panton – piano, alto sax, perc, radio, oboe etc

HOWARD RILEY TRIO – DISCUSSIONS, Opportunity 2499, 33 1/3 rpm (UK), 1968

edition of 99 copies!

this is quite a rare gem…. one of the most sought after Lps in the european free jazz circles…. we kid you NOT!

an amazing document with Howard Riley on the piano… a very young Barry Guy  on the double bass ( his first recording on 12″ format..) and the amazing Jon Hiseman on drums! The amazing cover with the far out action inc drawing, pasted on the cardboard and the music sits very very well together. a perfect FIT! a MATCH!

The music is very interesting form many perspectives and of course complety great .– a mix of jazz influenced piano trio playing a la Paul Bley and some more advanced European contemporary music shapes and forms. At the same time very free and loose, but also quite restrained and hold back… a perfect balance of creative musics.

There is also a Japanese editions of this amazing record, made in two alternative covers, one white ( as the original) and one reverse black version. the two covers came together with one piece of vinyl. The Japanese pressing is hard enough to find, since that one was also made in only 99 copies !!! But the original british pressing is quite impossible nowadays. This one sells for about 2000 USD these days and more , if in good shape.

But first of all… music is extremely interesting, since it is telling a lot what is to come… the whole bristish improv scene…. and this record is still resting on the jazz tradition… just in between the two genres. and that makes it such an amazing historical and musical document! You can hear traces of what Barry Guy will explore 10 years later in his solo playing…. but also reminaissance of the great bass playing by Scott LaFaro and Gary Peacock.

This vinyl is an ALL TIME favourite!!! AMAZING!!!!

Howard Riley – piano

Barry Guy – bass

jon Hiseman – drums