Herunterladen: - das 1st das erkllrte Ziel der Improvisa- Wie die magischen Akkorde Wagners eine

Improvisationen -G ruppe Nuova Consonanza den Charakter der Komposition durch Komposition und Interpretation, die in der technische Verfahren wie Direktubertragung traditionellen europaischen Musikpraxis von Signalen, Transposition. Ring- bisher immer getrennt rangierten, in einem modulation und Bandmanipulationen aller simultanen schopferischen Akt zu vereinigen Art zu verandern. - das 1st das erkllrte Ziel der Improvisa- Wie die magischen Akkorde Wagners eine tionsgruppe .Nuova Consonanza-. Sie ist Krise im tonaien System verursachten, wie das einzige Ensemble dieser Art in Europa Schonbergs Zwlllftontechnik und die daran und wurde 1964165 vo'n Franco Evangelisti. anschliessende Entwicklung der seriellen nachdem er seine Theorlen als Resultat der Musik die ausserste Grenze des tempe- Aleatorik s-cho n 1959 formulierte, in Rom rierten Systems und seine letzte syntakti- gegrundet nach dern Vorbild des seit sche Neuordnung bildeten, so erfullt die 1963 bestehenden "New Music Ensemble. in ~of feneF orm- - als logische Entwicklung Kalifornien, das von denselben Voraus- der ldee der Variation, die sich hier auf setzungen ausgeht und verwandte Ziele die Variation der Form selbst erstreckt - verfolgt, nicht aber elektroakustische Muslk das abendlandische, d. h. das auf der improvisiert. Wichtige Anregungen ver- temperierten Skala und ihren Produktlons- Improvisationen(1969) dankt das Ensemble auch dern Jazz und der quellen aufgebaute System. Die Kunst der indischen Kunstmusik, die beide - wenn Improvisation ist faszinierend, und diese Gruppe Nuova Consonanza auch innerhalb eines ganz anderen Zusam- Art des ~gemeinsamenM usizierens- fuhrt zu Mario Bertoncini . Walter Branchi . Franco menhangs von Asthetik und Tradition - einer sehr empfindiichen inneren und Evangelisti John Heinemann . Egisto Macc: hi Bhnliche Praktiken kollektiv improvisierter ausseren Spannung, die fiir mich in der Ennio Morricone Komposition entwickelt haben. Samtliche jetzigen, nicht mehr schriftlich fixierten Mitglieder der Gruppe -Nuova Consonanza. Musik die einzige heute noch mogilche S- elte 1: - sind Komponisten, die zugleich eines oder Magie 1st. Ailerdings wird dabei die Figur.mehrere lnstrumente virtuos beherrschen. die sich bisher Autor nannte, volikommen e poi? ihres Mvthos beraubt. Gruppe Nuova Consonanza Beialle i hier vorgelegten Stiicken handelt M. Bertoncini. Schlagzeug Die Musiker spielen abwechselnd ver- es sich um authentische .life.-lmprovisati- W. Branchi, Kontrabass schiedene lnstrumente in diversen For- onen, die nicht geschnitten sind. Sie ent- F. Evangelisti, Piano mationen: von der kleinsten Besetzung an standen im Studio der International 1. Heinemann, Violoncello/Posaune (zwei Spieler) bis hin zur Mitwirkung aller. Recording, Rom, mit Ausnahme der E. Macchi, Schlagzeug Wichtiges Element der Gruppe ist das Auf- elektronischen Improvisation, die im E. Morricone, Trompete einandereingestelitsein. Es ist die eigentliche .Laboratorio elettronico di musica speri- Vorbedingung fur die Arbeit des Ensembles. - mentale". Rom, realisiert wurde. Seite 2: das so zuerst fur die Diskussion und Franco Evangelisti 1. Quasiraga dann fur die O~erat ions elbst - fruchtbaren Gruppe Nuova Consonanza Boden find&. ~ ritischeE instellung und personliche Bescheidenheit aller Mitgiieder 2. Light music bilden die einzige Verstandigungsmiiglichkeit Gruppe Nuova Consonanza To unite composition and interpretation. fur eine Gruppe von Komponisten. So ent- which have hitherto always been separate 3. Ancora un trio steht ein Zusammenspiel, bei dern keiner functions in traditional European musical W. Branchi, Kontrabass den anderen iiberflugelt, und so kann eine practice, in a simultaneous creative act- I. Heinernann, Posaune gemeinsame Sprache gefunden werden, die that is the declared aim of the 'Nuova E. Morricone, Trompete dann Ausdruck der Gmppe selbst 1st oder Consonanza" improvisation group. The 4. Credo wird. only ensemble of its kind in Europe, it was Realizzazione: StudloR7Von dieser Voraussetzung ausgehend sind founded in Rome in 1964165 by Franco (Laboratorio elettronico di musica speri- im gemeinsamen Einverstandnis die Evangelisti (who had formulated his mentale, Rorna) Grenzen des Operationsfeldes abgesteckt theories as a result of aleatory already W. Branchi . F. Evangelisti E. Macchi worden: d. h. die Grenzen des temperierten in 1959)-foliowing the example of the Elektronischer Techniker: G. Guiducci Systems. Diese Begrenzung wird von allen "New Music Ensemble" which has been Mitgliedern akzeptiert, und gerade hierdurch working in California since 1963, with the Elektronische Instrumente: findet die Gruppe die Ausdrucksfreiheit, same terms of reference and similar aims Phonosint (Marinuzzi) innerhalb des traditionellen Systems eine but without regard to electroacoustic music. Sintek (Ketoff) eigene aktuelle Sprache zu entwickeln. Es The ensemble also receives important stimu- des StudiosR7Rorn sind verschiedene Ubungen auf allen Sek- lus from jazz and from Indian music, both of . toren erdacht worden: dern der Zeit, dern Produktion Production Directeur de which-though each within an entirely differ- der Verhaltnisse zwischen den Tonhahen, production: Karl Faust ent context of aesthetics and tradition-have dern der verschiedenen Dynamiken etc. developed somewhat similar principles of Aufnahmelelter . Artistic Supewision Jede dieser Ubungen wird solange wieder- collective, improvised composition. Ail the Direction artistique: Hansjoachim Reiser hoit, bis das gesteiite Problem gelost . members of the 'Nuova Consonanza" group Toningenieur Recording Engineer und ein alle zufriedenstellendes Niveau are composers, who also have a virtuoso lngenieur du son: Federico Savina erreicht ist. Dies ist von grosser Wichtigkeit. command of one or more instruments. Techniker: Maurizio dlAchille denn die Disziplin fuhrt zur Selbstkontrolle Design: Holger Matthles, Hamburg und dann zum endgultigen Resultat der The musicians alternate between various Improvisation. instruments in diverse formations-from Sehr wichtig sind auch zunactist der innere the smallest combination (two players) und dann der dynamische Grad der Kon- up to participation by the entire group. Give zentration auf die Reflexe und einige and take on an equal basis is vital to the Reaktionen-Provokationen des einzelnen group's existence, the primary condition Elements. Uber die Konzentration. Provo- for its work, which bears fruit first in kation, Reaktion ware vie1 zu sagen. denn discussion and then in actual operation. in dieser Flhigkeit des Anhorens der A lively mind and personal modesty in all eigenen Fehler und der Fehier der anderen those taking part are absolutely vital if a und in der unmittelbaren Reaktion, sich group of composers are to work together entsprechend zu korrigieren, also in der successfully. The result is ensembie Verteilung der individuellen Energie im playing in which no one participant Dienste der gemeinsamen Idee, liegt das overshadows the others, so that a common Wesen der improvisation. Zum erstenmal language can found which is, or becomes, in der abendiandischen Musikgeschichte the mode of expression of the group itself. vollzieht sich ein solcher Prozess, in dern das Werk nicht mehr das Resultat der On this basis, with the agreement of all, Bestrebungen einer Person ist, sondern the bounds of the group's sphere of der eines Kollektivs. operation have been laid down: i. e. the Die Gruppe improvisiert nicht nur instru- bounds of the tempered system. This mentale, sondern auch elektroakustische restriction is accepted by all the group's Musik mit tragbaren elektronischen Appa- members, and in factitprovides the freedom raten, die speziell zu diesem Zweck ent- of expression needed to evolve a distinc- wickelt wurden. Dies ist insofern er- tive contemporary style within the staunlich, als es bisher in der elektronischen traditional system. Various exercises in all Musik, die nach allgemein ubiichem Verfah- categories have been devised: exercises ren die Klanggestalt des Werks definitiv in time, in the relationships between levels auf dern Tonband fixiert, unmoglich erschien, of pitch, different dynamics etc. Each of einen lnterpreten direkt in die Realisation these exercises is repeated until the der Komposition bei ihrer Auffuhrung ein- particular problem has been solved, and zuschalten. Die Gruppe .Nuova Consonanza- a level of attainment has been reached arbeitet daher mit Bandern. die den Veriauf which satisfies everyone. Thisisof great einer Komposition nicht endgultig festlegen, importance, as discipline leads to self-con- vielmehr bestimmte Passagen fur spontane trol, then to the final result of meaningful Interventionen der Ausfuhrenden offenlassen. improvisation. Auf diese Weise wird es den lnterpreten Also very important are firstly the innerand

STEREO 137 007 ermoglicht, an solchen Stellen unmittelbar then the dynamic grade of concentration

, on the reflexes and reaction-provocations of ensuite - le terrain fructueux. Attitude the individual. A great deal could be said critique et humilite personnelle de tous les on this subject of concentration, provocation membres constituent I'unique possibilite de and reaction, because in the ability to comprehension pour un groupe de com- perceive one's own mistakes and those of positeurs. C'est ainsi que s'etablit une the others, and in the immediate reaction of collaboration dans laquelle nu1 ne cherche correcting oneself accordingly, i e. putting a surpasser I'autre et que peut 6tre trouvee one's individual energy to the service of the une langue commune, expression du common idea, lies the very essence of groupe. improvisation. The result, for the first time En partant de ce postulat, les limites du in the history of Western music. is a process champ operationnel sont jalonnees d'un in which the work is no longer the product commun accord: ce sont les limites du of one person's efforts, but a collective systeme tempere. Cette delimitation est achievement. acceptee par tous les membres du groupe, et c'est precisement grBce a elle que The group improvises not only instrumental, le groupe acquiert sa liberte d'expression, but also electronic music, with portable la possibilite de developper sa langue electronic apparatus developed especially propre dans le systeme traditionnel. for this purpose. This is an unexpected Divers exercices ont ete imagines dans development, because hitherto electronic tous les secteurs: les uns pour les tempi, music, which normally fixes the definitive d'autres pour les rapports de hauteur des. tonal structure of the work on the tape, has sons, les diverses dynamiques, etc. Chacun made it seemingly impossible for an inter- de ces'exercices est repete jusqu'a ce preter's contribution to be added to the que le probleme pose soit resolu et qu'un realization of a composition during its niveau satisfaisant pour tous soit atteint. performance. The 'Nuova Consonanza" Ceci est tres important, car la discipline group therefore work with tapes which do conduit au self-contrale et au resultat not establish the definitive course of a definitif de I'improvisation. composition, but leave particular passages Tres important egalement est le degre, interne open for spontaneous interventions by the tout d'abord, dynamique ensuite, de la performers. This enables the interpreters, concentration sur les reflexes et les at such points, spontaneously to alter the reactions-provocations des divers character of the composition by such elements. II y aurait beaucoup a dire technical means as direct transmission of sur la concentration, la provocation et la signals, transposition, ring modulation, and reaction, car c'est dans la faculte d'entendre tape manipulation of all kinds. ses propres fautes et celles des autres. Just as Wagner's magical chords brought aboi, t ainsi que dans la reaction immediate pour a crisis in the tonal system, and as Schoen- se corriger, donc dans la repartition berg's twelve-tone technique, with the de I'energie individuelle au service evolution of serial music to whichitgave de I'idee commune, que reside I'essence rise, formed the extreme limits of the de I'improvisation. C'est la premiere fois tempered system and its ultimate new dans la musique occidentale que s'accomplit syntactic order, so the "open formm-as a un tel processus dans lequei I'ceuvre logical development of the idea of variation, n'est plus le resultat du travail d'une which here extends to variation of the form personne mais bien d'une collectivite. itself-brings to fulfilment the system of Western music founded on the tempered Le groupe n'improvise pas seulement de la scale and its sources of musical creation. musique instrumentale, mais aussi de la The art of improvisation is fascinating. musique dlectro-acoustique au moyen and this kind of joint music making leads d'appareils Blectroniques portables to a highly sensitive internal and external specialement conGus a cet effet. tension, which to me is the only magic Ceci est d'autant plus surprenant qu'il still possible today, created through music paraissait jusque la impossible d'incorporer which is no longer fixed in writing. True, directement un interprete dans la reali- the figure hitherto known as the composer sation d'un composition lors de son is completely robbed of the myth which execution dans la musique electronique has surrobnded him. qui, selon les procedes habituels, fixe ? Ail the pieces presented here are authentic definitivement I'ceuvre sur la bande magne- "life" improvisations, which have not been tique. Aussi le groupe Nuova Conso- edited. They originated in the International nanza P travaille-t-il avec des bandes qui Recording Studio. Rome, with the exception ne fixent pas totalement le deroulement of the electronic improvisation, which was de la composition mais laissent au contraire realized in the 'Laboratorio elettronico disponibles des passages determines pour di rnusica sperimentale", Rome. I'intervention de I'executant. Ainsi les interpretes conservent la possibilite de Franco Evangelisti modifier le caractere de la composition par des procedes techniques tels que la retransmission directe de signaux, la transposition, la modulation circulaire ou des RQunir en un acte createur unique la manipulations diverses de la bande. composition et I'interpretation qui dans la pratique musicale traditionnelle de I'Europe De m6me que les accords magiques de ont jusqu'a present toujours ete separees. Wagner ont provoque une crise dans le tel est le but declare du groupe d'improvi- systeme tonal, de m6me que la technique sation * Nuova Consonanza S . I1 est dodecaphonique de Schoenberg et le I'unique ensemble du genre en Europe, et developpement consecutif de la musique fut cree en 1964/65 a Rome par Franco serielle ont atteint les dernieres limites du Evangelisti (qui formulait deja en 1959 ses systeme tempere et forme son dernier ordre theories comme resultat de I'aleatorie) - syntaxique, la .f orme ouverte D -en tant sur le modele du groupe = New Music que developpement logique de I'idee de la Ensemble * en Californie issu des m6mes variation qui s'etend ici jusqu'a la variation besoins et qui poursuit des buts voisins de la forme elie-m6me - paracheve le depuis 1963, mais sans Bgard B la musique systeme occidental, c'est-&dire le electro-acoustique. L'ensemble est systeme fonde sur I'echelle temperee et redevable d'une part importante de son ses sources de production. L'art de inspiration au jazz et h la musique indienne I'improvisation est fascinant, et cette qui -encore que dans un contexte tout nouvelle forme conduit une tension different d'esthetique et de tradition - ont interne et externe de la sensibilite qui est developpe des pratiques analogues pour moi, dans la musique actuelle non d'improvisation collective. Tous les membres ecrite. I'unique magie encore possible. II du groupe M Nuova Consonanza m sont des est vrai que le personnage que I'on nommait compositeurs-instrumentistes-virtuoses jusqu'a present I'auteur y perd totalement d'un ou de plusieurs instruments. son mythe. Les musiciens jouent alternativement de Toutes les pieces presentees ici sont plusieurs instruments dans des formations d'authentiques improvisations w life * qui diverses: de la distribution la plus reduite n'ont pas ete montees. Elles ont ete (deux executants) jusqu'a I'ensemble com- creees dans le studio International Record- plet. L'ajustement reciproque des musiciens ing. A Rome, a I'exception des improvisations est un element important du groupe. II est electroniques qui ont Bte realisees dans la condition prealable essentielle pour le le - Laboratorio elettronico di rnusica travail de I'ensemble qui y trouve -pour sperimentale de Rome. la discussion d'abord, pour I'operation Franco Evangelisti,

GERMAN JAZZ THE SIXTIES

Ger,man "free jazz" of ahe 1960s - thesubject of our documen- Powell played lots of clusters, and Monk's bizarre two-, tary recordings - grew out of a complex and multi-faceted four- and eight-bar sequences reflect the shattering of formal socio-economic background. I t departed radically from the design. An early warning of the liberation of jazz from func- I 5-year history of post-war German jazz, which had emerged tional harmony, key and metre can be found in Tristano's in Berlin, Frankfurt, Baden-Baden and the West German recording 'Intuition' #in rh.e cool jazz style which followed radio stations. German iazz musicians of the post-war period bop .Trismno's piano solo 'Descent into the Maelstrom' of lived in a sort of symbiotic relationship to American jazz, I 95 3 has everything in embryo that later exploded with such and tried to adapt as quickly and as thoroughly as possible force in the work of Cecil Tavlor. When Ornette Coleman to the changing styles of the American music. With the re- and Don Cherry appeared on the scene a short while later birth of German jazz in the 60s - or the end of the "plagiarist with their sensational quartet, the first stage was complete. period", as Michael Naura once called it - German musicians We listened time and time again, stoned to the gills, to the did everything in their power to break with the American recordings of this quartet, most of all oheir Atlantic series. jazz scene which, in the recordings of Ornette Coleman and By 'we' I mean, ,besid#esm yself, the members of the Schoof Don Cherry, John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor, had already Quintetatthat time. But besides this there were also other parted company in its own way with the American jazz tra- influences of a complete by different sort which changed our dition. The "New Thing" - as this new American music was thinking and stimulated our musical imagination: our enthu- called - was no longera matter of improvising on pre-set siasm for the poems of Georg Trakl, for example, and the melodic and harmonic models whose chords and tunes were poetic content of Paul Klee's paintings, whose titles we trans- el'aborated and recast accordin-g to the rules of the prevail- lated directly into music. We listened to Bart6k1s string quar- ing tarditional practice of chorus structure. Jazz ,techniques tets; 'Piierrot Lunaire' his us hike a drug. The magic word now took their starting point from structures of a much more was #the term 'atona1,i)tv' that Schoenbern- so hated. A veri- general character such as jazz gestures or constellations of table pandemonium of sounds, forms and rhythms opened up sonorities. Sequential structures of anv sort and even repeti- and offered those who grasped it, and who had the good tion were avoided, and the customary duration of jazz im- luck to find like-minded friends, an abundance of creative provisations - never more than a few minutes - expanded possibilities. For all its strident beginnings, there was a new enormously, and often excessively. gesture of dramatic truth in the music, a gesture which found Furthermore, the role of the drummer was greatly enlarged perhaps its most radical expression in Brotzmann. I t was in these recordings, even to rhe point of functioning as an from a connection between the Schoof Quintet and Briitz- equal partner. Of the four traditional pillars of jazz - the mann's trio at that time that the Globe Unity Orchestra came melodic and harmonic model, the fixed pulse, arlticulation, into being in 1960." and phrasing - the first two had been fundamentally changed What were these "proclivities of the material" - to borrow by the beginning of the 1960s, and articulation and phrasing Theodor Adorno's phrase from his "Phi,losaphy of New Mu- had been ex~andedal most bevond belief. sic" - which Schlippenbach mentions at the outset of his essay? This rebirth of American jazz took a more radical form in One of them was the tendency to blur or dissolve melodic German jazz - as it dsid in European jazz as a whole. The and harmonic contours; another was rhythmic articulation as process of radicalization was made possible by the extraor- found at the same time in Ligeti's and Penderecki's Klang- dinary enthusiasm of young European jazz musicians for the farben compositions such as "Apparitions" (1958-59) and attain'ments of contemporarv art music. Thev avidlv dis- "Atmosph?res" ( I ~ G I ) ,o r in "Anaklasis" (19~9-60) and cussed aleatoric and serial techniques, Klangfarben composi- "Threnos" (1960). Indeed, there was a fundamentally new tions, or the works of the preceding generation as performed stance of "dramatic truth" in this music. I t was "gi ven exDres- in Darmstadt, Donaueschingen and Cologne and subsidized sion, in the musical material, by the natural use of clu9ters by the radio stations. In his essay "Free Jazz", published in and tone-colour sDectra., bv, modes of articulation that went 1979, Alexander von Schlippenbach - one of the creative new far beyond mere "dirty notes", by a tendency to seek extreme figures in the German jazz scene along with Peter Brotzmann, registers and to make unstinting use of dynamic extremes. Manfred Schoof and Gunter Hampel - gave the following Not only were the horns and piano, bass and guitar, involved account of the spheres of interest and spirit of discovery felt in the creative process, but al'so to a great extent the drum- by these young musicians: mer, whose ltit expanded into a whole arsenal of percussion "Free jazz is not, as people often like to claim, a tran- instruments. All too often ,the lengthy improvisations, someti- sitional style of the 60s. Rather, its beginnings at the outset mes lasting as long asthree-quarters of an hour, took on the of the decade mark a turning point of great significance in character of a process of musical attrition and physical ex- the history of jazz, comparable to the role played by the haustion. The vague 01. non-existent signposts arrangedatthe Vienna Schoolatthe turn of this century in the evolution of outset of .these jazz excursions - except in a few jazz compo- Western art music. This comparison is iustified bv the fact sitions - -g ave these collective performances to a hitherto un- that the evolution resulted from similar processes within the known degree the character of personal self-expression, - as the phrase goes - 'prochivi,ties of the material', and not guided solely by close kinship of fellow musicians playing from a protest stance as people so often and hastily assumed in a new spirit and by the unwritten rules which, like the re- due to the contemporarv student rebellion. strictions of serialism, gave rise to a sort of meta-language of Even as early as bebop the increase in chromaticism had jazz in which the only thing that mattered was the individual chang-e d the notion of harmonv - not to mention the dimen- "free" musical word. I t was not until manv, y,e ars later. in sions of time created by the new manner of phrasing. Bud the early 7os, that free jazz, like contemporary art music,, returned to "tonal" gestures and modes of expression. At during the Berlin Jazz Festival. I t created quite a stir. Some first, however, the new European and German jazz developed of the audience were enthusiastic, others were shocked and in a d,irection of orgiastic profligacy which has gone down in repulsed. The cri,oics wrote, among other things, 'Sensation history as the so-called "Kaputtspiel" or "play-it-to-piecesu - . with Hoops and Hollers' (Kunier), 'Growwp Pranks in phase of jazz. the Philharmonie' (Der Abend) and 'Musical Black Mass The historv of German free iazz is closelv linked to a se- with Peter Brijzzmann as Devil Incarnate' (Tagesspi-1). ries of ensembles comprising the most radical and, in this There were also some ambitious critics who wrote about a sense. creative iazz musicians. The first of these. the Gunter 'fusion of jazz and art music' (Werner Burckhardh in: Die Hampel Quintet, was founded in 1964 and issued an album Wel,t), and Don Heckman of 'Down Beat' wrote about an entitled "Heartsplants" in 1965. In a lengthy essay on the initial solution to the problem of combining new jazz and development of European free jazz, "Europaische Jazz- contemporary compositional techniques, referring to the sig- Avantgarde - Emanzipation wohin?", Ekkehard Jost charac- nificantly European origins of the result." ("Das Globe Unity terized the early music of this group as follows: Orchester", unpubd.) "The musical horizons of Gunter Hampel's 1965 quintet Admittedly, this inclination to bring jazz and art music were, at that time, largely determined by the techniques of closer together, or if possible to merge them, had been in evi- modern jazz. Its members then included, besides Hampel dence for nearly 60 years. But the results - whether in De- himself, Manfred Schoof, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Bu- bussy, Satie, Milhaud and Stravinsky, or in Blacher, Fortner, schi Niebergall and Pierre Courbois 'Heartplants', the only Hindemith and Liebermann - seemed no more than exotic LP issued by the group in this setting, contains free jazz, in hybrids, with the exception of Stravinsky's jazz portraits the sense of an interactive music of consistently free harmony such as "Ragtime for11Instruments" (1918) and "Ebony and rhythm, only in one piece, Schlippenbach's 'Iron Per- Concerto" (1945). Yet Stravinsky himself referred to his ception'. The remaining pieces contain echos from widely works as jazz compositions, and was fully aware of the dif- varying modern jazz styles, though here there is not so much ference between composition and jazz performance. a synthesis of styles as a juxtaposition of divergent techni- Schlippenbach's "Globe Unity" went several steps further. ques, including the periodic modal structures initiated by During the working out and performance of this piece, new Col-trane and Davis in their Milestone years ('Heartplants' jazz and contemporary art music in fact did approach one and 'Our Chant') as well as free, 'tonal linear counterpoint another. Not only were comparable musical materials in- in the manner of George Russel ('No Arrows') and even re- volved, but the modes of musical creation and reaction were miniscences of the euphony of the Modern Jazz Quartet likewise similar, especially in light of the advanced improvi- ('Without Me'). And allthough all these factors are sporadi- sation ensembles which arose in art music in the 60s. cally permeated or overlapped by more or less extended erup- I n Italy, the "Nuova Consonanza" under Franco Evan- tions in free jazz style, the music is still a long way from gelisti was one such group; another, in England, was Cardew's forming a style in its own right." ("For Example", liner no- "Scratch Orchestra", or the group "Iskra 1903". In France tes to "Workshop Freie Musik 1969-78", Benlin, 1978). and Germany the "New Phonic Art" - an improvisation en- At this time, substantially more self-contained music was semble associated with the composer and trombonist Vinko to be heard from Manfred Schoof's sextet, to judge from their Globokar - created a sensation. album "Manfred Schoof Sextett" of 1967. This group was Free jazz was no longer competing with composed art mu- founded in 1965, and contained, besides Schoof, Alexander sic alone, but also with the improvisation ensembles led by von Schlippenbach (piano), Gerd Dudeck (saxophone), Bu- contemporary composers. I t had sacrificed its privileged po- schi Niebergall (bass) and two drummers, Jacky Liebezeit sition as an improvised music. At this time the boundaries and the Swedish musician Sven Ake Johansson. A similarly between jazz and avant-garde music were unusually fluid. I t self-contained music was produced by Peter Brotzmann's was necessary to listen very intently to note the fine points trio, founded in 1963. Its work is illustrated on the 1967 which set these ensembles apart - for example the undercur- album "Peter Brotzmann Trio", in which Brotzmann, Peter rent of broadly-arched swinging phrases that, then as now, Kowald (bass) and Sven Alce Johansson (drums) took part. distinguish all good free jazz ensembles despite the absence When the radio station RIAS in Berlin commissioned Alex- of a "time keeper". ander von Schlippenbach in 1966 to write a jazz composition Several avant-garde composers of the 60s reacted enthu- for the Berlin Jazz Festival he was at first advised to write a siastically to the new jazz and its groups. In 1968 Bernd piece for double string quartet and jazz soloists in collabora- Alois Zimmermann - Schlippenbach had studied with him tion with the Berlin composer Boris Blacher. Schlippenbach, and, in "Globe Unity", had attempted to implement Zim- however, preferred to write a piece for large jazz group, and mermann's aesthetic conception of the "time-sphere" - combined two extant jazz ensembles whose work he knew worked with the Manfred Schoof Quintet to produce his inci- well into a large jazz orchestra. In this way he created a jazz denstal music to the radio play "Die Befristeten" by Elias Ca- formation which has since become a symbol of European free netti; he also recorded a set of "improvisations" on the jazz jazz - the Globe Unity Orchestra. As Schlippenbach recalls: episode from Act 2, Scene 2 of his opera "Die Soldaten". In "Of 'the groups that saarted playing free jazz sin Germany the same year a lively collaborazion arose between Hans- Jo- at that time the best, to my mind, were the Manfred Schoof achim Hespos and Peter Brotzmann, who took the saxophone Quintet and the new Peter Brotzmann Trio with Mani Neu- part in "dschen". And Krzyszzof Penderecki, who had heard meier and Peter Kowald. When I heard Brotzmann's trio for the Globe Unity Orchestra in Donaueschingen in 1967, at- the first time in Cologne in autumn 1966 I imagined a combi- tempted to transmute his early enthusiasm for this ensemble nation of this group with Schoof's quintet as the basis of my and its music in "Actions" (1971), a jazz composition, which, projected composition. Six further horns were added, and we however, because of its traditional jazz gestures, was given a rehearsed for three days in Cologne before performing the lukewarm receptionatits premiPre in Donaueschingen. piece, entiltled 'Globe Unity', at the Berlin Ph,ilharmonic To document this uncommonly interesting initial phase of, new German jazz on one side of gramophone disc is proble- Tower matical for several reasons. In ,these years, improvisations grew out of spontaneous actions, and tended to form two In 1969 Brotzmann, Schlippenbach and Schoof recorded a fields of tension: one between the musicians, and another series of their own compositions which have since become do- consisting of the imponderables of "sense of space" and au- cuments of free collective music-making. In listening to dience reactions. At all events, we are dealing with long Schlippenbach's "Tower" (11'25") we areatfirst surprised by drawn - out musical processes, and to present themin excerpt the pianist's elegantly relaxed opening. Equally surprising is on disc is to rob them of one of their special features: the a theme-like passage consisting of short phrases which will musicians' enlarged, expansive sense of time, and the inten- later recur to conclude the improvisation. Between them, i. e. sity generated by the extremes of relaxation or "backpedal- between the opening and concluding passages, is music of ling" and extraordinary physical exortion. "Sun" and "Glo- thundering, propulsive, orgiasti'c gesticula~tionsm ounting in be Unity" by Schlippenbach - both undoubtedly key do- density and overflowing in explosions of jazz. Apart from cuments in jazz history - had to be omitted for "reasons Schlippenbach's relaxed, rhapsodic piano excursions, there is of space" since the jazz numbers would have taken up two- nothing elastic about "Tower" which might suggest restruc- thirds of one side of a disc. turing or a new mode of expression. The piece is adamantlyItmay puzzle some readers to note that our documenta- intense; its basis is the scream, and its purpose is literally to tion of the 60s completely bypasses Wolfgang Dauner, Rolf break through, to open new horizons. I t is this historic ear- and .T, oachim Iciihn and GunterHam~ e l -a ll musicians who nestness which we wish to document with "Tower". enlivened the jazz scene in their own way. The reasons are obvious. Instrumental virtuositv and the abilitv to handle with complete mastery the various stylistic approaches of jazz Filet americain are not qualities deserving of preservation in a survey of contemporary German music. Instead, we have included The final example in our survey of German jazz of the 60s examples of musical innovation, music which disturbs and, has an odd intermediate position. The new "chamber music" besides being novel, in a larger sense helps to form our con- atmosphere of "Filet Americain" (8'20m), which points to the temporary sensibility. This is the goal we have set ourselves 70s, is unmistakable, as are the virtuoso elegance and sophis- in selecting our jazz documents from the 60s. tication with which the lavers handle these new moods. On the other hand, the piece is ;loticeably and unalterably in the cadenza "intensitv tradition" established bv German and Euro~ean Manfred Schoof provided the following note to "cadenza": jazzmen in the 60s. As the music becomes more familiar we "'cadenza' symbolizes the pre-eminence of playing. Our abil- notice four distinct structures. The piece opens w.ith a group ity to play becomes a force which imparts form. We have of rapid figures on saxophone (Peter Brotzmanc) and piano time and a chance to play: this makes a piece possible." (Fred van Hove), wilth continual interpolations from the In fact, "cadenza" (8'45") is a multi-section jazz process drums (Hans Benninlt). In other words, it beginsatfull vol- which not only gives the musicians a chance to play solo "ca- ume, and Brotzmann increases the tension with saxophone denzas" but is also articulated formally by a recurrent com- filigrees which are gradually transposed upwards until, ex- plex of motives and a frequently-cited chord sequence. tremely "dirty", they can only be heard as noise and disinte- The piece opens with a tentative virtuoso trumpet solo by grate in the upper register. Schoof. 1'40'' A second section begins as a duet between piano and 1'20" There now follows a "screaming" solo for tenor saxo- drums. Widely spaced, "register-hopping" piano passages in phone (Gerd Dudek). At first it seems to settle on the pit- ascending and descending jolts are given strong accentuation ches ab-g before descendling into th,e low register and oc- by Bennink: metallic, olactering strokes alternate with per- casionally playing repeated riffs, all the while catapulting cussion rolls. This leads ultimately to a sort of cadenza, to a breathlessly from register to register. fluttering single-note motion and the fortissimo entrance of 3'35" Only now do the unison horns (Jacky Liebezeit on the saxophone, formin-g a transition to the third section. flute) play that complex of three three-note motives which 3'25" A new realm of material opens up: abrupt, repeated will recur throughout the remainder of the improvisation: saxo~hones ounds at mezzo forte. The intensitv relents: b'-d"-I b', transposed to cP'-em-c" and concluding with the from inside the piano chirping sounds are heard, the sound descendinz" constellation bb"-"-f#. fades into the distance with echos from the saxo~honea nd a 4'30" The motivic complex is followed by a chord sequence grumbling voice. Again the dynamic level increases, building for horns. a further ouotation of the motives. on the abrupt saxophone sounds; screams are heard, and 53':" Now there comes a longish solo for piano, accom- once again the musical stimuli fade away into grumbling and panied or thwarted by the drums (Jacky Liebezeit and Sven soft, sonorous interpolations from the piano. Ake Johansson) and vividly accentuated by the bass (Buschi 6'10" There now follows a section which has the character Niebergall). This results in moments of congestion in the of a recapitulation of the opening. The abrupt gestures re- instrumental fabric, and equally suddenly in eruptions and turn, and the musicians work their way into that orgiastic breakthroughs. The piano settles into tremolos and "bar- musical realm whose remarkable "reali.smu, directness and baric" pile-ups of chords. The whole passage is dominated sensualitv became the trademark of the trio. Bennink makes by those "register-hopping" clusters which are the unmis- use of his full arsenal of rolls, clattering noises and screams; takable hallmark of Alexander von Schlippenbach's piano Brotzmann plays an eruption in broad phrases on the saxo- playing and of free jazz. phone against van Hove's metallic punctuations on piano. 7'45" Chords in the horns announce the end of the jazz pro- 8'20" Sudden cessation of the fortissimo section. cess, which concludes in a unison rendi.tion of the motivic Wolfgang Burde complex. (Translation: J. Bradford Robinson)]

15