{"id":657,"date":"2015-07-13T20:58:33","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T18:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johannes-bauer.net\/en\/?post_type=portfolio&p=657"},"modified":"2015-07-15T21:07:16","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T19:07:16","slug":"peter-brotzmann-long-story-short","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"http:\/\/johannes-bauer.net\/en\/portfolio-item\/peter-brotzmann-long-story-short\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Br\u00f6tzmann – Long Story Short"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trost Records \u200e\u2013 TR 11<\/a><\/p>\n

5 \u00d7 CD, Compilation<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

The (very long) list of artists and tracks will be found on Discogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

The five-CD set Long Story Short is a distillation of the 2011 Music Unlimited festival in Wels, Austria, curated by angry-jazz saxophonist Peter Br\u00f6tzmann. The box set presents more than six hours of free jazz performed by 18 different configurations, some of which include Br\u00f6tzmann and some of which do not. It serves as a veritable guide to Br\u00f6tzmann\u2019s sensibilities, his prot\u00e9g\u00e9s and the world of influence he has exacted over free improv\u2019s most vitriolic branch.
\nThe set reveals not only Br\u00f6tzmann\u2019s penchant for extended atonal outbursts but also his affinity for Japanese instrumentation, Middle Eastern forms and the Chicago alt-jazz scene. Appropriately enough, the affair begins with a low, bone-rattling blast from a baritone sax, the lead instrument of an unnamed improvisation (they\u2019re all unnamed) by Sonore, an all-reeds trio featuring Br\u00f6tzmann, Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson. This leads to a 26-minute romp by the Chicago Tentet with saxophonist John Tchicai (now deceased) that surprises by planting moments of tenderness\u2014such as the duet between trumpeter Per-\u00c5ke Holmlander and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm\u2014within the otherwise unrestrained bellowing of a dozen musicians, two of them drummers.<\/p>\n

Somehow a trio of Japanese musicians, playing koto, cello and guzheng, manages to fit right into Br\u00f6tzmann\u2019s aesthetic, as does another trio that incorporates turntables and electronics.<\/p>\n

Perhaps odder still is the trio of Br\u00f6tzmann and two musicians more often found in settings closer to jazz\u2019s mainstream, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits, who step up to the intimidating challenge of supporting him. Other highlights: the DKV Trio squaring off with a second trio that includes Gustafsson, bassist Massimo Pupillo and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love; a trio led by Br\u00f6tzmann\u2019s electric-guitarist son, Caspar, that is more death metal than jazz; a solo slot by pianist Masahiko Satoh that invites comparisons to Alexander von Schlippenbach; and the most stunningly ridiculous track here, a frightening electric-guitar-and-wordless-vocals offering from Keiji Haino.<\/p>\n

The most rewarding performance belongs to the quartet of Br\u00f6tzmann, electric bassist Bill Laswell, drummer Hamid Drake and Maallem Mokhtar Gania on guembri, an African lute. Over nearly 52 minutes, the music ebbs and flows\u2014moods changing, rhythms shifting dramatically, tensions rising and falling\u2014as the entire philosophy of free jazz is laid bare.<\/p>\n

Steve Greenlee (Jazz Times)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Extended analysis on all about jazz<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

\n