This chapter in Atavistic's Unheard Music Series is the CD issue of a 1982 album by saxophonist
Peter Brötzmann, trombonist
Albert Mangelsdorff, and drummer
Günter "Baby" Sommer. There is an interesting contrast of styles here, given the formalist tradition
Mangelsdorff came from and the staunch vanguardism of
Brötzmann and
Sommer. Of course, this is a blowing session that took place at a German Jazzfest and those contrasts work here to the betterment of the music. As
Brötzmann blows his guts out, he gets reined in over and again by the repetitive phrases, short lines and fills of the trombonist. He even feeds off of some of
Mangelsdorff's melodic lines to move his harsh blowing somewhere else. This is most evident on the opening piece, "Instant Tears," where the saxophonist gets his way often, but he's made to work for it instead of just playing louder than anybody else. "Wie du Mir, So Ich Dir Noch Lange Nicht," begins withy a long, quiet cymbal whisper by
Sommer that begins to pop and groove after a minute or so, rhythmically moving in a single direction: toward swinging. This becomes a full-fledged drum solo until about 3:22, when the trombonist enters with a smattering of notes that are rooted in blues phrasing, and continued as a duet until 7:10 or so when
Brötzmann kicks back in wailing and shouting through the horn before
Mangelsdorff reenters at about 7:50 or so. It becomes a full-blown improvising section to that point until some semblance of silence registers itself between the three with moaning by
Mangelsdorff to carry it out and back with all three shouting like there is no tomorrow through their instruments.
Brötzmann's title piece is a scant four minutes, but it's a fun four minutes. It's like a vanguard nursery rhyme ditty played by drunk men. Single line vamps, circular drumming, and even a theme. For those who need new infusions of this sort of thing, it's certainly for you,