Thanks to Atavistic and its truly treasured Unheard Music Series, we finally have the
Complete Machine Gun Sessions as recorded in 1968. That short-lived but forever memorable (in the annals of free music lore) band was led by the vision and über lungs of saxophonist/composer
Peter Brötzmann. It was built out of his stellar trio with pianist
Fred Van Hove and drummer
Han Bennink (the Europeans were already tearing down the walls of nationalism and their association with the American free jazz scene).
John Corbett, that wild poet, thinker, essayist, musician, disc jokey, and knower of all secret cultural connections between the "then" and "now" (we are lucky to have him) claims in his liner notes to this riotous set that
Brötzmann "drew on the huge horn section of
Lionel Hampton's "Flying Home" for inspiration, translating the hilarious saxophonic power of the jump blues and
Illinois Jacquet's hooting and hollering into an abstraction painted with a flame thrower, à la Alberto Burri." He's right, as usual. That may not be hearable on first listen, as this octet -- rounded out with saxophone heroes
Evan Parker,
Willem Breuker, bassists
Peter Kowald and
Buschi Neibergall, and drummer
Sven-Åke Johansson -- peels paint with its sheer power, and will no doubt startle anyone who hasn't heard it before -- but it's there. It can be heard upon subsequent listens as the arrangements, and the dynamic shifts and shuttles in the communication between players reveal themselves readily.