Alexander von Schlippenbach, along with
Peter Brötzmann and
Manfred Schoof, was one of the founders of the German free jazz collective FMP Records. Like all good collectives, FMP knew how to conserve resources: the entirety of
The Living Music, as well as half of
Brötzmann's legendary 1969 album
Nipples, was recorded by the same musicians in one day. Unlike
Brötzmann's corrosive, chaotic
Nipples, the six pieces on
The Living Music explore the concepts of open spaces and collective improvisation at least as much as they do everyone-solos-at-once clatter. As a result,
Manfred Schoof's "Wave" builds up an astounding head of steam thanks to the force of a seven-piece band all headed in the same musical direction, and there are parts of the title track that are downright contemplative, particularly a brief, fractured solo from
von Schlippenbach that's more
Bill Evans than
Cecil Taylor.
Brötzmann, of course, is the star of the album, and his spotlight comes on the second half of "Into the Staggerin," where the rest of the band lays out and
Brötzmann plays a tenor solo that recalls
Albert Ayler's best work in the way it combines honk-blat-phwee aggressiveness and a genuinely lyrical compositional sense.
Nipples may be the more famous of these two albums, but
The Living Music may well be the better. ~ Stewart Mason