"3 nomi, 3 culture, 3 continenti, 3 diverse concezioni di tempo e tempismo - questa è l'essenza di questo trio. The Bologna trio documented in the CD The Catch of a Ghost thrilled and surprised the attending audience with the great energy and liveliness of the sound textures created by the dialogue among the musicians, but also with the continuous ability to (re)invent itself coupled with boundless physical force of Brötzmann’s emission, who proved that at the age of 78 that he has nothing to envy to his younger self of 50 years ago, at the beginning of his career. A trio in which, to the trusted Hamid Drake – one of the best living drummers and his historic collaborator since the times of the Die Like a Dog quartet –, he added Maalem Mokhtar Gania, last representative of a legendary line of Gnawa music masters from Essaouira, son of Maalem Boubker Gania and brother of Maalem Mahmoud Gania, who died prematurely and had been the protagonist with Brötzmann and Drake of an explosive trio in Wels in 1996.
With these simple words Peter Brötzmann, one of the greatest representatives in the development of a unique European approach to free improvisation since the ‘60s, announced the unprecedented trio lined up for his return to AngelicA festival in 2019. I am rather optimistic.” Peter Brötzmann, Wuppertal, 1st April 2019 “3 names, 3 cultures, 3 continents, 3 different concepts of time and timing – this is the essence of this trio. Mixed in November 2019 and Mastered in March 2020 by Bob Drake at Studio Midi-Pyrénées, La Borde Basse, Caudeval, FranceĬover: Artwork (2019) by Peter Brötzmannĭesign: Massimo Golfieri, Concetta Nasone Recorded on May 10th, 2019, by Roberto Salvati at Centro di Ricerca Musicale / Teatro San Leonardo, Bologna, Italy, during AngelicA, Festival Internazionale di Musica, twenty-nine years, 2019 If you happen to like the general vibe of a certain album we go over, we’ll list some releases that are within the same sonic area.Producer - Executive Producer: Massimo Simonini Brötzmann and his other two horn players make sounds comparable to wild African elephants on a stampede, and the production on Machine Gun only lends itself to accentuate the former stampede.īut at the end of the day this is a pinnacle in free jazz, and a great opportunity to dip one’s toe into a style of free jazz that perhaps isn’t as openly popular as American free jazz is.Īlso, as a new feature to this podcast, we’ve decided to add recommended listening. This isn’t to say it’s a bad album either, because it’s friggin’ awesome, but it’s not particularly friendly to neophytes. It’s worth warning now that this isn’t a great free jazz album to start with unless you’re used to stuff like Merzbow or are not bothered by aggressive playing. There’s more than just plain noise going on in Machine Gun, but it’s a huge element of the album. Obviously that’s being a little crude in description. Peter Brötzmann is considered one of the kings of European Free Jazz, and Machine Gun is generally viewed as his magnum opus, where he and a couple of other people well-known in the EFJ world (such as Evan Parker) basically play noise music with jazz instruments. However, we often forget that there’s an entire scene in Europe as well practicing free jazz and free improvisation. We’ve often extolled the stylings of free jazz pioneers like John Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, and Ornette Coleman-they’ve brought such chaos and madness into jazz and have put out some incredible albums in their day.