"This ticking is most terrible of all – / You hear the sound I mean on ships and trains, / You hear it everywhere, for it is doom; / The tick of real death, not the tick of time; / The termite at the rotten wainscot of the world – / And it is death to you, though well you know / The heart's silent tick, the tick of real death, / Only the tick of time-still only the heart's chime / When body's alarm wakes whirring to terror." (Malcolm Lowry, Thirty-five Mescals in Cuautla). Brotzmann's Die Like A Dog Quartet is one of the most intense live act you could meet on earth. Music is provided by four master musicians: Brotzmann aside, trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake are the core of this project.
The quartet is one of the highest peaks in impro's world, mixing and distilling the quintessence of music: the bright, spiritual side of Drake's and Parker's spiritual visions with the abrasiveness and iconoclastic clash of german multireedist and japanese electrified and distorted sound. Die Like A Dog takes his name from both Albert Ayler's death and Malcokm Lowry's Under The Volcano. In fact, Ayler's death is still wrapped up in mystery, his body found on the bank of New York City's East River in November 25, 1970, 20 days after his disappearence. Probably, a suicide. The last pages of Lowry's literary masterpiece are devote to the death of his principal character, the consul, an alcohol addict of whom, during the novel, we discover life and sentimental struggling. The last image of the novel is the consul plunging into a volcano followed by his dog. Philosopher Gilles Deleuze wrote beautiful pages about this novel and alcohol adiction, anyway the music on this four CD set provided with a beautiful 32 page booklet (full of b/w photos and essays both in German and English) is violently and abstract impressionistic.
Only in Fragments of music, life and death of Albert Ayler, captured live (as the other three sets) in 1993 in Berlin, at the Townhall Charlottenburg, short quotes from Ayler themes are presented, iterspersed with acid and rough solos, duos and ensemlble telepathic wild interplay; the other three records (Little birds have fast hearts no. 1 and 2 come from the 1997's 30th Total Music Meeting, Aoyama Crows was recorded in 1999 at the Podewil, in Berlin) are less related to Ayler semanthics and are defined by a dense, buoyant and abstract feeling. Kind of a mixing between music and painting, where we can recognise and appreciate Brotzmann mastery in both arts at the same time.
Tracks and Personnel
Tracks: No. 1; No. 2; No. 3; No. 4
Personnel: Peter Brotzmann: alto and tenor saxophones, tarogato; Toshinori Kondo: trumpet and electronics; William Parker: bass; Hamid Drake: drums.
Tracks: Part 1; Part 2.
Personnel: Peter Brotzmann: tenor saxophone, tarogato and clarinet; Toshinori Kondo: trumpet and electronics; William Parker: bass; Hamid Drake: drums.
Tracks: Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6.
Personnel: Peter Brotzmann: tenor saxophone; tarogato and clarinet; Toshinori Kondo: trumpet and electronics; William Parker: bass; Hamid Drake: drums.
Tracks: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4.
Personnel: Peter Brotzmann: tenor saxophone, tarogato and clarinet; Toshinori Kondo: trumpet and electronics; William Parker: bass; Hamid Drake: drums.
Die Like a Dog Quartet - Jazz Festival Berlin 1995
No comments:
Post a Comment