Was für
eine Musik! Wild ist sie, aufmüpfig, sie sprengt eigene Grenzen
und sucht nach neuen Formen. Sie gibt sich kratzig, rau und ungestüm,
hebt manchmal harmlos an und mündet dann in heftigem Getöse,
sie schmirgelt, sie prustet, sie überschlägt sich gar - und
ordnet sich dann in fast vertrauten Melodien. Sie strotzt vor Entdeckerfreude,
erglüht in schräger Schönheit und krächzt in harscher
Ungenügsamkeit. Und doch stahlt sie dabei eine hintergründige
Gelassenheit aus. Es ist Aufbruchs-Musik, es sind Töne einer neuen
Identität. In jedem Moment merkt man ihr die Lust am noch frischen
Abenteuer des Experimentierens an. Und man spürt ein neu gefundenes
Selbstbewusstsein, das sie ausdrucksgierig feiert. Es ist Jazz von 1974,
den man jetzt aktuell wiederentdecken kann - dreieinhalb Jahrzehnte
nach seiner Entstehung. Und es ist Musik von zeitlos faszinierender
Spannung. Rubrik: Free Jazz aus der DDR. Gespielt von Saxophonist Ernst
Ludwig Petrowsky, Pianist Ulrich Gumpert, Posaunist Conny Bauer und
Schlagzeuger Günter "Baby" Sommer. Damals nannten sie
sich noch "Synopsis", später anspielungsreich "Zentralquartett".
Und noch heute gehören die damaligen Mitglieder dieser Viererbande
zu den bedeutendsten deutschen Jazzmusikern. Günter "Baby"
Sommer kennen Viele auch als musikalischen Begleiter etwa des seine
eigenen Werke lesenden Schriftstellers Günter Grass.
Diese CD enthält Aufnahmen, die 1974 beim Rundfunk der DDR in Ost-Berlin
entstanden. In der DDR sind sie nie erschienen, aber dafür 1976
bei dem West-Berliner Avantgarde-Label FMP (Free Music Production).
Die Vinyl-Platte von damals war lange vergriffen - doch jetzt hat das
Schweizer Label Intakt Records die Aufnahmen auf CD neu zugänglich
gemacht. Und beim Hören stellt man schnell fest, dass dieser Schatz
es unbedingt wert war, gehoben zu werden.
Eine ganz eigene Ausprägung des Free Jazz entwickelte sich damals
in der DDR. Und diese vier Musiker gehörten zu den Vorreitern.
Verspielter als derjenige damaliger Kollegen aus dem Westen kommt dieser
Free Jazz aus Ost-Berlin daher. Wenn man ihn jetzt wiederhört,
fühlt man sich bisweilen zum Mitsummen animiert, zumal bei Themen
wie in dem Stück "Mehr aus teutschen Landen". Unter diesem
sprachspielerischen Titel firmieren die Melodien zweier, rund vierhundert
Jahre alter deutscher Volkslieder ("Saß ein schneeweiß
Vögelein", "Tanz mir nicht mit meiner Jungfer Käthen").
Sie werden zitiert, umspielt, zersetzt und auf ein anderes Energie-Niveau
gebracht. Und scheinen zu bersten - vielleicht sogar vor Glück,
dass ihnen etwas so Belebendes widerfährt. Auch eine Komposition
wie "Auf der Elbe schwimmt ein rosa Krokodil" hebt ganz gemächlich
mit Grummelposaune und versonnenem Altsaxophon an, bevor sie sich zu
explosiven Klangballungen steigert. Manche Passagen in diesen Aufnahmen
haben etwas Hymnisches, auf die Spitze getrieben Elegisches. Dann wieder
wirken sie ungemein hintersinnig. Doch waren mit dem Hintersinn auch
politische Botschaften verbunden? "Ost-Berlin 1974. Keine ironische
Distanz, sondern Identifikation mit dieser musikalisch-kulturell-politisch
seltsamen Lage im Hier und Jetzt. Selbstfindung in einer Zerreißprobe."
Das schreibt der Jazzpublizist Bert Noglik, der beste Kenner freier
Improvisationsmusik aus der DDR, in seinem vorzüglichen Booklet-Text
- und charakterisiert mit dieser überraschenden Aussage treffend
eine Musik, die viel reicher an Dimensionen ist, als sie oberflächlich
erscheinen mag.
Ein Stück hochgradig spannender deutscher Musikgeschichte sind
diese Aufnahmen. Sie dokumentieren die Kristallisation eines Klangs,
der zu einer besonderen, ganz eigenständigen Jazzfarbe werden sollte
- im Westen später hochgeschätzt als subversive Musik voller
versteckter Botschaften; und von der DDR gleichzeitig als kulturelles
Prestige-Objekt gehandelt. Auch das zeigt, dass an dieser Musik nichts
eindeutig ist. Das auf der Elbe schwimmende "rosa Krokodil"
des Titelstücks könnte einfach nur eine spielerische Beigabe
sein - aber solch ein Aufblastier, auch darauf weist Bert Noglik in
seinem Text hin, hätte das gekonnt, was den Menschen damals verboten
war: in den Westen schwimmen. Ein schönes Symbol für eine
Freiheit, die sich dieser Jazz damals aus ganz eigener Kraft schuf.
Roland Spiegel, Bayrischer Rundfunk, 7.
April 2008
Auf der Elbe schwimmt ein
rosa Krokodil (Intakt CD 142), das Debut von ZENTRALQUARTETT, damals
noch SYNOPSIS, war 1974 den DDR-Kulturwärtern offensichtlich derart
psychedelisch suspekt betitelt, dass es nur bei FMP im Westen erschien.
Dabei hätte diese Unabhängigkeitserklärung des Ossi-Freejazz
allenfalls des Versuchs verdächtigt werden können, aus 'teutschen
Landen‘ mehr zu machen, ein flottes Land mit internationalem Flair
und einigem Humor. Das Saxophon-Posaunen-Gespann von Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky
und Conrad Bauer blies so heiß, dass Elb- & Spreewasser brodelte,
bei 'Zweisam‘ hymnisch zweisam. Ulrich Gumpert ließ auf
den Tasten Monk mit Taylor kollidieren, aber zwischendurch auch Klassisches
aufblitzen. Und Günter Sommer rappelte und schallerte abwechselnd
mit Nähnadeln und Vierkanthölzern, mit Muscheln und Gong,
dass nicht nur dem Zentralkomitee Hören und Sehen als subversiver
Akt erscheinen mochte. Synopsis war ganz nah dran, zu beweisen, dass
sich mit teutschen Landen nicht nur Unheil und Unkultur verbinden, sondern
auch gute Gründe, in Hymnen und Gelächter zu schwelgen. Zu
furios zwar für wahre Feierlichkeit und zu frisch für abgehangene
Folklore. Aber dass und wie man aus 'Saß ein schneeweiß
Vögelein‘ &'Tanz mir nicht mit meiner Jungfer Käthen‘
was machen kann, das zeigten sie mit jatzig schrägem Pfiff und
tänzerischen Bocksprüngen, ebenso wie mit 'Take IV‘,
das ständig als Marschlied ansetzt, aber sich nur selbst in Brand
setzt. Analog zu Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch war das rosarote
Krokodil ACID Teutsch und ist es geblieben.
Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy, 58, 2008
In the 1980s, East German
musicians Conrad Bauer (trombone), Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (saxes), Ulrich
Gumpert (piano) and Günter Sommer (drums) formed Zentralquartett,
named ironically after the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
However, in 1974, in the studios of East German Radio, they had already
recorded the musical manifesto Auf Der Elbe Schwimmt Ein Rosa Krokodil
("A Pink Crocodile Swims On the Elbe"). The recording
was never released in East Germany, but appeared later on West Berlin's
FMP label – and now, I assume, gets its first CD release. As the
sleevenotes comment, the image of a pink crocodile swimming on the Elbe
is surreal, but maybe reminds us that a journey up the river, from Dresden
in the East to Hamburg and the sea in the West, would not have been
allowed then by the authorities. This early glimpse into one of the
great quartets of free jazz, unusual for its lack of a bassist, is relatively
brief at only 36 minutes, but it's a rich and fascinating one. Throughout,
the music is incredibly free and, compared to their later work, not
so groove-based. In 1973 Ulrich Gumpert's Workshop Band, and his duo
with Günter Sommer; had explored German folk songs, searching for
a European direction for Improv, and that process is continued here
in pieces such as "Mehr Aus Teutschen Landen". The title-track,
by Sommer, is a rousing anthem.
Andy Hamilton, The Wire, London, Mai 2008
Rainer
Kobe, Jazz'n'more, Zürich, 6/7-2008
This is a reissue of music
recorded in March of 1974 and first released by the FMP label in 1976.
The decades haven't diminished its fire and the fact that the group
has reconvened and recorded occasionally through the years since marks
this as the first document of an ongoing story.
Communal improvisation is the order of the day, but echoes of New Orleans
polyphony are very distant. Instead there's restlessly creative music
of a radically different order on the opening “Krisis Eines Krokodils,”
where by turns the music is intense in its pursuit of some ecstatic
peace, then reflective, as if each of the musicians is only too conscious
of the presence of the others. In the more voluble passages drummer
Gunther Sommer comes on with Tony Oxley's hyperactivity, yet the music
still keeps group integrity with Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky's alto sax notable
for the way it avoids any relation to the work of others—such
as Marion Brown or John Tchicai—in this musical area.
His duet with Conrad Bauer's trombone on “Zweisam” is the
work of musicians with big ears (in a sense other than the physical);
such are the results that it could go on a whole lot longer than it
does without any loss of musical quality.
Even at this relatively early stage of his career on record, Bauer shows
how appreciative he was of his instrument's expressive capabilities.
His work on the title track forcibly makes the point, with the music
seemingly coming in waves, as if the group had tapped some potent source
of collective energy. Sommer, the colorist, shows his worth here with
pianist Ulrich Gumpert making his own presence felt with a measure of
intensity all his own.
This however isn't entirely music without roots other than the ones
the musicians were nurturing in the moment. “Mehr Aus Teutschen
Landen” is a folk piece subject to Gumpert's arrangement and the
result is what used to be called a gas. The idiosyncratic approach makes
for a major injection of overt high spirits that might have the listener
ruing the fact that it doesn't happen on record more often. .
Nic Jones, All
About Jazz, USA, May 26, 2008
Rainer
Kobe, Jazzpodium, Deutschland, Juni 2008
In historically criticizing
the international breadth of improvised music, we’re still often
quite apt to pigeonhole certain countries and regions as having a specific
approach to sound. There’s the “Cleveland sound” exemplified
by Albert Ayler and his cohorts, and the Instant Composers’ Pool
defines jazz in Holland. The Germans blow their heads off and we all
know what the English do. Of course, this is a patent fiction and thankfully
there are records like the debut slab of Synopsis, first issued by FMP
in 1974 and now in digital form on Intakt. The group consists of pianist
Ulrich Gumpert, drummer Günter Sommer, trombonist Conny Bauer and
alto/soprano saxophonist Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky. Apart from two LPs
in the ‘70s, they have recorded under the Zentralquartett moniker
over the past two decades.
Being from the East of Germany and operating under the Iron Curtain,
the appropriation of influences was a little different – sure,
they could learn from records and from their local peers, but few other
European (let alone American) improvisers made their way past the wall
during the music’s infancy. Yet the East doesn't really factor
into the idea of a uniquely "German" approach to free music,
though the overblown paint peeling of Petrowsky’s alto may grant
him kinship with Brötzmann. Such frantic pyrotechnics aren’t
the basis for the group’s improvisations. But talking about what
Synopsis is not doesn’t make much room for what defines them.
The set begins with “Krisis Eines Krokodils,” a poised counterpoint
to the group’s immediate pan-continental kin as Gumpert’s
delicate Monkian fancies jibe with trombone multiphonics and Sommer’s
detailed, rattling propulsion. The fact that one is not waiting for
a primed Bennink yell to break the silence enables one to relax and
take in breath, coiled and tart sounds, upper-register plinks and massaging
brushes. The piece ebbs and flows gradually in punctuated waves, Sommer’s
tide a singular rhythm yet not indifferent to the circularity of African
heartbeats. As Petrowsky screams and Bauer chortles, there’s an
ease akin to rested breathing that makes their crescendos seem ever
so natural. Sommer and Gumpert are a gorgeous tandem, symphonic arpeggios
and a crystalline lushness, and their well-practiced duets offer a solid
foundation for collectivity. Jaki Byard-esque rolling rings out from
underneath Petrowsky’s alto whinnies, providing an introduction
to a stately and unified head that closes out the piece amidst percussive
thrash.
There are kwela-inspired folksy moments in “Take IV,” a
transposition of Chris McGregor onto something of a parlor melody before
racket ensues. “Mehr Aus Teutschen Landen” is a German folk
song, winsome romance stomped on by Sommer’s toms before a trio
of trombone, piano and drums take on the anthemic call as Petrowsky’s
frantic skree hurtles over the top. A synopsis of exactly “what”
might be the question to ask, for this quartet’s approach to improvisation
is the antithesis of summation. Rather clearly, Synopsis/Zentralquartett
are a musical launching pad.
Clifford Allen, www.bagatellen.com,
5. June 2008
Andrew
Choate, Signal to Noise, USA / Canada, Summer 2008
Alfred
Krondraf, Concerto, Österreich, Juni/Juli 2008
Harri
Uusitorppa, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland, 2. Elokuuta 2008
Enzo
Pavoni, Jazzmagazine, Italy, July/August 2008
Keine Sorge, die freie Fraktion
ist auch heute stark vertreten. Der letztens hier schon abgefeierte
Uli Gumpert nahm mit Conny Bauer, E.L. Petrowsky und Günther Baby
Sommer, den Legenden des DDR-Free-Jazz, bereits 1974 diese Musik auf,
die vor Freiheit geradezu strotzt. Wenig überraschend, dass die
Platte in der DDR nie erschienen ist, dafür später bei FMP,
und da logisch lange vergriffen. Die hier dezidiert auf sechs Stücken
vorgeführte musikalische Gestaltung in freier Rede und Gegenrede,
die zwar nicht im Material, aber immer noch im Gestus der Jazztradition
verbunden ist, so Linernoter Bert Noglik äußerst hellsichtig,
überzeugt auch ohne die historische Aurapatina, die dem DDR-Free
Jazz als einer mehr oder weniger latenten sozialkulturellen Dissidenz
- tatsächlich völlig zu Recht - auch heute immer noch nachgesagt
wird. Klare Sache: dieses Album ist ein großes Dokument des frei
improvisierten Jazz, aber sie ist auch heute noch ästhetisch und
gesellschaftlich gültig.
Made My Day by Honker, Terz 09, 2008
Heureuse initiative : le
label Intakt réédite la toute première production
d’une formation historique. A la sortie de l’album, en 1974,
le quartet se nommait encore Synopsis mais se composait des mêmes
quatre maîtres du free jazz est-allemand qui forment aujourd’hui
Zentralquartett. L’enregistrement, réalisé dans
les studios de la Radio nationale d’Allemagne de l’Est en
1974, ne devait jamais sortir en RDA : ce fut le label FMP de Jost Gebers,
localisé à Berlin-Ouest, qui le publia.
Le free dont il s’agit est d’une espèce particulière
: ancré dans la révolte mais imprégné d’un
humour caustique et très "second degré" qui
transparaît autant dans les textes que dans la musique. Le titre
de l’album : "Sur l’Elbe nage un crocodile rose"
annonce, si l’on ose dire, la couleur : surréaliste et
allusive - à l’époque, l’Elbe, hautement polluée,
servait de frontière entre la RFA et la RDA ; comprend qui peut
!
Les trois premiers morceaux composent une suite autour d’un unique
thème - appelons-le "le crocodile" - exposé
à la fin du premier mouvement, esquissé dans le second
et développé dans le dernier. Les deux plages suivantes
n’en font qu’une : une composition d’Ulrich Gumpert
qui commence comme une séance d’accordage et finit dans
un foisonnement collectif où l’on croit retrouver le Charles
Mingus de Ah-Hum. Le dernier titre, en manière de bonus, reprend
deux airs du folklore teuton ; une des ressources favorites du Zentralquartett,
annonçant déjà l’album 11 Songs Aus Teutschen
Landen paru en... 2006. L’aller-retour est évident : le
thème "du crocodile" pourrait être une chanson
populaire ; les airs folkloriques rebattus deviennent des créations
traversées par un souffle libertaire... et un soupçon
caribéen. Les recherches de l’ARFI ou de Baldo Martinez,
du collectif Polysons et Carlo Actis Dato sur le "folklore imaginaire"
pourraient bien en porter l’empreinte, de même que les Songs
From the Spanish Civil War du Ramon Lopez Quartet.
Le piano d’Ulrich Gumpert paraît habité par l’ombre
de Thelonious Monk. Les balourdises intentionnelles, les soubresauts
rythmiques, les souvenirs de piano stride, les vraies-fausses notes,
tout y est. Gumpert aime aussi les introductions en forme de jeu d’enfant,
jouant d’un seul doigt hésitant sur le clavier : une façon
de provoquer la tension chez l’auditeur, de s’amuser avec
le poncif selon lequel les musiciens free ne sauraient pas jouer. (Et
Picasso ferait des dessins d’enfant.) Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky affirme
son cousinage avec Steve Lacy et Albert Ayler ; Günter Sommer déploie
une extraordinaire palette de couleurs et de sons qui structure littéralement
tous les morceaux, du déchaînement solaire de "Take
IV" au redoutable groove qui ouvre "Mehr Aus Teutschen Landen"
en passant par les passages mélodiques et la dramaturgie de "Krisis
Eines Krokodil". Conrad Bauer allie un son d’une parfaite
rondeur à une souplesse de jeu que bien des trombonistes doivent
lui envier...
Bref, un album indispensable pour qui s’intéresse au jazz
contemporain européen : on tient là un des actes fondateurs
de cette musique.
Diane Gastellu, Citizan
Jazz, France, September 29, 2008
Mathias
Bäumel, Deutschland, 18. Dezember 2008
Matthias
Creutziger, Deutschland, 23. Dezember 2008
Maybe it could have been
called The Great Unknown. Certainly the American focus of improvised
music until the last century’s last couple of decades meant that
some of the most exciting sounds extant were unknown and literally unheard
by many people who should have known better.
Case in point: East German pianist/composer/arranger Ulrich Gumpert.
During the 1970s, as these two exceptional sessions demonstrate, with
his small group Synopsis – later renamed Zentralquartett –
and his Workshop Band, the Berlin-based pianist was making music that
was in many cases superior and definitely equal to any American sounds.
Unfortunately Gumpert and his associates labored under a double whammy.
Not only were they playing in Europe – which for Yank jazzbos
of the time was no more than a destination for out-of-work American
legends – but they doing so in the Eastern Block when the Berlin
Wall and the Cold War were still part of everyday life.
While it may have been little compensation for his and his bands’
isolation, residing in what then was the other side of the Iron Curtain,
meant that earlier than many others, Gumpert and his band mates were
able to develop a unique style colored by Teutonic folk music as much
as modern jazz. Throughout the three CDs here – recorded in 1974,
1978 and 1979 – especially in the later large ensemble sets, the
influence of Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk and especially Charles
Mingus is evident. But so too are sonic memories related to the Prussian
marches, Germanic hymns. pumping dance tunes and pastoral folk ditties
that were part of everyday pre-and-post-war East Germany.
Organizationally, another parallel is noticeable, in particular on Auf
der Elbe schwimmt ein rosa Krokodil, the earliest session. Like pianist
Misha Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink, contrasting icons of the ICP
Orchestra, Gumpert here is the cool theorizer and conceptualist, while
self-described Saxon percussionist Günter “Baby” Sommer
animates the proceedings, as well as disrupting them as often as he
can.
A tune like “Mehr aus teutschen landen” on the quartet CD
for instance, begins with reflective passing chords from Gumpert, but
is soon splintered asunder by Sommer’s insistence on activating
a jungle-rhythm-affiliated beat. When that interpolation is superseded
by a syncopated folk melody, that riff is equally subsumed by emboldened
spectrofluctuation and Aylerian screeches from saxophonist Ernst-Ludwig
Petrowsky and capillary tremolo braying from trombonist Conrad Bauer.
Eventually, as the drummer bluntly mix-mastering the beat you’re
not sure whether you’re hearing a cha cha, a tango, a polka or
a beer-hall anthem. Rallying with kinetic dynamics, Gumpert rescues
the tune from tumbling into serious musical kitsch before the finale,
but not before Sommer beats out a burlesque march rhythm.
Musical bags of tricks are opened up and scattered through the track
on the 161⁄2-minute “Krisis eines krokodils”, a group
instant composition, as well. For instance, plunger trombone neighs
and reverberating cymbal patterns are only countered by Gumpert’s
formalistic chording of “Chopsticks” – albeit “Chopsticks”
with key fanning and presto soundboard echoes – until the mock
processional theme is further disrupted by growls and slurs from Bauer
plus aviary squeals and wide, granulated atonal cries from Petrowsky.
Sommer’s irregular beat-mongering and Gumpert’s keyboard
pitter-patting eventually reach a tandem concordance, the better to
accompany unexpected harmonic blending from the horns, as gorgeous as
if it was being sung by two choristers. Unison recapping of the initial
theme ends the piece on a high note, although Bauer can’t resist
a pen-ultimate snort or Sommer a conclusive roll.
Four and five years later an additional four voices give Gumpert and
the others supplementary textures and colors that are utilized with
brio in live performances. Especially valuable is the thumping and walking
bottom provided by bassist Klaus Koch (1936-2000), who for a time replaced
Bauer in Synopsis. Overall though, the solos, compositions and band
performance on both volumes of the collection are of such high standard
that’s it’s difficult to rank any single track as more exceptional
than others.
That said, a piece like “Aus Baby’s Wunderhorn /‘N
Tango Für Gitti” on the first CD proves that Sommer –
who composed the tune – was as familiar with musical mash-ups
as the pianist. Here bell-ringing from the drummer and feverish piano
slaps define the theme after a full-orchestra introduction is conveyed
on wavering and hocketing chords. Evolving chromatically with stop-time
episodes, the tune later makes room for irregular vibrato and altissimo
timbres from Petrowsky. Further on, an unaccompanied broken-octave romp
from Bauer introduces the tango that sounds more Arabic than Argentinean
and is refined under swelling peeps and split tones from the reeds.
Massed contrapuntal vamps from different orchestral sections characterize
“Auf Der Elbe Schwimmt Ein Rosa”, as well. Swarming along
on polyphonic piano key sweeps and Klaus’ walking bass, the track’s
pulse is measured and chromatic at the same time. Humorously, Swing
Era-novelty bands appear to be saluted in some of the solos to the same
extent as Mingus’ and Monk’s large group extensions. Tenor
saxophonist Iri Anonow for instance, builds solos from stop-time “nyah-nyah”s,
plus cries, whistles and irregular bar jumps when he plays. Meantime,
whoever plays the alto saxophone line advances it mercurially and declaratory;
Heinz Becker’s trumpeting is suitably clean and legato; while
the drums clink and clank; and piano chording turn from stately to splintering.
With the layered textures concentrated in the composition’s final,
super-speedy variant, the repeated tutti riffs are finally cut off by
a Count Basie-like plink from Gumpert.
It’s more of the same on the Workshop Band’s second CD,
recorded one year later, with Helmut Forsthoff in for Antonow. The ensemble’s
eighth member is alto and tenor saxophonist Manfred Hering, though the
supposition is that the alto solos are by Petrowsky.
Sardonically original, some pieces on the disc manage to shoehorn Germanic
marches as often as big band swing into the performances. More interesting
are “Blau Blusen Blues” and “Hilferuf einer Schneck”.
The later manages to find room for atmospheric cymbal echoes, gong resonation
and yodeling from Sommer – who composed the tune – with
Ziggy Elman-like lead trumpeting plus barnyard sonic approximations
from the brass and harsh split-tone cries and tongue slaps from the
reeds. As the trumpeter and trombonist whiz by with arching triplet
slurs, Sommer smacks and drags beats from his kit and Gumpert dynamically
fans the keys so that the resulting portamento link chromatically prods
the piece forward. Following staccatissimo horn action, pitched well
above normal range, the reeds continuous repeat a distinct and newer
leitmotif as the pianist softens his touch for a climatic summation.
“Blau Blusen Blues” is a Bauer-composed blues where Basie-like
keyboard comping, Koch’s walking bass and typically boppish ching-ching
cymbal pulses from Sommer confirm its links to the tradition. For contrast
however, on top of inchoate pulses from the horns, Gumpert transforms
metronomic tinkles to downward stair-step runs and Petrowsky extends
his biting multiphonics with chirps and glottal punctuation. Stop-time,
the circling horns then reach a crescendo of connected timbres with
Mingus-influenced orchestral vamps and flutters. A glissando from the
pianist wraps up the performance.
Too many listeners missed out on these first-class discs first time
out. Those that didn’t will want to hear them again. Everyone
benefits.
Ken Waxman, Jazzword,
January 7, 2009
The Zentralquartett (1)
(Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, as; Conrad Bauer, tbn; Ulrich Gumpert, p; Gunter
Sommer, d, perc), was formed by these four residents of what was then
East Germany, in the early 1970s originally under the name Synopsis.
They changed it to Zentralquartett around 1984. That they are still
together, releasing their most recent album in 2005, is a testament
to this group’s vision. Their first release, Auf Der Elbe Schwimmt
Ein Rosa Krokodil, was released by FMP back in 1975 (when they were
still known as Synopsis). Since their subsequent releases have all been
on Intakt, it seems only fitting that the Swiss label reissue that august
first statement.
Not merely a Free improvising unit, this was a group that threw all
sorts of elements into their mix, long before it was fashionable: original
compositions, folk tunes, schmaltz, African influenced tunes, Free improv.
Thrown into the blender of these four players and the music came out
a unique blend quite different from other FMP releases of the time.
And because of that, this record tended to be undervalued at the time
of its release. Yet all of the strengths of this group are to the fore
on this disc. Bauer’s burly trombone, Petrowsky’s tart-toned
reeds, Gumpert’s playful melodies and little asides, and Somer’s
crazed and sometimes very intense percussion work all contribute to
this group’s unique sound. This is a straight reissue of the original
release (Krisis Eines Krokodils / Zweisam / Auf Der Elbe Schwimmt Ein
Rosa Krokodil / Petting Zu - Take IV / Take IV / Mehr Aus Teutschen
Landen. 36:26. 3/8-7/74, East Berlin, Germany.) and the only complaint
might be that I wish there had been some unissued tracks that could
have been added.
Robert Iannapollo, Cadence, USA, Jan-Feb-Mar 2009
Come un coccodrillo rosa
nelle acque dell'Elba, un quartetto free nella DDR dei primi anni Settanta
doveva sembrare una bestia alquanto bizzarra.
Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Günter "Baby" Sommer, Ulrich
Gumpert, Conrad "Conny" Bauer: quando nacquero [chi dice nel
'72, chi nel '73] si facevano chiamare Synopsis, ma in seguito sarebbero
diventati (quasi) famosi con il nome di Zentralquartett.
Quattro musicisti, la Germania dell'Est, un produttore illuminato [Jost
Gebers, padre della mitica FMP], due giorni in studio [5 e 6 marzo '74]
e un disco che, riproposto oggi dalla sempre lungimirante Intakt, suona
ancora come uno dei più fulgidi manifesti della via europea alla
libera improvvisazione.
C'è tutto nei 16 e passa minuti di "Krisis eines krokodils":
ci sono i dialoghi a più voci in assenza di tempo e gravità,
ci sono le improvvise aperture tipiche della formazione, c'è
il piano deutsch-stride di Gumpert, il contralto acidulo di Petrowsky,
una sorta di Marion Brown berlinese, ci sono le scomposizioni del trombone
di Bauer e c'è il drumming ironico e iper-cinetico di Sommer.
In un crescendo e decrescendo di volumi e intensità, il quartetto
regala passaggi di concitata euforia, sommesse riflessioni timbriche
e squarci melodici inattesi [il finale maestoso e suggestivo, para-ayleriano].
Notevole anche il duetto Bauer-Petrowsky nella lapidaria "Zweisam,"
mentre la title track riprende il bellissimo finale della traccia di
apertura per ricavarne un ulteriore dose d'incanto lirico e scintille.
Il sipario cala con il free-folk della danzante "Mehr aus teutschen
landen," prefigurazione al recente, e bellissimo, 11 Songs - Aus
Teutschenn Landen, disco interamente dedicato alla rilettura di antiche
melodie germaniche.
Che dire? Indispensabile!
P.S. Di tanto in tanto, tra Magdeburgo e Dessau, capita ancora che un
qualche pescatore riferisca di aver avvistato un coccodrillo rosa nuotare
nelle acque dell'Elba.
Valutazione: 4.5 stelle.
Luca Canini, All About Jazz Italia, March 2009
Artikel zu Zentralquartett, von Stefan Hentz, Jazzthetik, März/April 2015, Deutschland
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