| At JazzFest Berlin in 1984, Peter Brötzmann convened a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble, aiming to put a spotlight on the clarinet. The six (!) hand-picked clarinetists - not all of them always thought of as clarinetists - constitute one of the great "strange bedfellows" groupings of all time.
Simply to hear Brötzmann and John Zorn on the same stage requires quite an imagination (and this is the only such recording), but add to that the stupendous British jazzman Tony Coe (well known as the tenor saxophonist on Mancini's "Pink Panther"), East German Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, French sophisticate Louis Sclavis and Lower Eastsider J.D. Parran, and you've got quite a volatile cocktail. Sit them atop Cecil Taylor's rhythm section, Tony Oxley on drums and William Parker on bass, and add Toshinori Kondo (of Die Like a Dog fame) on trumpet, Johannes Bauer and Alan Tomlinson on trombones, and the lineup is unstoppable.
The Brötzmann Clarinet Project performs a single, lengthy score by Brötzmann, and the results are as sensitive and poetic as they are incendiary, as befits the black wooden horn.
Remastered from the original tapes, with Brötzmann's original cover design, Berlin Djungle is proudly presented as part of the FMP Archive Edition. |
ARTISTS
Toshinori Kondo (trumpet); Hannes Bauer, Alan Tomlinson (trombone); Peter Brotzmann (clarinet, tenor sax, tarogato); Tony Coe, J.D. Parran, E.L. Petrowsky (clarinet); Louis Sclavis (clarinet, bass clarinet); John Zorn (clarinet, mouthpieces); William Parker (bass); Tony Oxley (drums) |
