8 September 2008

Athens [GA] Creative Media Festival April 1-5, 2004












Day 3 First concert:

Peter Brötzmann has led a number of internationally renowned, large group improvising ensembles since the late 1960s. The latest, called the "Chicago Tentet," is one of his best. First organized in that city during January of 1997, the band has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe in the last decade, and has released nine albums containing a huge variety of music. In 2007, the ensemble celebrates its ten years of work together with a tour in Europe during June, a festival performance in Molde, Norway, in July and an engagement (their only North American appearance) in Chicago, at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Chicago Tentet is a veritable "Who's Who" of contemporary improvised music and includes many of the most significant members from that scene's cutting edge. Since its inception, the group has had a rotating line-up and past versions of the band have included William Parker (bass), Toshinori Kondo (trumpet/electronics), Roy Campbell (trumpet), and Mike Pearson (a renowned actor, who participated in a special project integrating Brötzmann's music and the texts of Kenneth Patchen for the Chicago Humanities Festival in 2004). All of the musicians connected to the ensemble, past and present, have contributed their distinctive voices to the group, making each concert appearance of the Tentet a truly exceptional experience. For the concert schedule in 2007, the group's size will be expanded to include both Johannes Bauer and Jeb Bishop on trombone.

Though the Tentet is clearly directed by Brötzmann and guided by his aesthetics, since the band's outset he has been committed to utilizing the ideas of everyone involved. Initially, this meant allowing the other musicians to contribute their compositions; since 2005, however, the ensemble has been a total improvisation unit, foregoing scores in order to explore their music with complete spontaneity. This shift in approach has allowed the group to explore an outstanding range of material, and the Tentet employs almost every organizational strategy available to an improvising ensemble while developing their music for each concert. The scope of conception, plus the diversity in each individual's approach to playing, has helped the band to cultivate an extremely multifaceted performance style. As the Tentet improvises from moment to moment, it can explore musical intensities that move from spare introspection to raging walls of sound, using open-ended rhythms or those of a hard-hitting groove.

Since the late 1990s, the main work of the band has been done in concerts on the road. Though the economics of sustaining a large ensemble are a struggle, the Chicago Tentet has continued to find innovative ways to keep performing their music for audiences around the world. Through this ongoing effort they've been able to advance a sound and depth of communication impossible to find in any other contemporary music group, no matter what size or style. 

Peter Brotzmann Tentet

Athens Creative Music Encounter,
40 Watt Club,
Athens, GA

April 3, 2004

lineage:  AUD > DAT > Tascam standalone > CDR > CDR > EAC > FLAC FRONTEND > FLAC


1.
2.
3.
4.


Peter Brotzmann - reeds
Ken Vandermark - reeds
Mats Gustafsson – reeds
Jeb Bishop - trombone
Joe McPhee - cornet/sax/valve trombone
Fred Lonberg - Holm-cello
Kent Kessler - bass
Paal Nilssen-Love - drums
Michael Zerang - drums

15 comments:

gsrbrts2 said...

FLAC:

http://rapidshare.com/files/143632687/Brotzmann_tentet_2004-04-03.flac16.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/143632684/Brotzmann_tentet_2004-04-03.flac16.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/143632685/Brotzmann_tentet_2004-04-03.flac16.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/143632682/Brotzmann_tentet_2004-04-03.flac16.part4.rar

MP3:

http://rapidshare.com/files/143637297/PBrotzmann_10tet_Day_3_MP3.rar

centrifuge said...

thanks for this. i shan't get the chance to listen to it all tonight but i'm just starting it now for a taster, grabbed it quickly enough ;-)

the flavour of the accompanying text seems rather familiar at times, perhaps a nice idea to give a nod to your sources..?

also - that's only nine players on that list..! is mars williams not on it?

thanks again, c

centrifuge said...

this first piece really cooks anyway... of course i'm just a sucker for this kind of shit :)

hopefully i can listen to the rest of it tomorrow, we're back in series two of the sopranos in our (tv-free) house at the moment..!

brotz confirms at the end of the piece ("signs" from the album of the same name) that the band is a nonet, williams evidently quit mid-tour...

good stuff anyway!

Anonymous said...

I think you got your dates crossed on this the info for this show , on your first it post states the Tentette closed out this series of concerts April 4. I have pasted the info here I am just trying to get these in order as this is a great post you got going and I want to be sure to keep it chronological thx Steve Concert Program 2004
Thursday, April 1

8 p.m. - Atomic
9:30 p.m. - Peter Brötzmann/Nasheet Waits duo
11 p.m. - Ad hoc group organized by Joe Morris

Friday, April 2

8 p.m. - Joe Morris solo
9:30 p.m. - The Thing & Joe McPhee
11 p.m. Atomic/School Days

Saturday, April 3

3 p.m. - Free Fall
4:30 p.m. - Triage
6 p.m. - Joe McPhee solo
9 p.m. - Vandermark 5
10:30 p.m. - Joe Maneri trio


Sunday, April 4

3 p.m. - School Days
4:30 p.m. - Joe Maneri/Mat Maneri duo
6 p.m. - Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet

gsrbrts2 said...

Thanks for your comments, cebtrifuge. However, when I read:

"the flavour of the accompanying text seems rather familiar at times, perhaps a nice idea to give a nod to your sources..?

also - that's only nine players on that list..! is mars williams not on it?

good stuff anyway!"


I realise you don't see the forest, but can you at least see the trees?

jazzme:
Brotzmans played both days. On the third day he appears as "free for all".


Gus

Boromir said...

Ignore the snide comments gsrbrts2. There are those people who would pick fault with the almighty himself. Thanks for this great series of posts

centrifuge said...

snide, am i? on the contrary, i was pointing out (as tactfully as i could) that the text which accompanies this post is pretty much a paraphrase of somebody else's (hard) work; this rather undermines the public-spirited nature of sharing the music in the first place. to put it another way, it leaves a slightly bad taste in my mouth. i don't understand why it was necessary to inlude the text at all, if it says nothing which cannot be found readily elsewhere.

gus, unless you are claiming to be the original writer i fail to see how your wood/trees metaphor has any relevance here. and boromir, i can scarcely believe that you are still smarting over my having corrected details in one or two of your posts - when, a year ago now? i have been careful not to do it since, as it offended you so much the first time, yet that's apparently all you remember... so when you say you want comments, really you just mean you want unqualified thanks. still, i get the message and in future i will refrain from commenting on your posts at all (either of you).

Boromir said...

Centrifuge,
I could make adverse comments about many posts I come across that contain things with which I disagree, but I don't. Posters go to considerable effort to share, I don't think it is legitimate that they should be criticised over trivial details. Your comments were not about the music, they were about the poster, as were your comments on my posts in the past. Frankly I look forward to not reading your comments in the future.

Anonymous said...

Thx for getting back , if you saw these shows it must have been one hell of a treat . Sept 5th I got to see the ICP Orchestra in Guelph it was definitely worthwhile Steve

gsrbrts2 said...

Dear Centrifuge:

I'm afraid I don't recall the incident, in fact, I don't even remember your name.

I googled the tentet and found that information and added it to the post. I don't think that the author was specified. Did you write it? If so, congratulations, it's a good piece.

As to the forest and the trees, the group is billed as the tentet, and is shown as such in the materials that I posted, but since one member didn't show up, should they change the name, would you be happier?

Enjoy the music and try to resist the anal retention.

Gus

Anonymous said...

LOL - although, to be quite honest, retention from any and all orifices would be a pleasant change frpm ol' cent. His next move here will probably be the 'white jazz critic's racism' gambit - tactics that remind me of the BNP.

Anonymous said...

Question - from a published music writer to Paul Desmond, during his days with the Brubeck Quartet ...

"How many of you are there in the quartet"?

And thus soi-disant music writers make immortal history for us to relish.

dalemcbdnl said...

Thanks gsrbrts2!! All in ALL a fantastic series of posts. I really enjoy comments EXCEPT when the tone becomes so uncivil. AND I have to admit that the above sequence (of spiraling insults) saddens me. I consider mud slinging irrelevant as well as distracting whether it is on a music sharing blog or in another arena (such as politics). On a personal level, I really do love this music and I think this is an amazing blog. There is BOTH great music and great knowledge to be shared by THIS creative and scholarly community. I think it would be a great loss for EVERYONE if the usual generous and cordial spirit I have found here (most of the time) would be diminished by unfortunate ad hominem arguments. Please step back everyone and cool off!

Dale

kinabalu said...

Gentlemen, let's put on the kettle then, shall we? There's a good chap.

cent can be excused, having been a little too close to a university at one time or another I would think. There's nothing that makes academics more happy than finding omissions and mistakes in others' footnotes and references. Nit picky? Comes with the job, I'm telling ya. I'm still close to a university, so I suppose I can be excused, too.

That said, thanks for this series which will take me a while to get through. Many of these blokes are regulars around town. Just to update things, I caught the Peter Brötzmann Quartet in Oslo last week which has Toshinori Kondo on trumpet, Massimo Pupillo (from Zu) on el-bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. Very intense and metal -ish at times, accentuated by that tough rhythm section. Got to have a chat with Brötzmann and Kondo and shared a bottle of red wine with Kondo and another jazz enthusiast afterwards. Brötzmann is off the booze these days, for very sound health reasons, as he was the first to admit. A fine evening was enjoyed by all.

I see that someone has taped a concert in Germany a couple of days back, but the sound is murky, so I'm not sure if I should put it up here.

Anonymous said...

Kinabalu , your lucky to be able to live where these concerts are frequent , on Sept 5 the ICP Orchestra was in Guelph and I went to see them , it was great and I tried to record some with my camera but the sound was muddled , when paul over at folly gets back to business I might upload the video to see what he can do with it . Steve