Brötzmann/Kondo/Pupillo/Nilssen-Love live in Europe 2008

I was going to post the Bimhuis set of this crew from 6 September when I made the discovery that it has just been commercially released on the Okka Disk label and can in fact be ordered directly from the label:

http://www.okkadisk.com/releases/od12076.html

So, a quick change of plan, then. Instead, we'll have two other concerts from the same tour, the first one in Schorndorf in Germany on 8 September and the second in Barcelona on 14 September. Both dates are audience recordings, in contrast to the Bimhuis set which was professionally recorded by Dutch radio and also transmitted by BBC Radio 3 later in the month.

Brötzmann has played with Kondo before, most notably in the Die like a Dog quartet with William Parker and Hamid Drake providing the rhythmic backdrop. This crew is quite a different proposition with Massimo Pupillo from Zu manning the electric bass and Paal Nilssen-Love taking over on drums. These two guys change the sonics into a much tougher, heavier, hard-hitting aural assault, which to my mind recalls the spirit of Last Exit, if not the actual sound. Brötzmann did not quite agree, when I had a chance to chat after their Oslo gig (and to share a bottle of red wine with Kondo); Last Exit was different, he thought, but still, there is a decidedly different ambience to these sets which really energises the old gentleman and it is definitely beyond the usual genre boundaries of free jazz. Kondo is extending the sound of the trumpet with all sorts of electronic manipulations, possibly recalling the electric Miles of the 70s, but whereas Miles was steeped in deep funk, this setting better revitalises the noisy punk indie spirit of the times. Pretty hairy, bony stuff, in other words.

This quartet has become a regular working band and they will be gigging in Europe in both the first and second half of 2009 as well as in the first half of 2010, so take the opportunity to see them if they should cross your path (and get their Bimhuis record).

These go out as high-quality mp3s. I realised that posting both sets as lossless flacs would run well over one gigabyte which might be excessive for most downloaders. Thanks to uploaders and seeders at Dime, as usual.