11 October 2010

Bernd Alois Zimmermann-the Numbered, Improvisations & Tratto (Wergo-2549-005) 1969 featuring Manfred Schoof's quintet






























Here's another Wergo Lp , mentioned In the comments to Onxydlib's post of Manfred Schoofs ,wonderful 1967 debut.
This features the Compositions of Bernd Alois Zimmerman one of the most significant post war European Composers.

Zimmermann had a life long love of jazz and its spontaneity ,the forms associated with jazz and the blues are often referenced however obtusely in many of his own works.
The individuality of his unique Vision seems to be ever more clearly evident and relevant.

A postmodernist before the term was ever invented , like his contemporary Mauricio Kagel (who had in his youth been a trumpeter)
Serial ,and aleatory techniques mingle with myriad fragments of popular musics, marching bands ,swing ,the blues..baroque music and quotes from contemporaneous scores , just about anything really.
all this at times fractured and pulverised then re filtered through the seemingly conversational flow of the musical organism .

Yes i like his music alot ... and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who loves richly textured complex kaleidoscopic musics.
The Wergo Site is a great place to start , since they have documented the majority of his oeuvre.

His life was sadly cut short by chronic depression ,he suicided in 1970.

I bought this record whilst first exploring free jazz and improvised musics, and having stumbled across European echoes a few months before , i was somewhat bemused and disappointed at first.

Finding side A ,(on which Schoof's original quintet performs incidental music to a radio play, and improvisations on themes from Zimmermann's opera Die Soldaten) restrained , and a little bloodless
.
Now of course i love it , it is restrained ,indeed very quiet for long periods.

also note that ,Jaki Liebziet's drumming is consistently inventive throughout , negotiating every rapid fire change,and the huge dynamic range like a virtuoso, amazing given that he must have been barely out of his teens.


The second piece is an electronic subtly oscillating drone piece from 1966, sounding Perhaps a little like 3 or 4 Elaine Radigue pieces played simultaneously.


i have looked for this both on the Wergo site and elsewhere to no avail i assume therefore that it is out of print, although i have a feeling that perhaps Tratto the electronic piece has been reissued elswhere , perhaps an electro acoustic compilation of some sort...

Enjoy
and check out Both Zimmermann ,and Schoofs work if you get a chance.

27 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Thanks very much SOTISE --- very hard to find, I've certainly never heard it! Thanks also to you or whoever posted the Joelle Leandre LP right after this one.

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  3. Also, anyone that already checked it out should visit the Avant Garde Project for more Zimmermann, Kagel and improvisation (New Phonic Art for example)

    http://www.avantgardeproject.org/archive.htm

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  4. Thank you for the Schoof's Sotise ;-)

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  5. No, in 1967 Jaki Lebezeit would have been much older that in his teens. He would have actually been 29 or 30 at the time as with the exception of Michael Karoli, Damo Suzuki and maybe Malcolm Mooney, the members of Can were in their 30's when they started out.

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  6. Wow, that's a great find. Shee, I'd never seen that old Wergo logo before.

    A long time ago I had a Zimmermann Wergo Lp with a piece for jazz quartet, but it wasn't that one. Can't remember the title unfortunately.

    What's the best version of the trumpet concerto you people know? On some recordings I've heard the soloist just can't deal with the "swing" component and sound awfully stiff.

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  7. @Alcofibras-
    a wonderful version of the Trumpet Concerto is--
    Hakan Hardenberger-tpt
    SWF SINFONIEORCHESTER BADEN-BADEN
    Michael Gielen

    Phillips CD-434 114-2 1993
    A Disc ,Which Also features the Canto Di Speranza, the concerto for Oboe and small orchestra, And the Cello Concerto.
    all incredible pieces!

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  8. Thanks for your site and plenty of hugs for this album.
    I had the chance to listen to the original WERGO LP about 20 years ago, loved it and recorded it to a now definitely dead tape, but never managed to find it either as LP, or another way.

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  9. Haven't listened yet, but wanted to drop a thanks in here for another WERGO rip. You are on a roll, Sr Sotise!

    Not WERGO, but along the same lines -- has anyone seen a decent rip of the DG *Improvisation* 3xLP, with New Phonic Art, Iskra 1903, and Wired (I think)? There was a 192kbps rip floating around for a while I know.

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  10. Could you re-up this gem!? Thanks!

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  11. BRIAN, sorry i missed your comment of almost a year ago... i'm re-ripping this , will upload tommorow!

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  12. New Better Rip(New stylus)..
    I've done my best to remove 'objects' without adding compression or any other digital syrup... bought the lp over twenty years ago , for a song the condition is pretty poor despite looking NMint

    http://www26.zippyshare.com/v/32499969/file.html

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  13. Sotise said:
    'A postmodernist before the term was ever invented'


    Wikipedia, a fraction of the use of the term:

    'The term "Postmodern" was first used around the 1870s. John Watkins Chapman suggested "a Postmodern style of painting" as a way to move beyond French Impressionism. J. M. Thompson, in his 1914 article in The Hibbert Journal (a quarterly philosophical review), used it to describe changes in attitudes and beliefs in the critique of religion: "The raison d'etre of Post-Modernism is to escape from the double-mindedness of Modernism by being thorough in its criticism by extending it to religion as well as theology, to Catholic feeling as well as to Catholic tradition."

    'In 1917, Rudolf Pannwitz used the term to describe a philosophically-oriented culture. His idea of post-modernism drew from Friedrich Nietzsche's analysis of modernity and its end results of decadence and nihilism. [...]

    'In 1921 and 1925, Postmodernism had been used to describe new forms of art and music. In 1942 H. R. Hays described it as a new literary form. However, as a general theory for a historical movement it was first used in 1939 by Arnold J. Toynbee: "Our own Post-Modern Age has been inaugurated by the general war of 1914-1918." [...]

    'After that, Postmodernism was applied to a whole host of movements, many in art, music, and literature, that reacted against tendencies in the imperialist phase of capitalism called "modernism[.]" '


    Et cetera. (Please, I hope that I'm not coming off as, you know, smug or something. The changes in the language are fascinating to me, and maybe they are to somebody else.)

    cheers, Scraps

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  14. Just read y'r comment, thanks Scraps!

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  15. Hello - would be very grateful if this were made available once more.
    Thanks! Nat

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  16. Excellent post Ernst. I have a question about the last track that clock around 15:10 mn; is it normal if it stop suddenly?

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  17. As far as I recall the piece was 15:30 or a few seconds longer. I shall have a look into it on Sunday. Probably this rip is defect - althoug I know I've listened to it without noticing any problems......

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  18. Hi Ernst

    I should check before asking you to do it but I found a post of "tratto" on youtube, (the same version of course) and I can confirm that your post have no problem, in fact it ends suddenly. I was almost sure because in your post we can hear the lp still turning few seconds after the ending track but now I can confirm everything is right. Your lp is in an incredible good condition, absolutely no surface noise. it is very interesting to hear Manfred Schoof's group in this special context, Schoof is definitely a great musician, many thanks for this post.

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