Globe Unity Special - Rumbling (1975)

[Steve Reynolds]

Globe Unity Special: Rumbling (1975)

With:

Alexander von Schlippenbach – piano
Evan Parker – soprano and tenor saxophones
Steve Lacy: soprano saxophone
Gerd Dudek: tenor saxophone
Manfred Schoof – trumpet
Kenny Wheeler – trumpet
Paul Rutherford – trombone
Albert Mangelsdorff – trombone
Peter Kowald: bass and tuba
Paul Lovens: drums

Recorded for FMP 3/31/05, Berlin – Free Music Workshop

When I first started to listen to this sort of thing (maybe in the mid to late 90’s), I waited a while before I ventured into listening to this band – I came to love the later 1986 recording – a completely improvised hour plus of music by a larger ensemble – and rightly named (as the band originally was named) the Globe Unity Orchestra – here the group is called Special – maybe because Lacy is in it as a guest – or that the band is less than an big-band or orchestra number of players.

Also this edition uses compositions as a basis for what might be considered free-wheeling or open improvisation. There is a Mengelberg thing to open up the record (concert), a longish Lacy tune (the title track, a long improvisation that might have some compositional basis credited to Evan Parker – and they close with Monk’s “Evidence”.

If one is not predisposed to listening to these players in what might now arguably be considered their peak creative period (as most of them are from the first generation of free improvisers – with only Mangelsdorff being more than 45 years old – and the others being mostly in their 30’s. Having not been listening to jazz or improvised music at the time, I will make a few suppositions which maybe some of the veterans around here from the States (or from Europe – I would love that perspective as well) could affirm or dispute. Why I say this is that one hear’s guys like Lovens, and especially Parker – lamost discovering something as they are playing it – what happens with Parker’s tenor playing on the opening track is as bustling and exciting a thing as I have heard in a while _ I hadn’t heard this recording in a while – and it now has me pining to hear Pakistani Pomade again – I have only heard a CD-R that a friend here sent me quite a while ago once or twice – it is something to hear a great player finding his voice – today some might complain that he could play this stuff – or more accurately stuff that is technically way beyond this stuff – like eating breakfast in the morning – and some say that his music has become too easy for him – and if he isn’t discovering, he is only just playing – well – there is another time for that – point is – here – his playing is ascerbic, gritty – and with a tension and power that is really unlike any other tenor player’s – before or since

But think about the time – how foreign (not meant to be said for what some might deem to be the obvious reason) this must have sounded to those who heard it at the time – and if one thinks about how relatively few people know if him, and the rest of the world class improvisers on this recording – thaink about what it must have been like then – especially here in the States

When this record (LP) was released – maybe sometime a year or so after the recording was made, I think, the jazz listening public in the U.S.:

For the most part would never have seen, heard, heard of, or heard of any of the performers outside of Steve Lacy> Would never have heard, heard of, any of the players in any context- probably ever – unless it was by accident. That no publication of any sort would have ever written about any of these performers – certainly not in any publication that was ever published in the U.S.

And *if* they had heard it, even if they were into Ayler, late-period Coltrane – or even the Art Ensemble of Chicago, they would have possibly thought this certainly wasn’t the sort of thing that would jump out and touch someone – there is seemingly no blues feeling – no forward rhythm – seemingly – a drummer that sounds like he is from another planet – if Sunny was out – at least we could hear where it seemed to come from – with Lovens – a car wreck for those who would want to hear that – hey – at first – that’s what I heard – and the Misha tune – sounds like a fuckin’ carnival at first – first thought for some will always be that these guys couldn’t play a tune if their life depended on it.

Fact is, in retrospect, they played this music, *their* music like their lives depended on it – in fact, their souls maybe did depend on it, I think, and then they carved out their own place in a musical world devoid of any financial rewards – did it only for the music – and despite what some might say – they made some music for the ages – and this is just one of the many documents in which some of their greatness is recorded for the ages.

And is it jazz?

Doesn’t matter – they made that statement unimportant in a way that it was never unimportant before – they knew, I think, that since they came from a different place than the great American jazz masters that preceded them – that they need to do and play music that was personal to them – and since what they play (and what some of them still play) can be so initially off-putting to those who want to hear something that has a closer connection to the great masters of the past, that they had no choice but to either play their music for the music – or not play anything at all.

I am grateful for their perserverence – and for people like Josh Gebers that recorded them when pretty much none of us knew





Rumbling, baby

[Jon Abbey]

Originally Posted by Steve Reynolds

I am grateful for their perserverence – and for people like Josh Gebers that recorded them when pretty much none of us knew

that's Jost Gebers.

[Steve Reynolds]

typo or brain freeze, Jon - thanks....

[Clay Fink]

I saw a great version of GUO in '83 here in DC. Two sets at DC Space. The band was Kenny Wheeler, Kondo, George Lewis, Albert Manglesdorff, Geard Dudek, Evan Parker, Bob Stewart, Schippenbach, Alan Silva and Paul Lovins. Ernst Petrowski was supposed to be there too, but since this was during the Cold War, he may not have been able to get to the US. Like nothing else I had ever heard up to that point.

[Dan G]

Originally Posted by Clay Fink

I saw a great version of GUO in '83 here in DC. Two sets at DC Space. The band was Kenny Wheeler, Kondo, George Lewis, Albert Manglesdorff, Geard Dudek, Evan Parker, Bob Stewart, Schippenbach, Alan Silva and Paul Lovins. Ernst Petrowski was supposed to be there too, but since this was during the Cold War, he may not have been able to get to the US. Like nothing else I had ever heard up to that point.

That's the lineup for Intergalactic Blow, if you include Petrowsky and Gunter Christmann (jeez, that's one hell of a trombone section!). I haven't heard many of the records GUO made for FMP - just Rumbling, 20th Anniversary and Hamburg 74, and though they are good, I prefer the Japo records. Improvisations is great (and I think the last time either Derek Bailey or Paul Rutherford played with them); Compositions also very good, but IB is spectacular.

Except for maybe the most recent one, Globe Unity 2002, Rumbling was probably the smallest version of the band (at least to record) and that does make it kind of special.

[Rob C]

Rumbling is a damn good record. I think I'll listen to it on my MP3 player on the way home right now!

[Tom K]

I prefer "Compositions" to both "Improvisations" and "Intergalactic Blow". In fact, "Compositions" is, for me, the ultimate Globe Unity recording.