OTOROKU’s tenth release sees a return to the group that kick-started the label – the veteran German reedsman and free jazz pioneer Peter Broetzmann with the long-running London bass/drums partnership of John Edwards and Steve Noble. After the release of ‘…The Worse The Better’ that group went on to play a series of devastating shows in Europe and to emerge as one of Broetzmann’s finest working groups. Over the same period Peter was developing a deep rapport with Jason Adasiewicz, the upstart vibraphone player from Chicago. What seems on paper like an awkward pairing reveals itself on stage and on record as a symbiotic revelation. Adasiewicz’s physical attack matching Broetzmann for impact whilst the extended sustain of the vibes opens up an eerie space for some of Broetzmann’s most fertile lyricism.
The recording is from the last set of a two-day residency at Cafe OTO that brought these two groups together for an astonishing quartet. Adasiewicz and Noble struck up an immense partnership in rhythm. Edwards wrestled with a broken house bass and failing amplifier and still managed new levels of invention – stoking the others onwards. Broetzmann was clearly energised – I swear I saw him dancing at the side of the stage whilst exchanging a shattered reed. And for all the usual rhetoric of Free Jazz bluster and machismo, this is a meeting characterised by the joy of communal creation that makes you want to dance – even if only in your head.
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Peter Brotzmann / alto and tenor sax, Bflat clarinet, Taragato
Jason Adasiewicz / vibraphone
John Edwards / double bass
Steve Noble / drums
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Recorded live at Cafe OTO on 12 August 2013 by James Dunn.
Mixed by Rupert Clervaux at Grays Inn Road. Mastered by Andreas [LUPO] Lubich at Calyx.
Design by Brö/Untiet. Drawing by Brö. Photocollage (on sleeve reverse) by Dawid Laskowski
