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Peter Brötzmann, Milford Graves, William Parker — Historic Music Past Tense Future (Black Editions Archive)

Photo by Peter Gannushkin / DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET

Historic Music Past Tense Future by Peter Brötzmann, Milford Graves, William Parker

With his 1967 release For Adolphe Sax, German reed titan Peter Brötzmann, along with bassist Peter Kowald and drummer Sven-Äke Johansson, made an indelible mark as a commanding force with his ferocious tone and caterwauling dynamism. Over the ensuing five-and-a-half decades, Brötzmann has worked with a myriad of international collaborators as soloist, ensemble leader, member of collective units and in one-off meetings. Throughout he’s convened reed/bass/drums lineups with lasting partnerships like his trio with Harry Miller and Louis Moholo-Moholo, William Parker and Hamid Drake, Full Blast with electric bassist Marino Pliakas and drummer Michael Wertmuller or John Edwards and Steve Noble. But there have also been fortuitous meetings with trios like the ones with Barre Phillips and Gunter “Baby” Sommer or Fred Hopkins and Rashied Ali. The music rescued from the vaults on Historic Music Past Tense Future documents a live set by the trio of Brötzmann, Parker, and drummer Milford Graves, an historic meeting on all counts particularly with the paucity of recordings by Graves.

The trio played twice in New York City in the 1980s around the time that Parker and Graves were playing in a trio with Charles Gayle, but they didn’t play again until this 2002 show at CB's 313 Gallery, next door to CBGB. At just over an hour of music split over four sides of this deluxe LP set, the three explode from the start and never flag. While Brötzmann and Parker were playing regularly in various configurations by this point, the addition of Graves on drums incites the group to blazing heights. One is reminded of the ardent propulsive energy that Graves brought to sessions with New York Art Quartet, Giuseppi Logan or Albert Ayler in the 1960s, and here, his choreographed polyrhythms recall those celebrated alliances while drawing on the depth of his sonic research over the subsequent decades.

The improvisation which spans both sides of the first LP kicks off with the braying yawp of saxophone, Parker’s bounding plucked lines and Graves’ limber percussion torrents. Brötzmann’s indelible, full-throated roar thunders along with his usual surging momentum, with phrasing that lunges forward with feints and pummeling blasts. But throughout, one can hear him respond to the drummer’s lithe parries. Parker is, at times, a bit low in the mix, yet his insistent drive creates a gamboling undercurrent, able to lock in to the drummer’s roiling flow with steadfast focus. Graves’ playing is what really amps things though. With double kick drums, bongos, an array of toms and cymbals and snare permanently in the off position, his sense of organic, pulsing energy and orchestrated, interconnected rhythms shapes the group interplay with a penetrating, commanding sensibility. There is an arc to the improvisation, with Parker’s arco solo two-thirds of the way through setting up a section of calm leading in to the final section where Brötzmann’s tawny tarogato and the drummer’s tuned supple mallet playing synch in together, slowly gathering coursing intensity to conclude the piece.

The 17-minute improvisation that fills the first side of the second LP starts with the dancing interplay of Graves and Parker. The drummer’s multi-hued elasticity of pace bucks and swells with spirited élan and Parker responds with supple support. Brötzmann enters on alto three minutes in, with rasping force and the three charge off, locked in to the collective, thrusting flurry. On this piece, the reed player is clearly responding to Graves’ nimble crashes and rolls as his squalling cries ebb and flow with tempestuous vigor. Two-thirds of the way through, a burst of Graves’ vocalizations goads things to gale-force furor which carries through to the end of the piece as the audience bursts into rousing cheers.

The final side begins with Graves’ ritualistic chanting joined in by Parker’s loping doussin gouni and Brötzmann’s muted low-end clarinet musings. Graves introduces thumping, percussive punctuations as the clarinet builds with sinuous potency. Half-way through, Graves jumps in with shuddering drumming and Parker switches to bass, inciting the trio. A lissome section for Graves’ drumming and chanting builds and then cracks open as Brötzmann charges in with torrential tenor and the three ride the breakers of energy, building up densities and then dropping back to let things hurtle toward the final burst of ecstatic potency. Brötzmann and Graves would go on to play several duos together over the next few years, but this would be the last time that the trio would perform together.

Finally, posthumous recordings featuring Milford Graves are starting to appear. Last year saw the release of Sacred Ceremonies with Wadada Leo Smith and Bill Laswell, the highlight of which was a full CD of Smith/Graves duos. Black Editions Archive and co-producer Michael Ehlers have announced that they will be releasing more from Graves’ personal archives including a mid-1970s trio recording with reed players Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover and a 1991 recording of Graves, Parker and Charles Gayle excerpts of which are online. All of this bodes well for getting Graves’ music the attention it deserves.

Michael Rosenstein

#Peter Brötzmann #Milford Graves #William Parker #Historic Music Past Tense Future #black editions #michael rosenstein #albumreview #dusted magazine #jazz #eremite records #free improvisation

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