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Robert Iannapollo
Milo Fine
Steve Vickery
Richard Cook
Ben Watson
Thom Jurek
RiStout
Todd S. Jenkins
Hans-Jürgen Schaal
Hannes Schweiger
Robert Iannapollo
As I recall, in 1982, when Globe Unity Orchestra first toured the U.S., several writers complained when they only performed sets of free improvisation rather than composition. They seemed to feel they were getting short changed. This, despite the fact that the group contained master free improvisors (the personnel on that tour were very similar to the one above). Is composition supposed to be a higher art form than improvisation? I thought that argument was dead and buried years before 1982. One of the Globe Unity Orchestra’s strengths was that they could do both and finesse either in spades.
The 20th Anniversary commemorated said event with a series of concerts and this one was taped at the very festival where they made their debut twenty years earlier. It’s a one hour and seven minute free improvisation. To dissect it would be unnecessary. It’s a strong set with no coasting and no flagging of energy. Impassioned soloing and intelligent, listening interplay are the hallmarks of the group and of his set in particular. If this is the last recording of the Globe Unity Orchestra (they haven’t played together since 1987), then this is the way to go out. I don’t feel short changed at all.
from: Cadence Magazine # 10, October 1993
Milo Fine
This edition of pianist Alex von Schlippenbach’s large ensemble comprised of Toshinori Kondo/Kenny Wheeler, trumpets, flugelhorn; Gerd Dudek/Evan Parker/Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, reeds, Günter Christmann/George Lewis/Albert Mangelsdorff, trombones, Bob Stewart, tuba; Alan Silva; bass; Paul Lovens, drums, was first documented in 1982 on the LP Intergalactic Blow. The music therein was solid, but lacked the spark that has really ignited the group since its inception in 1966. For whatever reason or reasons, that spark was rekindled for this bombastic multi-faceted live set recorded four years later. Shackled somewhat by the players’ insistence on having individual solo features, the music really takes flight due to the concerted efforts of the musicians to establish meaningful interludes between the soloists, and maintain a flexible evolving soundscape behind them. In this regard, cells or smaller groupings are often featured to striking effect. As the Orchestra’s subsequent appearance at the 1987 Chicago Jazz Festival – the group’s swan song., according to Schlippenbach in his liners, though they did collaborate with the London Jazz Composer’s Orchestra in the early 90s – was excellent in terms of solos, but fairly prosaic otherwise, the disk at hand is a fitting tombstone to this vibrant chapter of Schlippenbach’s living music.
from: The Improvisor - Volume 10, 1993
Steve Vickery
A live set from Berlin’s 1986 jazz festival marks the end of a distinctive ensemble project, one that succeeded in overturning many people’s assumptions about Improvised music along the way. This final release draws no conclusions but offers some spirited music, a host of ideas tumbling one over another. Pianist Alex von Schlippenbach, bassist Alan Silva, and drummer Paul Lovens provide a point of balance for this twelve-piece unit of seasoned improvisors. That this revolutionary orchestra has lasted so long seems ironic, an irony that is echoed in the disc’s liner notes. There is no mistaking the commitment of these performers to the forceful level of creative music-making and this intensity is undeniable here. Its worth noting, that Globe Unity’s final concert in Chicago was heard by 92.000 people. There is a compression of ideas as soloists overlap into ensemble statements then back into solos that takes some getting used to. Quartets and trios from and divide throughout the program with unexpected speed. Bassist Silva’s duet with Schlippenbach and two reeds is indicative of the working plan, a brief but striking tableau in this long unfolding story. Kenny Wheeler plays with characteristic warmth crafting a solo that drifts across the music with a languid mood. Episodic music for free players, the 20th anniversary of Globe Unity remains as a blueprint for young players (and old) in the mysterious art of large ensemble free improvising.
from: CODA Magazine # 258, November/December 1994
Richard Cook
Colossal, brutish, majestic, here is the world’s (greatest?) orchestra asserting its primal role in the aftermath of free jazz. The Berlin 1986 concert was their twentieth birthday, hence the title, and the single 67 minute performance enshrined here is a fitting celebration. There are astonishingly few records to show for twenty years of hard work, but that indictment of our cultural documentation had better rest while you sit back and enjoy the roller-coaster power of this ageless ensemble of masters. The great ones of European free are nearly all here – Parker, Dudek, Christmann, Lovens, Mangelsdorff – and although one regrets the absence of, say, Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald, there are welcome arrivals in the shape of George Lewis, Toshinori Kondo and Bob Stewart, whose tuba parts are a marvelous new find in the Orchestra’s sound box. The music rises and falls and boils in what is, I suppose, the traditional manner of what Alex Schlippenbach insists is still ‘free jazz’. Whatever you call it, it’s a magnificent sound. Jost Gebers has done his best with production and it’s not bad, but one day I dream of hearing these sonic brigands in a 48-track studio with a great engineering team. Until then, savor one of the year’s most momentous releases.
from: Jazz Express, September 1993
Ben Watson
Von Schlippenbach does not impose some half-baked notion of composer-conductor “genius“ on his cohorts by writing twiddly music-college “themes”, but clarifies the forces at his disposal so that the whole breathes and individuals shine. Recorded in 1986 in Berlin, 20th Anniversary is a magnificent recording of a magnificent 12-piece ensemble. Paul Lovens (drums) and Alan Silva (bass) provide pace and stimulus from the bottom up, aided by the fat, greasy power of three trombones (George Lewis, Günter Christmann and Albert Mangelsdorff – phew!) and Bob Stewart’s beautiful tuba. Everyone involved understands the mystery and majesty Schlippenbach is aiming for, and everyone sounds great (Toshinori Kondo and Kenny Wheeler play trumpets, Gerd Dudek, Evan Parker and Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky saxophones). Schlippenbach’s trenchant comping is just what these heavyweight voices require.
from: The Wire # 113, July 1993
Thom Jurek
As a continually evolving unit, the Globe Unity Orchestra has been able to maintain a surprisingly high level of musical acumen. This is achieved perhaps by a constant core of musicians that includes Albert Mangelsdorff, Evan Parker, Alexander von Schlippenbach (as musical director), Kenny Wheeler, and Paul Lovens. Add-ons for this date in 1986 were Japanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, trombonist George Lewis (his free-for-all with Mangelsdorff about halfway through this improvisation is literally amazing), tuba player Bob Stewart from Lester Bowie's band, and bassist Alan Silva, among others. By 1986, the group had made the transition to a totally free music conglomerate from its 1966 incarnation as a highly arranged entity with free jazz soloing. Amazingly enough, despite the extreme nature of the proceedings, the band never sounded better than it did here. Perhaps it was the democracy von Schlippenbach allowed on the bandstand, offering the newer players choice positions for soloing, or perhaps it was the general good feeling that, in its 20th year, the Globe Unity Orchestra had finally shed all bonds of convention and expectation in its performances. Whatever the final reason, the GUO played here with the sense of drama and dynamics that only the sum of this many parts could: They offer music as an entire universe replete not just with sounds but characteristics, mechanical approximations, emotional pathos, and abstract expressionistic verve. Though there are Americans in this outfit, the improvisational proceedings are decidedly European and yet universal at the same time. Here is the atonal evidence of just how "together" free jazz can be.
from: All Music Guide
RiStout
Orchestrated yet pontillistic. GUO is a fuller realization of Coleman's Free Jazz or Coltrane's Ascension; 20th Anniversary has less-pronounced solos than those aforementioned classics, but with individual effort more to the front than other Globe Unity works. What's so wonderful about Schlippenbach's gatherings is his ability to bring together differing spirits and fuse them into a whole. Kenny Wheeler takes Manfred Schoof's spot here, his standard trumpet style contrasting well with the loose frenzy of the others.
A bit "softer" in feel than GUO's elsewhere available stuff, until the raucous end. But that's like comparing 2nd and 3rd degree burns.
from: Rate Your Music, May 4, 2005
Todd S. Jenkins
(…) In 1986, the group recorded 20th Anniversary, a shattering performance of over an hour’s length. Schlippenbach, Lovens, Parker, Wheeler, Mangelsdorff, Christmann, and Dudek are present, along with trombonist George Lewis, tubaist Bob Stewart, reedman Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, and bassist Alan Silva. The music is a landmark in collective improvisation, sounding more organized than Free Jazz or Ascension, despite the absence of composed material. This release was Globe Unity’s swan song; their final performance was at the 1987 Chicago Jazz Festival, after which Schlippenbach suspended activities due to time and financial constraints.
from: Book “Free Jazz and Free Improvisation”, an encyclopedia, 2004
Hans-Jürgen Schaal
„ Beim Globe Unity Orchester reizt mich besonders die ganz freie Musizierweise, die Tatsache, dass es möglich ist, mit so vielen Musikern spontan zu improvisieren“. So Albert Mangelsdorff um 1980. Auf dem Gebiet „spontaner Orchestermusik“ war Globe Unity seit 1966 beispielgebend für die freie Jazz-Szene. Zum 20jährigen Bestehen entstand der mehr als einstündige Live-Mitschnitt, der Schwanengesang des oftmals umbesetzten Ensembles; im Jahr darauf sollte es sein letztes Konzert geben.
Auch die zwölfköpfige Besetzung von 1986 war ein faszinierender Organismus, ein Klangkollektiv, das sich in jedem Augenblick neu definierte. Der Musiker denkt sich hier als Teil des Ganzen, der dirigiert sich selbst, mischt sich als Farbe oder Ton in einen Klang, der ständig mutiert, indem jeder der Akteure ebenso verfährt. Man hört einen lebendigen Musikkörper, dessen Glieder ineinandergreifen und der doch kein gemeinsames Gehirn besitzt. Der Einzelne und das Ganze in hörbar gemachter Dialektik: ein letztes Dokument.
aus: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik # 5, 1994
Hannes Schweiger
Ein weiteres Jubiläum handelt diese CD ab. Das auf ihr enthaltene 66 Minuten lange Stück, aufgenommen beim Berliner Jazzfest, markiert mehr oder weniger den vorläufigen Schlussstrich unter dem Kapitel „Globe Unity Orchestra“ – 20 Jahre großorchestrale improvisierte Musik. 1966 aus einer Auftragskomposition des Jazzfestes Berlin an Alex Schlippenbach – Titel: „Globe Unity“ – welche die Jazzwelt dereinst in Aufruhr brachte, da das Stück konsequent konventionelle Schemata und Strukturen negierte, heraus entstanden, erspielte sich das Orchester mit seiner frei assoziativen und kollektiv improvisierten Ausdrucksform, über die Jahre eine bedeutende Stellung in der großformatigen Improvisationsmusik. Es trat eine musikalische Lawine los. Alle maßgeblichen Köpfe freier Improvisation, mögen sie Brötzmann, Hampel, Lacy, Braxton, Bailey usw. heißen, waren in der Zeit seines Bestehens irgendwann einmal Teil des Orchesters. Den Stamm des Ensembles bildeten europäischstämmige Musiker, jedoch streckte die treibende Kraft Alex Schlippenbach seine musikalischen Fühler nach allen Richtungen aus und band improvisierende Musiker aus verschiedensten Ländern des Globusses mit ein. Von Amerika über Afrika bis Japan. Obwohl mit diversen Konzepten experimentiert wurde, bleib das primäre Anliegen von Globe Unity die spontane Interaktion, die von den markanten Spielauffassungen seiner Akteure lebte. In hier konserviertem Stück eindrucksvoll belegt. Die Musiker fokussieren nochmals all ihre Fähigkeiten im Dienste dieses Projektes. Der Abgesang wurde zum rauschenden Fest. Hier agiert eine wirkliche Einheit, in der sich die Musiker gegenseitig motivieren. Eine weitere Faszination stellt die, auch in den exaltiertesten Kollektivausbrüchen nie abhanden kommende Transparenz bzw. Feingliedrigkeit der Klangbilder dar. Das Globe Unity Orchestra verband in selbstbewusster Weise, da es einem inneren Bedürfnis der Musiker entsprang, das Erbe des „Free Jazz“ mit Anregungen der „neuen Musik“. Daraus entstand Musik und eine Spielhaltung mit völlig eigener Identität. Dennoch schienen die Möglichkeiten des Ensembles, unter oft aufreibendem Einsatz zusammengehalten, nach 20 Jahren ausgereizt. Doch der Globus dreht sich ja noch länger (hoffentlich).
aus: Jazz Live # 103, 1993
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