Peter
Brotzmann has led a number of internationally renowned, large
group, improvising ensembles since the late 1960's. The latest,
called the "Chicago Tentet," is one of the best.
First organized in Chicago in January 1997, the group has toured
extensively in North America and Europe, and has released eight
albums of material. In May, the ensemble will tour North America
to coincide with their latest release on Okka Disk, Be Music,
Night recorded in Chicago, during November of 2004.
All in all, the Chicago Tentet is a veritable "Who's Who"
of the contemporary improvised music scene's cutting edge. For
this North America tour in May, the line-up will consist of:
• Peter Brotzmann (Reeds – Germany)
• Ken Vandermark (Reeds - USA)
• Mats Gustafsson (Reeds - Sweden)
• Joe McPhee (Brass - USA)
• Magnus Broo (Trumpet - Sweden)
• Per Ake Holmlander (Tuba - Sweden)
• Kent Kessler (Bass - USA)
• Fred Lonberg-Holm (Cello - USA)
• Paal Nilssen-Love (Drums - Norway)
• Michael Zerang (Drums - USA)
The Tentet has had a rotating line-up since its inception. Visiting
artists have included William Parker (bass), Toshinori Kondo
(trumpet/electronics), Roy Campbell (trumpet), and Mike Pearson
(actor) who have cast their distinctive voices with the group,
making each appearance a truly unique and rare experience. For
this upcoming tour, two of the greatest instrumentalists from
Stockholm, Magnus Broo and Per Ake Holmlander will be performing
as guests.
Though the Tentet is clearly directed by Brotzmann and guided
by his aesthetics, he has been committed to utilizing the compositions
of other members since the ensemble’s beginning. This
has allowed the band to explore an exceptional range of structural
and improvising tactics: from the conductions of Mats Gustafsson
and Fred Lonberg-Holm, to the vamp pieces of Michael Zerang
and Hamid Drake (who performed with the group until ‘04),
to compositions using conventional notation by Ken Vandermark
and Mars Williams (who also parted in ’04), to Brotzmann's
graphic scores. The group employs almost every contemporary
approach to composing and organizing music for an improvising
unit. This diversity in compositional style, plus the variety
in individual approaches to improvisation, has led the Tentet
towards an extremely multifaceted direction in music. As the
group moves from piece to piece, it explores intensities that
range from spare introspection to all out walls of sound, and
rhythms that are open or free from a steady pulse to those of
hitting a hard groove.
Since the late 1990's, the main work of the Peter Brotzmann
Chicago Tentet has been done in concert, on the road in both
Europe and in North America. Though the economics of sustaining
a large group are difficult, it's clear that the Chicago Tentet
have found ways to continue performing their music around
the world since their first meeting in the winter of 1997.
Through these efforts they've been able to develop a band
with a sound and depth of communication impossible to find
in any other ensemble, no matter what size or style, currently
working on the cutting edge of music today. The ongoing creative
intensity of Peter Brotzmann and the Chicago Tentet stems
from the fact that they continue to ask, "What's next?"
They look for an answer to this question every time they perform.
Discography:
• The Chicago Octet/Tentet Triple-CD Box set (Okka Disk
1998)
• Stone/Water CD (Okka Disk 2000) - Selected as one
of the top ten albums of the year in the New York Times, Sunday,
Dec. 17, 2000.
• Short Visit To Nowhere and Broken English Two-volume
CD set (Okka Disk 2002)
• Signs and Images Dual CD release (Okka Disk 2004)
• Be Music, Night (Okka Disk 2005)
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