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Jazz Articles about Gunter Baby Sommer
Oliver Schwerdt with Barry Guy and Günter ‘Baby’ Sommer: One for My Baby and One More for the Bass
by Troy Dostert
There aren't many musicians who've loomed larger in European free improvisation since the 1970s than bassist Barry Guy and percussionist Günter 'Baby' Sommer. In addition to their own work as leaders (the former having much more of a presence in this regard than the latter, admittedly), each has collaborated with the heavyweights of the free music scene, from Peter Brötzmann to Evan Parker to Cecil Taylor. Yet the two had never performed together, until up-and-coming pianist Oliver Schwerdt invited them ...
Continue ReadingGunter Baby Sommer: Baby's Party
by Mark Corroto
The music from the German duo of Günter Baby Sommer and Till Brönner is best described as gestural, meaning the pair utilizes posture and body movement to effect an oratory--in this case the somatic nature of Sommer's drum and percussion work and the flow of breath through Brönner's trumpet and flugelhorn. On the occasion of Sommer's 75th birthday year Brönner, nearly thirty years his junior, joins the master for eleven inventive and sometimes muscular tracks. Opening with “Apéro ...
Continue ReadingGünter Baby Sommer: Dedications
by AAJ Italy Staff
Se tutti i musicisti festeggiassero i propri settant'anni come sta facendo Günter Baby Sommer in questo 2013, ci sarebbe da fare festa permanente. Il batterista percussionista di Dresda che da sempre condivide lo stesso spirito libertario e iconoclasta di alcuni dei più radicali musicisti dell'area continentale è universalmente riconosciuto, sin dagli inizi della sua carriera, ma specialmente nell'ultimo ventennio del secolo passato, quale depositario del sapere del movimento jazz-avantgarde europeo. Dedications è solo l'ultimo contributo alla causa, forse mai come ...
Continue ReadingGunter Baby Sommer: Kommeno - A Threnody
by Duncan Heining
Seventy years ago, the small village of Kommeno in Greece experienced a tragedy from which it has never really recovered. What happened there on August 16, 1943 was not unusual in the context of a war pursued by an enemy determined to stamp out all opposition. Other towns in Greece and its islands, such as Distomon and Kalavrita, had suffered similar fates--just as other towns and villages far beyond Europe would endure comparable evils in later wars. But one thing ...
Continue ReadingSommer / Yannatou / Floridis / Voulgaris / Kastanis: Songs for Kommeno
by John Eyles
Songs for Kommeno was recorded between March 2011 and April 2012, as a homage to the village of Kommeno on the west coast of Greece. In 1943, soldiers of the German Wehrmacht massacred 317 of Kommeno's civilian inhabitants and torched the village. A 156-page book accompanies the CD, containing first-person accounts detailing the experiences of a few survivors of the German occupation of Greece who later went to Germany as migrant (or “guest") workers. They reveal the potential for resentment ...
Continue ReadingGunter Baby Sommer: Live In Jerusalem
by Glenn Astarita
Legendary German jazz and improvising drummer Gunter Baby Sommer's boundless creative sparks and superior technical ability are well-documented. He's a quintessential innovator, largely within the European progressive jazz and avant-garde strata. On Live in Jerusalem, he aligns with an alternating ensemble that ignites a veritable firestorm amid some temperately organized passages. On “Yo Yo Yo," Sommer's adventurism is prolifically accentuated. Bass clarinetist Yoni Silver's deep intonation and edgy intro is followed by the quartet's' tension-building motifs, firmly nestled ...
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