Unser Baby wird 80: Sommerfest 2023

With increased lifespans and improvements in health, 80 is the new 40 for some people. That was no more evident than in Dresden in late September when German percussionist Günter “Baby” Sommer celebrated his 80th birthday with three days of concerts at the city’s Semper Zwei concert hall and basement Jazzclub Tonne. Playing with the vigor and enthusiasm of a drummer half his age or less, Sommer didn’t overload the celebrations with showy percussion displays. Instead, and as he has in the past during a career that stretches back to the 1960s, he ceded most of the sets to group collaborations. Cementing his acceptance of constant change, these collaborations were not only with veteran contemporaries, but also featured newer playing partners.

One of the most spectacular displays of this climaxed opening night at Semper Zwei, the modern second stage of the city’s famous Neo-Classical opera house, when Sommer led his 12-piece Brother & Sisterhood of Breath. Musicians involved were from Germany, Austria, Romania and Scotland, and included trumpeters Niklaus Neuser and Martin Klingeberg; trombonists Gerhard Gschlößle and Micha Winkler, and alto saxophonists Silke Eberhard, Anna Kaluza and Raymond MacDonald. Matthias Schubert played tenor saxophone, Gebhard Ullmann tenor saxophone and bass clarinet with pianist Uli Gumpert; bassist Robert Lucaciu, and Sommer.

Working off a double bass pulse that vibrated with multiple string pops and flat-fingered piano pumps, the group moved through themes that touched on South African kwela, Mingus-like gospel-blues shouts, Latin-affiliated asides and horn-heavy swinging vamps. Themes were propelled by Sommer’s brisk moves from even pacing, ecstatic tone clipping and hammered plops as he switched among brushes, mallets and sticks. As tunes evolved, he also added frame drum pumps, metal bowl pings and shook a net filled with bells and chimes. Until the final number, during which each band member slapped, ratcheted or blew into Sommer-distributed percussion implements, solos were liberally passed around on the players’ usual instruments.

Adding to the excitement of the moments, jousts among the reed and brass players were featured, with Gschlößl’s cup- muted slurs contrasted with Winkler’s balanced slides. Neuser’s clear brassiness complemented Klingeberg’s half-valve work and scat singing, while Schubert and Ullmann came across as a Teutonic Johnny Griffin and Eddie Lockjaw Davis with Bluesy tenor saxophone honks. Ulmann’s bass clarinet tongue slaps plus the alto saxophonists’ dissonant whines and multiphonic yelps underlined the unconventional unfolding of some tunes. Additionally MacDonald, who also leads the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, did double duty on one extended piece, moving in front of the players’ horizontal line-up and used conduction hand signals and even a leap into the air to emphasize that exposition’s turns and accents. This left Sommer free to time-keep. His march-like passages subtly joined Gumpert’s emphasized Blues chording for the final climax.

A similar group exhibition took place on the elevated stage of the spacious and subterranean Jazzclub Tonne during the festival’s concluding set, when Sommer was joined by what was billed as an All Star band with Germans Till Brönner (trumpet), Nils Wogram (trombone), Daniel Erdmann (tenor saxophone) and Romanian-German bassist Lucaciu. Acclaimed as a best-selling trumpeter/vocalist, Brönner was the biggest surprise, ostensibly putting aside his commercial direction to fire off bright tremolo blasts or subtle flutters in solos, or to fit in with the other horn players during unison expositions.

Adapting to pseudo-Dixieland group improvising, the three extended their harmonies so that the saxophonist’s sliding doits and hard-toned honks plus the trombonist’s mellow, hand-muted sighs or bright pecks joined trumpet portamento for layered expositions. Sometimes there were interludes of unaccompanied horn work. However, these brief forays were brought back into linear affiliations with loping cadences from the drummer’s subtle brush work and the bassist’s positioned triple stopping. Mellow promenades were more prominent than staccato jabs, with the sometimes exploratory sonic forays expressed by the Brother & Sisterhood of Breath put aside for a more relaxed interface. Still the high level of skill exhibited by all concerned made this showcase anything but a conventional performance.

Another group that moved past conventional tropes as a FreeBop combo was Günter Baby Sommer & die Brüder Lucaciu featured the previous night at the Semper Zwei. With Robert Lucaciu on bass again, he and Sommer were joined by his siblings, alto saxophonist Antonio Lucaciu and pianist Simon Lucaciu. Having toured and recorded in this formation, the brothers were ready to pump out high-octave sounds as soon as the drummer signalled the beginning by waving his red sweat towel and then slapping the s...

While Fall might not seem the right time to put on a three-day "Sommerfest" (Sep. 22-24), the explanation was simple: the event was in honor of celebrated German drummer Günter "Baby" Sommer's 80th birthday year. He curated the program in his beautiful home city of Dresden, Germany at the prestigious Semperoper Dresden opera house's Semper Zwei modern wing on the first two evenings, while the intimate Jazz Club Tonne basement space (just around the corner from the historic Frauenkirche) hosted the third.

A fixture in East Germany's more adventurous outfits, Sommer subsequently formed fertile connections in the West, as evidenced by recordings with Wadada Leo Smith and Cecil Taylor. But in spite of his reputation in the European free scene, Sommer loves to swing. In that respect at least, his kinship with Dutchman Han Bennink is evident. His nickname stems from his affection for Louis Armstrong's drummer Warren "Baby" Dodds. Indeed, his consequent command of the rudiments with their echoes of Prussian march music-have come to form the basis of his expression in even the most unfettered settings. Allied to that is an impish sense of timing and a finely honed ear for precise explosions of tuned pitches that add both drama and fun to any show.

Each of his three appearances constituted a highlight. First was an outing for his Brother & Sisterhood of Breath, a dozen-strong company that channeled the spirit of Chris McGregor's famous big band of almost the same name. Indeed, two of McGregor's charts featured alongside others by Sommer, pianist Ulrich Gumpert and saxophonist Raymond MacDonald. Sommer energized the band with a fierce drive that Art Blakey would have coveted. Punchy riffs intersected, counterlines uncoiled and glorious horn polyphony intermittently erupted, buoyed by Gumpert's off-kilter bluesy comping and bassist Robert Lucaciu's surefooted propulsion. Sommer's "Karawane", which incorporated trumpeter Martin Klingeberg declaiming Dada poet Hugo Ball's 1916 nonsense verse over a cantering funk, opened up for a sequence of impromptu duos and trios, with Matthias Schubert's choked tenor cries particularly notable. The stirring intensity of McGregor's "Do It" segued into the more exotic terrain of his "Night Poem", where trombonist Gerhard Gschlössl pontificated and burbled affectingly over flutes and percussion. Other outstanding moments included the triumphant processional of Gumpert's "Japan Suite", which framed an a capella outburst from Gebhard Ullmann's tenor, full of burnished sinuosity, bleating false fingering and frayed multiphonics, while Silke Eberhard's pneumatic phrasing and strangulated alto shrieks emerged from a string of joyful blasts on the last number before a standing ovation ensued.

Bassist Robert Lucaciu also featured alongside Sommer with his brothers, Antonio Lucaciu (alto) and Simon Lucaciu (piano), drawing their repertoire from the award-winning Karawane, issued like so much of the drummer's output on the enterprising Intakt imprint. Although two generations younger, the siblings have developed a remarkable rapport with the drummer. From the annunciatory Albert Ayler-tinged theme of "Impressions of Little Bird", Sommer was ultra-attentive and ever-ready to shift dynamics or complement the others.

For the festival's finale, Sommer convened an "All Star Band" quintet. In a testament to his talent, Lucaciu returned on bass, joined by Till Brönner (trumpet), Nils Wogram (trombone) and Daniel Erdmann (tenor). They leapt into Manfred Schoof's sprightly "Like Don", the three horns melding wonderfully in tight unisons, interspersed with bebop drum breaks. Thereafter, their magnificent interweavings and pithy interjections, suggesting a Mingus frontline, framed some tasty soloing. With his incisive note placement and elegant tone, Brönner (Germany's best-selling jazz musician) showed he was also more than capable of the sort of spontaneous invention familiar to Wogram and Erdmann. One of the peaks was a duet between Lucaciu and Sommer, by turns playful, syncopated and responsive.

Although Sommer played in only the final set each evening, his fingerprints were all over the preceding sets from a variety of collaborators chosen to showcase the breadth of his interests. Some he placed in unfamiliar combinations. Gunda Gottschalk (violin) and Xu Fengxia (guzheng: a sort of zither, and sanxian: a three-stringed lute) joined Italian Fabrizio Puglisi (piano) to morph across a series of on-the-fly structures. More rhythmic than the instrumentation might suggest, they touched on martial grooves, lilting ditties and madcap swirls, all laced with humor and impetuous virtuosity. None of the three participants in Clarinet Summit had played together before, and only Italian veteran Gianluigi Trovesi had played with Sommer. Dutch bass clarinetist Joris Roelofs held center stage, flanked by Trovesi (alto clarinet) and Julius Gawlik (Bb clarinet). The encounter turned sinuous, conversational, ex...

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NEW RELEASES - KEN WEISS

GÜNTER BABY SOMMER & THE LUCACIU 3 – CARAVAN - INTAKT

TREVOR DUNN'S CONVULSING TRIO WITH FOLIE A QUARRE - SESSIONS – PYROCLASTIC

JAMES BRANDON LEWIS QUARTET – MOLECULAR SYSTEMATIC MUSIC LIVE – INTAKT

SATOKO FUJI & JOE FONDA – THREAD OF LIGHT FSR

DAVID MURRAY-BRAD JONES-HAMID DRAKE BRAVE NEW WORLD TRIO – SERIANA – INTAKT

AHMAD JAMAL – EMERALD CITY NIGHTS LIVE AT THE PENTHOUSE (1963-1964) – JAZZ DETECTIVE

WADADA LEO SMITH - THE EMERALD DUETS – TUM MILES OKAZAKI – THISNESS – PI

FRANK KIMBROUGH - 2003-2006 VOLUME ONE

LULLABLUEBYE VOLUME TWO PLAY – PALMETTO

TONY MALABY'S SABINO – THE CAVE OF WINDS -PYROCLASTICS

Günter Baby Sommer profileerde zich als een van de cruciale Duitse percussionisten in de jaren tachtig, met een reeks albums voor het FMP-label en een verschijning op de allereerste release van Intakt Records. Vier decennia later is de drummer nog altijd sterk bezig. In het gezelschap van de broers Lucaciu slalomt hij rond de paaltjes die het grensgebied tussen vorm en abstractie aanduiden. Er wordt lekker zwierig gestoeid met hymne-achtige thema's (opener Dunkle Wolken), gerefereerd aan Albert Aylers kromme kerkgang (Impressions of Little Bird), gedanst (Samba Pastouron) en een hommage gebracht aan dadaïst Hugo Ball in de onweerstaanbare titeltrack, waarin Sommer zelf het nonsensgedicht voordraagt terwijl hij een vieve groove aanhoudt. Dat, samen met wat frictie en schoonheid, zorgt ervoor dat de bijna-tach-tiger tekent voor een laat carrièrehoogte-punt met vele gezichten.

HERE’S an amalgam of generations. Gunter Baby Sommer is a renowned free drummer, born in wartime Dresden in 1943. The three Lucaciu brothers from Plauen, Germany are four decades younger. Antonio plays alto sax, Simon piano and Robert bass.
Their album Karawane, recorded in Cologne, begins with a traditional tune exposing war’s dark cloud, Dunkle Wolken. Everything that follows falls under its consciousness, with Sommer’s relentless percussive drive sounding even in silence through the album’s every note.
Antonio is an expressively adroit hornman. On Zeitwandlerin he blows almost like a child with Simon’s stepping piano and Robert’s vibrating strings, while on Impressions of Little Bird his tone is full, his range dramatic.
As for the years-defiant Sommer, hear his gallimaufry of drums on Unter Jedem Dach ein Ach, while the album’s title tune rocks with his sonic glory and vocal exhortations as ages and eras are memorably unified.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/c/album-reviews-tony-burke-steve-johnson-chris-searle

Dans un genre plus robuste, nous retrouvons l’immense batteur Günter Baby Sommer, en compagnie du Lucaciu 3, trois frères : Antonio, saxo-alto, Simon, piano, Robert, contrebasse, les deux derniers compositeurs d’une partie des douze pièces du disque, les autres, simples et attachantes, étant signées Sommer. On a plaisir à retrouver le jeu “à l’ancienne” du percussionniste, le son acoustique de ses tambours et cymbales, son swing qui s’inscrit dans la tradition revendiquée de la musique afro-américaine, tout cela conjugué avec le free jazz libertaire est-allemand des années 70. Les trois frères, de deux générations plus jeunes et qu’on penserait être tentés par le post-moderniste comme ci-dessus, s’inscrivent volontairement dans l’Histoire, ce qui rend la confrontation stimulante. « Karawane »

NOUVEAUTÉ. Cette nouvelle création du batteur/percussionniste allemand fait référence au poème sonore de Hugo Ball, créé en 1916 au cours d'une de ces "Nuits Dada" au fameux Cabaret Voltaire de Zurich, alors que l'Europe se déchire pendant la première guerre mondiale.

Associé à la crème du jazz européen des années 1970, Peter Brötzman, Evan Parker, Alexander Von Schlippenbach, Peter Kowald, pour n'en citer que quelques-uns, Günter Baby Sommer compte parmi les artistes qui ont forgé l'identité de la musique improvisée dans l'Europe de l'Est. Aujourd'****, en s'entourant des frères Lucaciu pour l'écriture et la réalisation de cet album, le batteur a voulu jeter un pont sémantique et musical entre l'esthétique turbulente des Kurt Schwitters, Tristan Tzara et Hugo Ball, et le langage du jazz le plus actuel, nourri de la tradition afro-américaine et de la musique classique européenne. Rompu au rituel des concerts-lectures donnés dans les années 1970 avec l'écrivain Günter Grass, Sommer propose un album-concept pouvant s'envisager comme une suite en douze parties, un poème percussif où des combinaisons structurales complexes (Dukle Wolken, Unter Jedem Dach Ein Ach, MKK 103 Brevarium) côtoient des formes d'écriture plus maîtrisées (Zeitwanderin), voire apaisées (Dialogue), sans jamais se départir du swing, ni de la théâtralité du propos (Karawane). La musique s'aventure même dans les territoires chers à Albert Ayler où le saxophone libertaire trempé de blues d'Antonio Lucaciu fait merveille (Impression Of Little Bird, Hymns). Conçu avec exigence et servi avec brio par des musiciens inspirés, voici un album faisant écho à des préoccupations musicales et politiques d'une brûlante actualité.

Prior to 1989 Dresden-born Baby (as in Dodds) Sommer was arguably East Germany's most prominent improviser. Some Soviet-bloc players seemed to lose purpose after the Wall came down that year, but Sommer kept working right along; he already had plenty of contacts on the other side. As Karawane demonstrates, his playing has personality. He likes to run with complex walloping patterns to whip a band. Stomping the old folk tune "Dunkle Wolken" (Dark Clouds), Baby's snapback full-kit tattoo seems to echo itself. His attack is typically crisp; he can get that dried-peas-poured, every stroke distinct effect, even on a choked or muffled tom, that is a marker of European free drummers. He also likes bright pingy sounds from cymbals, including a tiny piercing one he'll use to cap a phrase or tune: the bell at the end of a typewritten line. His long solo intro to "Unter Jedem Dach Ein Ach" lays out his sonic palette and conversational approach; for the first couple of minutes it's also at conversational volume, with full rhythmic authority. He's not a ride-cymbal rider, but for swing cred, hear his setting of Hugo Ball's dada sound poem "Karawane." Singing it, Sommer makes those luxuriant schwittersy syllables swing in a way other sound-poem interpreters decidedly don't, but then he has his own eight-beat Tunisian Night syncopated drums to boot him along.

Karawane teams him with a trio of two-generations-younger German brothers conveniently lacking a drummer: Antonio (alto), Simon (piano) and Robert (bass) Lucaciu, at least a couple of whom were born in the late 1980s, who started playing early their parents are violinists and who each pursue non-family projects also. To hear how well they and Sommer all get on there's Simon's backbeat bounce "Pan" with supple leapfrogging from piano and alto in torrid, skillet-dancing Arthur Blythe mode, bass meantime weaving around the walloping. Lucaciu 3 are comfortable moving between swing and open time, and sound more than happy to have Baby on board.

The Lucacius do like to get quiet, as on Robert's "AEther" and Simon's "Dialogue," and the drummer may lay back and let them set the terms. "AEther" begins with Sommer's backwards gong effects: mallet a cymbal from quiet to loud then quickly cut it off. Tethered to an ascending alto line, the piece moves through a few related moods: a music-boxy spackled soundscape, then a slow tempo sleepwalk with Baby fluttering on the tubs, leading to time-suspended stasis, and then something like a straight melody statement. The meander "Dialogue," built around a tricky little bass ostinato played a couple of slightly different ways, also moves from an open texture to a fuller one.

At the other extreme there's Robert's obstreperous "Impressions of Little Bird," which sounds like an Ayler fanfare with chromatic digressions: "Ghosts" remade as a showtune. Sommers drives his own "Samba Postouron" with another slapback beat; you can hear the Rio Carnaval march rhythms behind it, even if the melody's closer to a Rollins calypso. But there are wrinkles: all four musos slip out of and back into time play, over and over, maybe too much. (It's only four and a half minutes.) At one point Antonio injects a little laughing alto, as if to distance himself a little from the hijinx - the kind of "ironic" move that gives some free music partisans the fits.

The exit processional is Sommer's "Hymnus," rendered vaguely gospelly with rolling piano chords, a pentatonic line whose lowest pitch is oft repeated: a short simple tune you can embellish or play straight as needed. Antonio gets the right church-alto rasp, confirming his chameleonic quality - he'll be whoever you need him to be. (But what does he want?)

This project looks like someone's smart idea to call attention to the talented Lucacius. Seems to've worked.

Uscite calibrate

Una politica di uscite calibrata, uno scadenziario adatto a far circolare bene la musica creativa. Questo lo spirito della We Insist. In arrivo segnaliamo, con una dedica «ai volatili, alle creature del mondo e alle loro migrazioni>> Three Tsuru Origami, palpitante trio in improvvisazione senza pianoforte e senza rete, con sax e tromba di Gabriele Mitelli, il basso di John Edwards, la batteria di Mark Sanders: un viaggio nella Chicago free dei Sixties con un approccio selvatico e vitale post punk. Il piano di Giorgio Pacorig e il basso di Gabriele Evangelista supportano l'effervescente batteria poliritmica di Cristiano Calcagnile in Inversi, un trio che mostra quanto ancora sia possibile raccontare con questa formazione, satura di storia: ma in movimento. Per la svizzera Intakt esce Karawane, del leggendario batterista avantgarde Günter Baby Sommer signore delle poliritmie con i Lucaciu 3, tre fratelli di due generazioni più giovani, con il sax ayleriano di Simon davvero impressionante. Un'intesa stupefacente, a dimostrare come l'anagrafe a volte sia davvero solo un'opinione.

Die erste Platteneinspielung, an der er beteiligt war, stammt von 1965.
Günter <> Sommer hat sich in seiner Karriere von den Radebeuler Tanzrhythmikern zu einem der profiliertesten Schlagzeuger des modernen Jazz entwickelt. Nächstes Jahr wird der Trommelveteran aus. Dresden achtzig Jahre alt.
Sommer ist ein klangbewusster Schlagzeuger mit einem Gespür für die melodischen Seiten des Instruments. Der Dresdener spielt kein Schlagzeug von der Stange, sondern eine höchst individuelle Zusammenstellung spezieller Trommeln, Pauken, Becken und Gongs, auf denen er eine ganz eigene Diktion entwickelt hat. Vielleicht sollte man ihn her al Perkussionisten betrachten, der mit Timbres, Klanggeweben und Akzenten arbeitet, die bis ins Geräuschhafte gehen können. Für das Album Karawane hat sich Sommer mit den Brüdern Antonio, Simon und Robert Lucaciu aus Leipzig zusammengetan und einen melodiestarken Jazz mit starkem rhythmischen Fundament entworfen, der manchmal fast hvmnisch gerät und mit kurzen Abstechern in die Welt der Dur-Tonalität an das klassische Quartet von Keith Jarrett mit dem Saxofonisten Dewey Redman aus den 1970er Jahren erinnert. in Dutzend Titel enthält das Album, die von Sommer, aber auch von zwei der Lucaciu-Brüder stammen und ein weites stilistisches Feld abstecken, das von packenden Groove-Nummern im Shufle-Beat über träumerische Balladen und raffiner verschachtelten Jazzminimalismus bis zu Ausflügen in Samba und Calypso reicht. Oft bilden Sommers Schlagmuster die Ausgangsbasis der Titel, über die Antonio Lucaciu mit seinem Altsaxofon ekstatische Linien bläst. Sein Bruder Simon antwortet mit luftigen Klavierakkorden und originellen Dissonanzen, während Robert Lucaciu am Bass für die nötige Erdung sorgt. In einem Stück verwandelt sich der Drummer in einen Oberdada, der selbstgestrickte Lautgedichte à la Hugo Ball oder Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate rezitiert. Im Unterschied zu dieser «Boy Band>> ist Sommers Kiecktett ein paritätisch besetztes Ensemble, in welchem Uli Kieckbusch Piano, Katharina Sommer Querflöte und Laura Strobl Bratsche spielt. > nennen die vier ihr musikalisches Konzept, was bedeutet: Hier kann Auskomponiertes für sich alleine stehen, aber auch als Wegweiser fungieren, um dem freien Spiel eine Richtung zu geben und so Redundanzen zu vermeiden. Stimmungen und Atmosphären varieren. Die Kombination der Instrumente wird vielfältig genutzt, wobei manchmal nur zwei, manchmal drei der Beteiligten miteinander interagieren, dann aber auch wieder das ganze Ensemble zum Einsatz kommt. Mit der chinesischen Hulusi-Mundorgel, einem Instrument mit Messingzunge, gespielt von Katharina Sommer, kommt ein ganz anderer Klang ins Spiel, den Uli Kieckbusch mit der Mundharmonika flankiert, während Günter Sommer auf einem Marimbafon ein komplexes Schlagmuster unterlegt, was für weitere Abwechslung in dieser an Vielfalt und Originalität nicht armen Musik sorgt.