www.gunterhampelmusic.de   "GALAXIE DREAM BAND" by Thomas Keyserling
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ALL THE THINGS YOU COULD BE IF CHARLES MINGUS WAS YOUR DADDY ! (Composition by Gunter Hampel, copyright GEMA)

Can you dig that title? He definitely is a big brother for the musicians on this record.This driving force, and 
better git hit in your  soul, and SING.
I can recall earlier recordings by the galaxie  dream band, the old orchestra from 72/73 BIRTH o11 and o12)with strings and flutes and clarinets,the beautiful little compositions of <OUT FROM UNDER>(BIRTH o16), the Big Band singing with
drummer Sunny Murray <JOURNEY TO THE SONG WITHIN> (BIRTH o17),  Manhattan Morning Blues (Birth o21) or METANOIA (BIRTH o25 with Anthony Braxton): All the records tell something about the time they came out in.
Later the horns get stronger and stronger in this concept of free composing, in pieces like <TRANSFORMATION> (BIRTH o26) and <ALL IS REAL> (BIRTH o28) The percussion element is growing stronger,too.Listen to <VOGELFREI> (BIRTH o29) with it's crystal-clear picture,with its european spirit,still its not european music, it is like watching a tree - or a lark sing.
The music tells me more about the time we live in, than anything i have heard recently.these musicians are not knocking on doors, they do it.
talking about energy- o lord,don't let them drop it,bebop it,says mingus!
do we live with atomic energy,do we live with the vibration of filled  up places? Do we know?
In this music on this CD there is energy, as much as you want to bear, burning in our hearts and brains, and it can transform, because it always is love.    This is a dedication to the friend charles mingus and more even to what mingus stands for for the musicians, the driving inquisite force.
Rise!  and raise!
Listening to this music our souls can rise,singing and mingling freely with each other, up there like a cloud,which travels around the globe.
And this place belongs to us humans just like the soil we walk on.
Let me come down to this piece of music again. It is a journey, too, and a picture. a very dynamic one.
it all starts with a riff.you can hear the john handys,booker ervins and eric dolphys from the interstellar love-flight, soaring and screaming and wailing above and through it.
This ends in a beautiful melody, do you like the sound of mark  whitecage's altosaophone in there ? another mood, and then, over a spanish-like riff,played mainly by gunter's baritonsaxophone,the horns rise again,spiralling higher and higher.
and then the main theme,powerful and strong, a conclusion and a beginning.     Gunter Thomas and Mark take up their flutes. Suddenly there is so much space.They walk around.Gunter climbs up those stairs (of this hall in the goethe institut in göttingen,where the music is happening) playing from above.
They move around in the audience, showing us all the space there is in this hall. being so distant from each other, they seem to be even more close.
Martin joins,then perry and jeanne, the flutes come back to the bandstand,everybody joining in a light flight of music.
and then there is only Jeanne.  listen to her solo !
GOODBYE PORK PIE HAT -she sings a capella,touching us,letting us feel the places her voice comes from, shaping the beautiful melody.
it's the blues, softly, somberly the voice come in, accompagning jeanne, then slowly, gunter is bringing  his new idea in,a collective is building up, becoming the most astounding, towering piece of spontaneous composition i have ever heard.
They,we stand there, each one alone with the thoughts of their heart.
When it is over, we feel like baptized.The drums  bring us back into the theme,and when it comes, suddenly--it's all over. - But thank you Gunter and GALAXIE DREAM BAND for giving us such a whole picture..

         Thomas Keyserling


WHILE YOU THINK

music and words
by Gunter Hampel

while you think

keep an eye  on your thoughts

are they yours ?
are they yours ?

while you do

keep a thought on your

actions
satisfaction

desire
and your fire

burns
inside of you


CD BIRTH o31
Order List
 CD BIRTH o31  GUNTER HAMPEL GALAXIE DREAM BAND 198o  The "original"
  ALL THE THINGS YOUCOULD BE, IF CHARLES MINGUS WAS YOUR DADDY
  feat. Gunter Hampel,Jeanne Lee,Perry Robinson,Mark Whitecage,Thomas Keyserling,Martin Bues