CD GEMINI+ play Sun Ra compositions
1983.We are crisscrossing europe on a DUO-tour.I still remember the long rides in the citroen.We are travelling under the sign of Gemini in the night over the autobahn.
When we talk we talk.Since 1967 we play and we talk.We both play basketball and we make believe, when we play music we play basketball.We also both paint.If we weren't so much musicians, we would have more time to paint.We are on the ride back from Nickelsdorf. Thats at the hungarian border. As things are, we packed the vibraphone,bassclarinet the altosax and our few belongings after the gig into the CX2o and are driving towards Germany. I mean,right now I drive and Marion talks.It is 2 o'clock in the morning and the sky is still dark blue."Look at the sky " I say ,pointing at the sky-canvas which gets strokes of yellow and white and red lines painted over the horizon. Every second the images change. The sun sends it creativity in throwing images through the air and puts me in aw.
" I am gonna call our ballad horizon" I add, overwhelmed by the awsome forces which take place right now above us.
"We should call our recording Gemini"Marion nodds:"we both are like twins, cut from the same stock.We look different on the outside, we come from totally different culturs but doing what we do made us partners,. we both feel what we play.We are living it, so we have something to tell. We recorded under the sign of Gemini and thats what we are. Let me contribute this painting I did from our Quartet-time," He refers to our 67,68,69 Quartet with Steve McCall and Barre Phillips.I'll never forget, how that got together. Marion had a gig in Gent for us, 1967.
I was living in Antwerp at the time and Marion and me rode with my car to the gig.A traffic jam slowed us down, so by the time we came there, Steve and Barre had already set up and a crowd of 4oo,The TV and Radio recording-people were waiting for us to start.
It was our first meeting.I knew Barre but not Steve. I hurried to set up my vibraphone.No rehearsal. I just had the time to say hello to SteveMcCall., who gave me this look. We went out on stage together. Got announced.
Still no word from Marion about anything like,what are we going to play etc..We looked at each other..>Then Marion turned around, pointed at me and said "You start." I did.I started slowly, like warming up the stove and kept going and had my ideas flow,had the 4 malletsstriking the vibes that it started to sing, and talk,I got into it, I forgot where I was. I did not see the TV-cameras, I forgot the Radio-mikrophones, I could only feel, that the audience was with me. They listened and I could feel how my notes carried into their beings. And then, without warning, came in the sound of a cymbal and brushes on the snare which were supporting my sounds,clusters,flying carpet I was weaving.a bowed bass was giving me the right bottom and a saxophone with a tone which seemed to hug the vibraphone's notes and carried the ideas my hands and spirit were
sending out into shades of colors.We kept on playing for 2 hours and a half without taking a break and kept on playing for another 25 years until Steve McCalls untimely death.
Marions voice was cutting into my memories."I think,Gemini is the best recording I have ever made.!, Plus,it is the best recorded recording I have made" refering to the great work of Martin Wieland,the master engineer."Next time we do a DUO tour together let's take our sons, Djinji and Ruomi with us , I would like them to see how their fathers work,live and see the world . And live with them through the adventures we go through in each country.It took me 2o years to find out how European people live and it took you 2o years to find out how American people and how the black people live.3 Years later we made it come true and had our teenage son's sharing their Daddy's journeys.Our sons should start early to make up their minds about taking their lives into their own hands. besides, we want to share times like these with our sons".
Barre Phillips,Gunter Hampel
1968 in Paris
MARION BROWN-
GUNTER HAMPEL