LEGENDARY-The 27th of May 1997
GUNTER HAMPEL Heartplants QUINTET
Legendary/SPIELPLATZ/ALL THE THINGS YOU COULD BE IF CHARLES MINGUS WAS YOUR DADDY
"live" in concert MusikTriennale Köln 97 Stadtgarten
Gunter Hampel vibes,bcl,fl, Manfred Schoof tp,
Alexander v. Schlippenbach p, Arjen Gorter bass, Pierre Courbois dm
"Legendary" is once again a historic live recording reunion of Gunter's great 6o's unit.
"Genial" Radio T.Chemnitz
"die Band klingt jung und frisch und harmonisiert bestens.Die Musik pendelt zwischen expressiven und poetischen Soli sowie mitreißenden Kollektivimprovisationen" Udo Hinz
in the Stadtgarten
Results,statements of a Jazz Legend.
Köln.The Jazz-Great,Gunter Hampel,lean tall, slim and wiry opens the concert with a flute solo and presents in a few delicious minutes in his composition „legendary", a quintessence of his incomparable music-style.
Which is very melodic, virtuously using the whole range of his instruments. Always using the composition as a guideline, Hampel improvises in a spontaneous and adventurous procedure, his lines never break apart. He plays sensible and with a full tone. What a beginning of a most phantastic concert
The titel „legendary" fits the headliner „Portraits of the 97 Triennale Music Festival in Köln. "Because Hampel already is a long-time legend. The great hero of the art of impro-visation, whithout whom there probably would not be a world-wide recognized Free-Jazz, made in Germany , summed up ,in the year of his 6o th birthday,in the framework of this Festival , a great statement of the peak of his creative works. And what a great one it is : in original cast (except the late Buschi Niebergall) he presented 2 of his most famous
Gunter Hampel's Music allows in its execution the contribution of the individual styles of the band-members simultaneously, at the same time. It works. What separates good and poor Free-Jazz-Music is the here absolutely important surviving sensibility among the group-members and the thematic superstructure of the composition,on which the improvisors always have to keep an eye on, in spite of the tonal freedom.
This high art was superbly performed by Gunter Hampel,Manfred Schoof, Alexander v. Schlippenbach, Arjen Gorter and Pierre Courbois.
Under the always alert conducting (instant composing) of Gunter Hampel, iluminated by the fascinating akribic ,into the keys grabbing ,Schlippenbach, the quintet created a contra-pointic sound-construction, in which each single element embodied the complete work like a split up holography. That they can produce this out of their head as well as out of their guts proves the still existing harmony among the five players, who, 33 years ago stirred up the jazzscene for more than 2 years.
***** Recension by Kölnische Rundschau : Tasso Diedrich 1997
This performance is on CD BIRTH o45 LEGENDARY