| Open Secrets | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Studio album by | |
| Released | 1988 |
| Recorded | January 1988 |
| Studio | FMP Studio, Berlin |
| Genre | Free jazz |
| Label | FMP FMP 1190 FMP CD 132 |
| Producer | Jost Gebers |
Open Secrets is a solo bass album by Peter Kowald. It was recorded in January 1988 at the FMP Studio in Berlin, and was released on LP later that year by the FMP label. [1] [2] FMP reissued the album on CD in 2008. [3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz |   [4] |
| All About Jazz | [5] |
The authors of the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings called the album "a remarkable record," noting that it "makes a steady progress through areas that sound predetermined but which are encountered according to chance-driven logic that throws up challenging transitions and juxtapositions." [4] In a review for All About Jazz , Nic Jones stated that the album "presents the sound of a formidable technician without letting that dubious asset get in the way of musical expression. The results are compelling." [5]
Writing for Point of Departure, Francesco Martinelli described the album as an "exceptional snapshot of [Kowald's] life and art," and commented: "There are so many different things going on on this recording that time flashes by and at the end one cannot wait to hear it again." [6] Bill Meyer of Dusted Magazine wrote: "this record's nine tracks are marvelously focused, the musical ideas succinctly articulated, the soul behind them ever evident." [7] In an article for Paris Transatlantic, Clifford Allen remarked: "Each of these vignettes contains a heavy dose of personality, and you can hear Kowald the human being throughout." [8]
All compositions by Peter Kowald.
Peter Brötzmann was a German jazz saxophonist and clarinetist regarded as a central and pioneering figure in European free jazz. Throughout his career, he released over fifty albums as a bandleader. Amongst his many collaborators were key figures in free jazz, including Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton and Cecil Taylor, as well as experimental musicians such as Keiji Haino and Charles Hayward. His 1968 Machine Gun became "one of the landmark albums of 20th-century free jazz".
Peter Kowald was a German free jazz and free improvising double bassist and tubist.
Konrad "Conny" Bauer is a German free jazz trombonist. He is the brother of the trombonist Johannes Bauer.
For Adolphe Sax is the debut album by free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. It was initially released on Brötzmann's Brö label in 1967, and was reissued on LP by FMP in 1972. In 2002, it was reissued, with an additional track, on CD by the Atavistic label, and in 2014, the original three tracks were reissued on CD by Cien Fuegos Records.
Barry John Guy is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Buxton Orr, and later taught there.
Harold Simon Miller was a South African jazz double bassist, who lived for most of his adulthood in England.
Free Music Production (FMP) is a German record label that specialises in free jazz.
Wisdom in Time is an album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and German drummer Günter Baby Sommer, which was recorded in 2006 and released on the Swiss Intakt label.
Was Da Ist is a solo album by German free jazz bassist Peter Kowald which was recorded in Germany in 1994 for the FMP label.
If You Want the Kernels You Have to Break the Shells is an album by a free jazz trio consisting of German bassist Peter Kowald, American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, and German drummer Günter Sommer, which was recorded live in 1981 and released on the German FMP label. The two tracks from the side A of the album were combined on the CD reissue with Touch the Earth, another album by the same trio.
Never Too Late But Always Too Early is a two-CD live album by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, bassist William Parker, and drummer Hamid Drake. It was recorded in April 2001 at Casa del Popolo in Montréal, and was released in 2003 by Eremite Records. The album is dedicated to Peter Kowald.
Die Like a Dog: Fragments of Music, Life and Death of Albert Ayler is a live album by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, bassist William Parker, and drummer Hamid Drake. It was recorded in August 1993 at Townhall Charlottenburg in Berlin, and was released in 1994 by FMP. The group, which would go on to tour and make multiple recordings, became known as the Die Like a Dog Quartet.
Blown Bone is an album by trombonist Roswell Rudd. It was recorded in March 1976 at Blue Rock Studios in New York City, and was released on LP by Philips Japan in 1979. On the album, Rudd is joined by clarinetist Kenny Davern, saxophonists Steve Lacy and Tyrone Washington, trumpeter Enrico Rava, vocalist Sheila Jordan, pianist Patti Bown, guitarist and vocalist Louisiana Red, bassist Wilbur Little, and drummers Jordan Steckel and Paul Motian. The album was reissued on CD by Emanem Records in 2006 with a different track sequence, and with an additional track recorded in 1967 featuring another ensemble.
Alarm is a live album by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. It was recorded on November 12, 1981, at NDR Studio 10 in Hamburg, Germany, during the 164th NDR-Jazzworkshop, and was released in 1983 by FMP/Free Music Production. On the album, Brötzmann is joined by saxophonists Willem Breuker and Frank Wright, trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, trombonists Hannes Bauer and Alan Tomlinson, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Harry Miller, and drummer Louis Moholo. In 2006, the album was reissued on CD by Atavistic Records as part of their Unheard Music Series.
Live at Kassiopeia is a live album by saxophonist Julius Hemphill and bassist Peter Kowald. It was recorded in Wuppertal, Germany, on January 8, 1987, and was released by NoBusiness Records as a double album in both LP and CD format in 2011, 24 years later. Disc 1 features three Hemphill solos followed by a Kowald solo, while disc 2 contains three duos.
Berlin Djungle is a live album by the Brötzmann Clarinet Project, led by Peter Brötzmann, and featuring an eleven-piece band that was assembled for a concert at JazzFest Berlin. Documenting a performance of a single 47-minute work, it was recorded on November 4, 1984, at the Delphi Theater in Berlin, and was released on vinyl in 1987 by FMP/Free Music Production. In 2004, it was reissued on CD by Atavistic Records as part of their Unheard Music Series. On the album, Brötzmann is joined by clarinetists Tony Coe, J.D. Parran, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Louis Sclavis, and John Zorn, trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, trombonists Alan Tomlinson and Johannes Bauer, double bassist William Parker, and drummer Tony Oxley.
Schwarzwaldfahrt is an album by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and percussionist Han Bennink. It was recorded during May 9–11, 1977, in the open air of the Black Forest in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, using a Stellavox tape recorder, and was initially released on vinyl later that year by the FMP label. In 2005, Atavistic Records reissued the album on CD as part of their Unheard Music Series, with previously unreleased tracks. The album was reissued on vinyl in 2012 by the Cien Fuegos imprint of Trost Records, and, in 2022, Trost reissued it again in limited quantities, accompanied by a 120-page book containing photos and an essay by novelist David Keenan.
Father of Origin is a box set album by multi-instrumentalist Juma Sultan and his open-ended ensemble the Aboriginal Music Society. Drawn from Sultan's archive of recorded material, and released by Eremite Records in 2011, it consists of two vinyl LPs, a CD, and a book containing photos and an extensive essay by jazz scholar Michael Heller, all of which help to document aspects of the loft jazz era of the early 1970s.
European Echoes is an album by trumpeter Manfred Schoof on which he is joined by members of the Manfred Schoof Orchestra, a large ensemble of free jazz musicians. Consisting of a single half-hour track, it was recorded during June 1969 in Bremen, Germany, and was issued on vinyl later that year by FMP as the label's inaugural release. It appeared in three editions, each of which had its own cover design. In 2002, the album was reissued on CD by Atavistic Records as part of their Unheard Music Series, and in 2013, it was reissued on vinyl by Cien Fuegos, an imprint of Trost Records.
Lost & Found is a live solo album by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. It was recorded on July 14, 2006, at Kampenjazz in Nickelsdorfer Konfrontationen in Nickelsdorf, Austria, and was released in 2009 by the FMP label.