 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(September 2021) |
Peter Kowald | |
|---|---|
 Peter Kowald in New York in 1985 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 21 April 1944 Meiningen, Germany |
| Died | 21 September 2002 (aged 58) New York City |
| Genres | Free jazz, Free improvisation |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | double bass, tuba |
| Years active | 1960s–2000 |
Peter Kowald (21 April 1944 – 21 September 2002) was a German free jazz and free improvising double bassist and tubist.
A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with many European free jazz and American free-jazz players during his career, including Peter Brötzmann, Irène Schweizer, Karl Berger, Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake, Karl E. H. Seigfried, Conny Bauer, Jeffrey Morgan, Wadada Leo Smith, Günter Sommer, William Parker, Barre Phillips, Joëlle Léandre, Alfred Harth, Lauren Newton and Evan Parker. He also recorded a number of solo double-bass albums, and was a member of the London Jazz Composer's Orchestra until 1985. He also recorded a number of pioneering double bass duets with Maarten Altena, Barry Guy, Joëlle Léandre, Barre Phillips, William Parker, Damon Smith and Peter Jacquemyn.
In addition, Kowald collaborated extensively with poets and artists and with the dancers Gerlinde Lambeck, Anne Martin (formerly of Pina Bausch Ensemble), Tadashi Endo, Patricia Parker (founder of the Vision Festival), Maria Mitchell, Sally Silvers, Cheryl Banks (formerly of Sun Ra's Arkestra), Arnette de Mille, Sayonara Pereira, and Kazuo Ohno. Specific works included Die Klage der Kaiserin (1989) with Pina Bausch, short pieces (since 1989) with Jean Sasportes, The spirit of adventure (1990) with Anastasia Lyra, Wasser in der Hand (1990/91) with Christine Brunel, and Futan no sentaku/The burden of choice (1990/91) with Min Tanaka and Butch Morris.
Besides his duo work with singers such as Jeanne Lee, Diamanda Galás, Anna Homler or Sainkho Namtchylak, Peter was especially interested in his international improvising ensemble Global Village with musicians from different cultural regions of the world: China, Japan, Near East, South Europe, North and South America.
He died of a heart attack in New York City in 2002.
Derek Bailey was an English avant-garde guitarist and an important figure in the free improvisation movement. Bailey abandoned conventional performance techniques found in jazz, exploring atonality, noise, and whatever unusual sounds he could produce with the guitar. Much of his work was released on his own label Incus Records. In addition to solo work, Bailey collaborated frequently with other musicians and recorded with collectives such as Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Company.
Peter Brötzmann is a German saxophonist and clarinetist.
Sainkho Namtchylak is a singer originally from Tuva, an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation just north of Mongolia. She is known for her Tuvan throat singing or Khöömei.
Paul Lovens is a German musician. He plays drums, percussion, singing saw, and cymbals. He has performed with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra.
Barre Phillips is an American jazz bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he moved to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972, he has been based in southern France where, in 2014, he founded the European Improvisation Center.
Irène Schweizer is a Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist. She was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
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.
Joëlle Léandre is a French double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation.
Paul William Rutherford was an English free improvising trombonist.
The Globe Unity Orchestra is a free jazz ensemble.
Alexander von Schlippenbach is a German jazz pianist and composer. He came to prominence in the 1960s playing free jazz in a trio with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lovens, and as a member of the Globe Unity Orchestra. Since the 1980s, Von Schlippenbach has explored the work of more traditional jazz composers such as Jelly Roll Morton or Thelonious Monk.
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Touch the Earth is an album by a free jazz trio consisting of American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, German bassist Peter Kowald and German drummer Günter Sommer, which was recorded live in 1979 and released on the German FMP label. It was reissued on CD in a compilation titled Touch the Earth—Break the Shells, with some tracks from If You Want the Kernels You Have to Break the Shells, another album by the same trio.
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.
Sebastian Gramss is a German double bassist, cellist, and composer of jazz and contemporary music. He received the Echo award for double bass in 2013 and 2018.
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