CD Ride into the Blue

You already know by who is involved here that this plate is gonna be gone, don't ya? And you're right, but misjudging the proverbial blowhard free jazz mantra just a bit. There are six tunes here, supposedly four of them created on the spot, with one each by Borah Bergman and Thomas Borgmann.
But it feels as if everything here was rehearsed and piloted into the stratosphere -- and yes, that is a good thing. Hearing the titanium lungs of Peter Brötzmann playing a restrained and loping alto saxophone to Borgmann's shredding tenor and lilting sopranino is something akin to pure atonal joy.
When driven and underscored by the elliptical harmonic languages of pianist Bergman, the noise this trio makes becomes full of spaces and lush dynamics that make you rub your eyes and look at the record sleeve again.
One good listen to "Tomorrow Is No Question" should be enough to convince anybody that free jazz is more that gutting the horns and slashing the strings.

These spaces are majestic and haunting at once; they whisper in minor and diminished sixths and drop the entire family of demons down with shrill legato squawks and shrieks in the very next moment but, like a Hitchcock film, you know it's coming.
There are also moments of true exploration here, such as on "Surfing the Blues," when Bergman ushers an invitation for both horn players to engage in a lively session of overtonal interplay with his piano and with each other.
The tempos change and the dynamics shift more subtly because of the intensity of the piece. But the grandest thing here, and by far the most creative collectively, is the improvisation "Stranger in the City," which lasts for nearly half an hour.
No one has ever heard Brötzmann play with such alchemical liquidity and economy of lyrical language, no matter how frayed the piece gets in sections.

The tinge of silence is always present in Bergman's right hand, playing ghostly in the middle registers with elegance and restraint as Borgmann intones chromatically on the sopranino and then plays with it in the context of the feeling of strangeness and alienation.
It's breathtaking. What an album!
~ All Music Guide

CD BLUE ZOO

Oh yeah, here we go. Three of free improv's wildest wonders in a set of spontaneous compositions set to curl the hair on the back of your neck and send you screaming into the night. Nah, it's not all that bad -- or good, depending on your point of view -- but this is a fine example of how the spontaneous composition principle works when it's displayed by three monster musicians such as these.
With two sax players (and Brötzmann also plays bass clarinet) and a pianist all waiting for the moment to cut loose -- and wait, and wait, and wait -- the results are bound to be a bit daunting.
And while it's true they are, they're also a hell of a lot of fun. Here tensions are created endlessly, it seems, just to see who is going to break and tear into the open field of improvisation first. Certainly "Clear Visions" is like this, as are the title track and "Stride Ahead."

Elsewhere the trio seems to engage one another in creating loose intervals of improvisation, evoking senses of time and even rhythm in places, which is an illusion.
The intervals created are for polytonal engagement, especially between the two saxophonists. As these duels ensue as they do on "Right Now" and "One Block West," Borah Bergman tears into the high register and establishes a percussive ostinato that falters in between intervals and moves off to create another it cannot sustain; there's too much going on tonally to stay put for very long at all.
Hence this is a rabid-dog dialogue that is more restrained than it would at first appear, but is nonetheless wilder than 99 percent of the free improv work out there.
It may not be for the faint-hearted, but it is truly rewarding music.
~ All Music Guide

CD STALKER SONGS

Thomas Borgmann's trio, with the late Denis Charles on drums and Wilbur Morris on bass, was a formidable unit. They were capable of bringing together both side of the jazz avant-garde (the fiery, wildly dissonant, and intense side with the space exploring, multi-textured, microtonally conscious side) effortlessly, and often within the same composition. This is no mean feat for a trio.
When saxophone wailing Wotan Peter Brötzmann was added to the equation for this impromptu date, it would seem that the scales tip decidedly in favor of one side. Not so.

The two tracks here and both spontaneous improvisations recorded in one day (the band played two half hour sets, had a two hour rest, and played two more). The tracks included are the first half-hour from each set. Here both saxophonists placed themselves solidly in front of one another and instinctually ask to be led by the rhythm section.
Anyone who is familiar with Charles and Morris knows the power they are capable of summoning on a moments notice. Given how much younger Borgmann is than the rest of this group, it is stunning to hear how well he holds his own and even thrives in this setting.

There is no intimidation factor; he and Brötzmann move through each other like big immutable spirits, coloring the air with scalar inventions, tonal scrambles, and honking and squealing in rhythm.
The rhythm section has no trouble with cracking the whip on both men. Charles and Morris make an offering to the realms of texture, consistency, and spatial exploration all around the pair.

When it's all over, the listener is exhausted, having been taken to many places and through many changes in harmonic dimension and a palette of colors so rich and deep, it's a wonder they don't all run together.
And since this is the last session that Denis Charles played on -- he died at age 64 after touring with this band for a month -- it is a fitting send off for an artist of his stature.
~ All Music Guide

CD ORGANIC

This live date from 1997 features reedman Thomas Borgmann with bassist Wilber Morris and the late Denis Charles on drums performing in Germany. Though it was the first show of a tour, there is no hesitation on the part of the trio.
Sound begins to come from Charles, who ushers in a rubbing of his kit, a few taps to the wood, and then Borgmann enters with one short line, then a long line, then an invitation to Morris.
When the pizzicato begins, slowly at first, in tandem with Charles motioning around the kit with a loose orderly direction, it becomes Borgmann's cue to move into the space and begin to speak in those gorgeous elongated legato phrases of his, edges off the tone, but biting nonetheless.

Charles is his fixture, compelling him, edging him toward the ledge that Morris finally urges him to leap over in "Down Under." Almost 19 minutes long, this opening track better sums up the language of articulation used by this trio than anything else on the set, though all of its is worthwhile.
Other moments in the shop that offer flashes of lightning the darkness include the stunning multiphonics Borgmann employs in "Organic Sweet," and his below-the-belt Sonny Rollins low notes in "Ode to Sonny." Morris and Charles don't have to worry about containing or keeping up with Borgmann; they are deeply connected to his sound world, crisscrossing tonalities and sonorous problems with the ease of a child.

There are moments of thunder and moments of pastoral richness and pure emotion as these three take on the cosmic muse and create a series of microtonal improvisations that leave the listener stunned.
~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

CD BOOM SWING

While everything on this disc is worth discussing, its large suite, "Nastysweet Parts I & II," which covers over half the CD, is the place to fix your focus on. "Nastysweeet" is a gargantuan piece of group improvisation in which the entirety of Western music is called into question and found wanting.
The stalwart, visionary rhythm section of the late Denis Charles and bassist Wilber Morris accompanies saxophonist Thomas Borgmann, who uses tenor, soprano, and sopranino horns here.

Morris, who leads in ominously, plays single-note octaves and whole tones, re-tuning as he plays. Borgmann joins him sparingly, drifting in cautiously, playing in between those notes and around them with the bass at the center.
Charles is heard from in a sudden crash of cymbals and bass drum before easing his way in with fragments centered around Morris.

It is at this moment that Borgmann chooses to introduce the melody, steeped in blues and modalism and something else, a certain tonal inquiry that asks deep questions of both of them and never attempts to answer them -- at least to any kind of satisfaction.

As the piece takes off it becomes a no-holds-barred, three-sided argument for freedom and from consonance, an assent to dissonance -- not for its own sake, but for stripping away the historical layers that made it dissonant in the first place.

This is language music: it tells stories, it erects enormous harmonic temples that crash without a moment's notice, it breaks intervals in its teeth and boils them down into a squawking soup that pours forth in ribbons of pure sound.
It's almost impossible to listen to the other two cuts here because these are so dramatic and full of emotion they leave the listener exhausted. But that's a small complaint.
~ All Music Guide

CD You See What We're saying'?

The BMN Trio is Thomas Borgmann on saxophones, Wilber Morris on bass, and Reggie Nicholson on drums. The Trio is the successor to an earlier group with Denis Charles, whose death led to the substitution of Nicholson.
Evidently, the trio made this recording in conjunction with a national tour, and the session has the feel of a concert performance, with the four tunes averaging more than fifteen minutes apiece.

The "you were there" production technique (a characteristic of all CIMP releases) of engineer Marc Rusch adds to that feeling, as the dynamics and sound vary dramatically without any artificial recording cushion.

Borgmann is a powerful performer, who when given time to stretch, displays a remarkable diversity of style; and Morris and Nicholson provide strong support.
More than many CDs, this one requires close listening due to the sometimes-slow buildup (particularly on the lengthy "Goodbye Mr. Charles) and organic development.
~ Steve Loewy, All Music Guide

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