Free improvisation and European free

Movement · 1966 → · Berlin, Amsterdam, London · Avant-garde and collectives

In Germany, the Netherlands and England, a generation of musicians (Brötzmann, Schlippenbach, Mengelberg, Bennink, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey) breaks away from American free jazz toward collective improvisation without theme or idiom, with its own cooperative labels (ICP in 1967, FMP in 1969, Incus in 1970). The Globe Unity Orchestra (Berlin, November 1966) and "Machine Gun" (1968) are its founding acts, regarded as major documents of European free jazz.

Where it comes from

• Free jazz
• Dutch jazz

What it gave rise to or influenced

• ECM and European jazz
• Downtown New York, No Wave
• Krautjazz (German jazz-rock)

Artists

• Derek Bailey (1930–2005, guitar)
• Misha Mengelberg (1935–2017, piano, composition)
• Wolfgang Dauner (1935–2020, piano, keyboards, synthesizer)
• Clusone Trio (alto saxophone, clarinet, cello, drums)
• Willem Breuker (1944–2010, saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet)
• Ernst Reijseger (1954, cello)
• Wolter Wierbos (1957, trombone)
• Michiel Braam (1964, piano)
• Tony Overwater (1965, double bass)

Tracks to start with

• Machine Gun — Peter Brötzmann Octet (1968)
• Globe Unity — Globe Unity Orchestra (Alexander von Schlippenbach) (1966)
• Japan Japon — ICP Orchestra (Misha Mengelberg) (1982)
• Hangover Triangle — ICP Orchestra (Misha Mengelberg) (1984)
• Four in One — ICP Orchestra (Misha Mengelberg) (1986)
• Bella Coola — Clusone Trio (1993)
• Anything I Can Do, I Can Do Better — Clusone Trio (1993)
• Duke Edward/Misère — Willem Breuker Kollektief (1991)
• Forty Five Steps — Willem Breuker Kollektief (1990)
• Jangelma — Ernst Reijseger, Mola Sylla & Serigne C.M. Gueye (2003)
• voor de wind — Wolter Wierbos (2009)
• Tristano — Bik Bent Braam (Michiel Braam) (1996)
• Child in Time — Bik Bent Braam (Michiel Braam) (2000)
• Rumbone — Benjamin Herman (2000)
• Tale of the Fisherman — Tony Overwater & Atzko Kohashi (2023)
• Nightsong Aches — Michiel Braam (Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher) (2006)

Sources

• Source

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