Bremerhaven's Heaven 1971

Ever since I started liking music, I would find artists that had live shows. I would tape live performances off the radio or ask friends if they had bootlegs. I would prize these albums because they were never officially released, but it was a good chance that I would have been part of a great group of people who could enjoy an unreleased product. One of those was Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions. Disc one on the commercial release I had in the late 1980's and would play it all the time. I was wishing it would really come out, but that was only hope. It did and I was happy to hear that my crappy tape was cleaned up.

In other instances I wish the music on the bootleg was more. Case in point was the one I am going to talk about today. This show recorded in Bremerhaven in 1971 is a crisp A+ recording. It features two tracks, but the tracks have three songs to them each. The Jan Garbarek music of this era is his most Avant-Garde. It's the music I like a lot and shows that the quartet he had was a band not to be messed with. I mean if you listen closely to Afric Pepperbird or Sart. This band is in fine form. Another turn in back time moment to catch this group could strangle you and take you away from whatever you were listening to at the time. The abrasiveness of Terje Rypdal's guitar to the thunder of Arild Andersen bass and Jan's saxophone playing is crisp to the crash of Jon Christensen drums. This is where the wonderful gift of early ECM records gained their reputation on. I get so happy just talking about it.



If you ever asked me what makes a musical group I would answer you in quartet's. One of these quartets would be this group here. They are so tight and so good at what they do, they know each others movements before we have a chance to catch up. The funny part of this quartet is that the band would never be like this ever again. In the early years of Jan Garbarek his quartet was one of the most blinding and the staple that ECM records had in their catalog. All four of the members to this day still work for ECM and put out some great stuff. I am always eager to hear what each person puts out because some of the music they do put out brings me back to when ECM and themselves are the most daring. Maybe that is why I chose this lone bootleg.



If you hunt and peck around the internet you can find this and see why I sing the praise. The music is way out there, but the fun part is just hearing how different even for 1971 Jazz was. I did a huge paper in college on what Jazz was doing in terms of direction in the 1960's. I should added more about what was doing in the early 70's. This is proof that some of the stuff was just as out there as it was in the 60's and still kept some people like me at interest. Enjoy and remember the music is not your normal Jazz, but it shows what really can happen if you give an artist his own space and let them create the wonderful colours that they can and should! By the way listen closely to the opening first track. It really sounds like a Rock band. Terje Rypdal can really scream. You will see why I love his guitar playing.