This is a surprising album – at least for those not well acquainted with the career of Manfred Schoof. I was expecting free jazz, but in fact it’s jazz-rock with a free-ish tinge.
Born in Magdeburg, Germany in 1936, Schoof studied composition in Cologne with the great classical composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, plus trumpet and piano. In 1963-5 he was a member of Gunter Hampel’s quartet. Then in 1965-8, with Gerd Dudek, Alex Schlippenbach, Buschi Niebergall and Jacki Liebezeit, he led one of the first European free jazz groups. He worked with the Globe Unity Orchestra from its founding in 1966 until it disbanded in 1989, and also worked with Mal Waldron 1974–80. But then that list of associates suggests someone who plays inside as well as outside.
Schoof has released a relatively small number of albums under his own name – perhaps showing the high standards he applies – and he agreed to the release of this recording by his second quintet at Bremen music club Römer. On bass and drums are Günter Lenz and Ralf Hübner, members of the original Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet. Michel Pilz is on bass clarinet and Rainer Brüninghaus – who I recall working with Eberhard Weber – is on piano, electric piano and synth. The recording by Radio Bremen is excellent.
Most compositions are by the leader, and each gets a long workout by the quartet. On the engaging, uptempo Neum, Schoof opens the album with a blistering solo. On Resonance, essentially a vamp, there’s a long and involving solo by Pilz on bass clarinet, then a possibly less coherent one by Brüninghaus. There are two compositions by Ralf Hübner, including Lonesome Defender, with a long, unaccompanied and rather vapid solo by Brüninghaus, and the elegiac Weep And Cry.
Possibly bass clarinet throughout two CDs is a little unremitting – better to be a multi-instrumentalist like Dolphy – but this is a worthwhile and intriguing release.
Discography
CD1: Neum; Ostinato; Scales; Source; Lonesome Defender (70.25)
CD2: Resonance; For Marianne; Weep And Cry; Ludus Totalis (57.33)
Schoof (t, flh); Michel Pilz (bcl); Rainer Brüninghaus (p, syn); Günter Lenz (b); Ralf Hübner (d). Bremen, 2 May 1978.
Moosicus Records M1316-2
