Peter Brotzmann - The "WELS" Concert

Musicians

Peter Brötzmann — tarogato, e-flat clarinet, alto & tenor sax

Hamid Drake — frame drum, tablas, drums

Mahmoud Gania — guembri, voice

Cover and Artwork

Cover art: Raimund van Well
Cover concept: Peter Brötzmann
Graphics: Louise Molnar

Songs

1. Part 1 (25:46) (MPEG2)

2. Part 2 (25:15)

3. Part 3 (19:17)

total time: 70:20

All compositions by Peter Brötzmann (GEMA) and Hamid Drake (Smiling Forehead/BMI)

Recording Info

Recorded at Schlachthof Wels (Austria) — Festival Music Unlimited 96, November 8, 1996

Produced by: Peter Brötzmann, Hamid Drake, IMI-Gerlinde Koschik, John Corbett
Executive Producer: Bruno Johnson
Engineer: Franz Prummer
Final mastering and editing: John McCortney (Airwaves Studios)

Reviews

...you’ll find no political themes on The “Wels” Concert (OkkaDisk), but the trance-inducing polyrhythms whipped up by Moroccan guembri (an acoustic instrument that resembles a bass guitar) player Mahmoud Gania and American drummer Hamid Drake command an especially primal yet nuanced performance from German reed player Peter Brötzmann. You might have heard him with Last Exit or in duet with his guitarist son Caspar, but this disc exceeds those performances for sheer hypnotic power.

[picked as one of the best five free/jazz albums of 1997]

— Bill Meyer, Magnet, Jan/Feb 1998