We’re gonna dedicate this volume of The Low End series to a somewhat lesser-known master of the double bass, Peter Kowald, one of the most prominent proponents on the European free jazz scene. Playing improvised music all his career, Kowald helped define the scene with his innovative improvisations. He said that during the years he developed some of them to a point of being compositions, although none of them was ever written down. He strongly believed that free improvisations were the essence of playing music, not only for the westerners, free jazzers particularly but to all its forms around the world and through time. Kowald said once that free improvisation “was not only a local (western, avant-garde, jazz-derived, etc) idiom but a universal musical philosophy that can encompass any scale, rhythm or song - or none of the above.” In a study dedicated to his legacy, he was described as someone who “studied the sound world of his instrument with the focus of a monk deciphering the lost classics, while always having, as he put it, little stories to tell.” Blending his knowledge of jazz, classical, and world music into his unique style of musical expression, Kowald secured a place in music history.
Peter Kowald was a member of Globe Unity Orchestra for 12 years (1966 to 1978) and for much of this time played less of a sideman role and more of an equal partner - for example, conducting the band - with the person to whom the group has become most associated, Alex von Schlippenbach. In his notes to the 20th anniversary, Schlippenbach emphasizes the importance of Kowald in creating a program that became a lot more “colorful.”
Throughout his career, Peter Kowald worked with a wide variety of improvising musicians worldwide and in many considered and unusual situations. He recorded bass duets with Barry Guy, Barre Phillips, Peter Jacquemyn, Maarten Altena, Damon Smith and William Parker, released two solo bass recordings, and had regular groups with Leo Smith and Günter Sommer; with Joëlle Léandre and dancer Anne Martin (Trio Tartini); with dancers Cheryl Banks and Arnette de Mille and cellist Muneer Abdul Fataah (Music and Movement Improvisation); a trio with pianist Curtis Clark; a trio with Canadian alto saxophonist Yves Charuest and Louis Moholo; and Principle Life with Jeanne Lee, Klaus Hoffman, and Marilyn Mazur.
During the period 1980 to 1985, he was a member of the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra. He has spent periods in the US and in Japan and recorded three duo LPs (two CDs) with US, European and Japanese musicians. He also lived in Greece and similarly played and recorded with the Greek musicians Floros Floridis and Ilias Papadopoulos. By contrast, the 12 months May 1994 to May 1995 was designated Kowald's 'Year at home' project which comprised a mixture of solo works - out of which, to some extent, the last solo CD grew (Was da ist) - and group performances.
In addition, Peter Kowald collaborated extensively with poets and artists and with the dancers Gerlinde Lambeck, Anne Martin, Tadashi Endo, Patsy Parker, Maria Mitchell, Sally Silvers, Cheryl Banks, Arnette de Mille, Sayonara Pereira, and Kazuo Ohno.
Besides his duo work with singers such as Jeanne Lee, Diamanda Galás, Anna Homler or Sainkho Namtchylak, Peter was especially interested in his international improvising ensemble Global Village with musicians from different cultural regions of the world: China, Japan, Near East, South Europe, North and South America.
He died of a heart attack in New York City in 2002. The video you’re watching in the background is an excellent introduction to his Peter Kowald’s work, and more. It contains his performance at the 2000 Empty Bottle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music (in trios with Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake, and with Floros Floridis & Günter "Baby" Sommer), and in the studio (Kowald solo and in a duo with Ken Vandermark), plus interviews with all the musicians. For the end, I think it would be best suitable to finish with his thoughts on solo performances, a format Kowald used frequently throughout his career:
“When I play, let's say a solo, tonight I played a duo, but - when I play a solo I feel I can show all my sides... So there's a meditative side, which I believe is in all of us, but there's also an aggressive side, or there's a playful side, and there's a serious side and there's a funny side... And the society doesn't allow often to show all your sides because it's formalized, or it's limited - limits you. So for example, I cannot cry in public, really. But I can cry on the bass, and people take it as - well, this man can cry on his instrument. So there's a meditative side but there are also very many other sides. And this is maybe what I'm happy about, that somehow the music saves me sometimes, in terms of - that I can show all my emotional sides, all my sides, in the music, which the society doesn't allow me to show in everyday life. In all of us - so that's a privilege, basically, to be a musician, for example, to be able to live all your sides.”
THE LOW ENDVOL.1: THE BASS THE LOW END VOL.2:CHARLES MINGUS THE LOW END VOL.3:PAUL CHAMBERS THE LOW END VOL.4: NIELS-HENNINGØRSTED PEDERSEN THE LOW END VOL.5: RON CARTER THE LOW END VOL.6: STEVE SWALLOW THE LOW END VOL.7: STANLEY CLARKE
