Search - Haazz & Company :: Unlawful Noise

More Extreme than Brotzman, But Is That a Good Thing?

Christopher Forbes | Brooklyn,, NY | 07/22/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I have mixed feelings about the European Free Jazz movement from the late 60s and early 70s. It took it's impetus from New York Energy jazz, mixed with the sound explorations of the British experimental school and created something unique. At it's best it was visceral, exciting and quite distinct from anything going on in the states. But at it's worst it bordered on unrelieved cacophony. The Haazz in this group is Peter Haazzveroot, a Dutch pianist and instrumentalist who is little known. He was part of the initial Dutch jazz scene, playing with Han and Peter Bennick, Peter Brotzman and many other important European musicians. He retired from music in the late 70s and went into an academic career, so his recorded output is small. That makes this disc intriguing. The disc also features many seminal musicians, beside the Bennicks and Brotzman, Johnny Dynani, and Louis Moholo. So the album is intriguing to any free jazz fan. But, unless you are a fan of relentlessly extreme music, the results are really unsatisfying. The first cut, Unlawful Noise, is truly that. It begins with a long intense section of clarinet overblowing. There is little change in dynamic and little change in texture. This is so extreme as to make Brotzman's Machine Gun sound like a love ballad. Texture finally does begin to change about halfway through the cut, but the change is too little and too late. And, the session was cobbled together from a number of different takes. The splice seams are quite clumsy and the recorded sound is sub optimal. The second cut, Agitprop Bounce is a little better, though the seams and sound are just as terrible. The cut is less dominated by group improvisation, though still noisy and dense. On this cut, Haazzveroot's piano is more evident. He is not a bad player at all, but to me, he is indistinguishable from other European pianists. He could as easily be Fred Van Der Hove or Schlippenbach as himself. There are some decent solos by Peter Bennick and Brotzman but nothing that is ground breaking for either musician. And the group improvisation is as dense and forbidding as the first cut. I feel this disc can only be recommended to true believers in the European avant-garde aesthetic. For my own ears, it's just not happening."