Peter Brötzmann/Toshinori Kondo/Sabu Toyozumi

Misha Mengelberg/Sabu Toyozumi
The Analects of Confucius
NoBusiness NBCD 175

Among Japanese Free Jazzers still resident in that country it has been drummer Sabu Toyozumi who has had the most contact with other international creative musicians. Now 81, the percussionist still plays regularly in groups usually featuring American saxist Rick Countryman. His past experiences have been with many members of the first generation of EuroImprovisers, like these sets uniting him with German tenor saxophone and tarogato player Peter Brötzmann (1941-2023) and Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg (1925-2017). Recorded almost exacytly16 years apart, 2000’s The Analects of Confucius is a classic piano-drum collaboration between Mengelberg and Toyozumi, while Complete Link’s Brötzmann- Toyozumi duo adds another element with the trumpet and electronics of fellow Nippon Toshinori Kondo (1948-2020), who elsewhere frequently played with the saxophonist.

With plenty of space at their disposal the Japanese drummer and Dutch pianist are able to stretch out at great length. In fact except for a couple of spaced plinks at the very top of “My Guru MM”, the first tune, the pianist lays out until 18 plus minutes into that track. Before that the sound field is dominated by the pivots and pressure of Toyozumi’s soloing which encompasses cowbell smacks, cymbal rebounds, metallic shrills, cowbell clunks, sticks scraping on drum tops and numerous bass drum accents. To this he adds palm slaps and the rattling of maracas and tambourines. Initially Mengelberg’s relaxed response to this agitated pounding is a slick collection of curlicue patterns, backwards chording and well-spaced single notes. Soon however he gallop into high-pitched music box-like clips and repeated low tones that match the drummer’s smacks and thumps Letting Toyozumi advance plastic sounding whacks and gong reverberations, positioned keyboard elaborations act as a challenge to or ironic comment on the drummer’s business.

While the duo concludes with a jerky, double-time version of Monk’s “Off Minor” including pre-modern shuffles from the drummer. “Teremakashi To Forest Of KEYAGU” continue sin the same vein as the initial tune, though at half its length. Thinner and more consistent the drum accompaniment moves from shuffles to tap-dance like emphasis and cascading Mylar spanks. Meantime cagy Mengelberg along with creating consistent linear projections varies the exposition with obvious Blues licks, Monkish angles, what could be standard European dance music interludes and a penultimate turn towards “Reveille”. His wrap up is a simple rhymed melody. Cowbell peals and circular but irregular cadences from the drummer at accelerating speeds play into these quick changes until a final drum clacks.

Skip forward more than a decade and a half and Toyozumi has lost none of his percussion power. But he’s also teams with Brötzmann, whose pugnacious reed cries make his playing immediately identifiable. As both build up their connection with smears, split tones and screeches (Brötzmann) and pumps, patterning and pummels (Toyozumi), the sturdy unison narrative is commented on by Kondo’s electrified oscillations with bent notes and fluttering triplets.

Throughout “First Monorail”, the subsequent nearly 48-minute centrepiece, the trumpeter often plays in unison with the saxophonist, less so with the drummer, as the three inflate, fragment and generally twist and turn the exposition every which way. Initially electrified reflux, plunger snarls and lip burbling echoes from Kondo face off against bagpipe-chanter-like strained whines from Brötzmann’s cramped tarogato tones. While the snuffling and spilling multiphonic variations seem endless and somewhat opaque, they’re open enough to intersect with drum pops and rebounds. Before the half-way point, reed smears and wallowing honks vary with spetrofluctuation and note bending as the exposition shifts from presto to lento and Kondo’s electrified triplet squeaks dissolve the more impenetrable reed textures as the drummers’ ruffs and clangs intensify. Reaching a sound consensus, Toyozumi’s measured smacks intersect with a dual horn line that touches on “Three Blind Mice” as a tremolo shaking finale.

Sadly none of the drummer’s playing partners here are still around, although happily he seems personally unstoppable if not immortal. Plus we have these records that preserve some of his more memorable  earlier collaborations.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Analects: 1. My Guru MM 2. Song For AMY (piano solo) 3. Teremakashi To Forest Of KEYAGU 4. Off MINOR

Personnel: Analects: Misha Mengelberg (piano) and Sabu Toyozumi (drums)

Track Listing: Complete:  1. To the Nature from the Heat 2. First Monorail 3. Memories of WUPPERTAL

Personnel: Complete: Toshinori Kondo (trumpet and electronics); Peter Brötzmann (tenor saxophone and tarogato) and Sabu Toyozumi (drums)