Broetzmann, Adasiewicz, Edwards, Noble - Mental Shake (2014)

LP version. Cafe OTO's tenth Otoroku release sees a return to the group that kick-started the label -- the veteran German reedsman and free-jazz pioneer Peter Brötzmann with the long-running London bass/drums partnership of John Edwards and Steve Noble. After the release of The Worse The Better, that group went on to play a series of devastating shows in Europe and to emerge as one of Brötzmann's finest working groups. Over the same period, Peter was developing a deep rapport with Jason Adasiewicz, the upstart vibraphone player from Chicago. What seems on paper like an awkward pairing reveals itself onstage and on record as a symbiotic revelation. Adasiewicz's physical attack matching Brötzmann for impact while the extended sustain of the vibes opens up an eerie space for some of Brötzmann's most fertile lyricism. The recording is from the last set of a two-day residency at Cafe OTO that brought these two groups together for an astonishing quartet. Adasiewicz and Noble struck up an immense partnership in rhythm. Edwards wrestled with a broken house bass and failing amplifier and still managed new levels of invention -- stoking the others onwards. Brötzmann was clearly energized, dancing at the side of the stage while exchanging a shattered reed. And for all the usual rhetoric of free jazz bluster and machismo, this is a meeting characterized by the joy of communal creation that makes you want to dance -- even if only in your head. Peter Brötzmann (alto and tenor sax, B-flat clarinet, Taragato); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone), John Edwards (double bass); Steve Noble (drums).