The Globe Unity Orchestra is a free jazz ensemble. Globe Unity was formed in autumn 1966 with a commission received by Alexander von Schlippenbach from the Berlin Jazz Festival. It had its debut at the Berliner Philharmonie on 3 November combining

Gunter Hampel Gunter Hampel (born 31 August 1937) is a German jazz vibraphonist, clarinettist, saxophonist, flautist, pianist, and composer. He became dedicated to free jazz in the 1960s, developing a record label (Birth Records) and working with Jeanne Lee, ...

's quartet with

Manfred Schoof Manfred Schoof (born 6 April 1936) is a German jazz trumpeter. Career Schoof was born in Magdeburg, Germany, and studied music in Kassel and Cologne, where one of his teachers of the big band leader Kurt Edelhagen. Schoof performed on Edelhagen' ...

' s quintet and

Peter Brötzmann Peter Brötzmann (born 6 March 1941) is a German saxophonist and clarinetist. Biography Early life Brötzmann was born in Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement ...

's trio: Hampel (bcl, fl); Willem Breuker (bs, ss); Schoof (tp) with

Gerd Dudek Gerhard Rochus "Gerd" Dudek (28 September 1938 – 3 November 2022) was a German jazz Tenor saxophone, tenor and Soprano saxophone, soprano saxophonist, clarinetist and flautist. Dudek studied clarinet privately and attended music school in the ...

(ts); Alexander von Schlippenbach (p);

Buschi Niebergall Buschi Niebergall (July 18, 1938 – January 9, 1990) was a German free jazz musician. His given name was Hans-Helmut, and late in life, his friends called him Johannes. Born in the city of Marburg into a family of academics (his father was ...

(b) and Jaki Liebezeit (d) on one side, Brötzmann (saxophones), Peter Kowald (b, tuba),

Sven-Åke Johansson Sven-Åke Johansson (born 1943 in Mariestad) is a Swedish composer, drummer, poet, author and visual artist associated with European free jazz and free improvisation, who has lived in Berlin since 1968. Johansson is one of the first European free ...

(d) on the other. During the next years this core group was completed by other European and American musicians: Johannes Bauer (tb), Anthony Braxton (as, cl), Willem Breuker (ts),

Rüdiger Carl Rüdiger (English ''Ruediger'', ''Rudiger'', Roger) is a German given name. The meaning comes from Old High German: ''hruod'' (fame) and ''ger'' (spear). The name became popular because of the character Rüdiger von Bechelaren from ''Nibelung''. P ...

(as, ts),

Günter Christmann Gunter or Günter may refer to: * Gunter rig, a type of rig used in sailing, especially in small boats * Gunter Annex, Alabama, a United States Air Force installation * Gunter, Texas, city in the United States People Surname * Chris Gunter ...

(tb),

(bcl), Toshinori Kondo (tp), Steve Lacy (ss),

Paul Lovens Paul Lovens (born 6 June 1949) is a German musician. He plays drums, percussion, singing saw, and cymbals. He has performed with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra. He was born in Aachen, Germany. In the early ...

(drums),

Paul Lytton Paul Lytton (born 8 March 1947, London) is an English free jazz and free improvising percussionist. Lytton began on drums at age 16. He played jazz in London in the late 1960s while taking lessons on the tabla from P.R. Desai. In 1969 he began ...

(drums),

Albert Mangelsdorff Albert Mangelsdorff (September 5, 1928 – July 25, 2005) was a German jazz trombonist. Working mainly in free jazz, he was an innovator in multiphonics. Early life Mangelsdorff was born in Frankfurt on September 5, 1928, as the son of the book ...

(tb), Evan Parker (ss, ts),

Michel Pilz Michel Pilz (born October 28, 1945, Bad Neustadt) is a German jazz clarinetist. Pilz was a student in clarinet at the Luxembourg Conservatory in the mid-1960s, then joined Manfred Schoof's ensemble in 1968, an association he would maintain into ...

(bcl, cl, bars),

Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (10 December 1933 – 10 July 2023), often called Luten Petrowsky, was a German jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, flautist, composer and author. He is considered the father of free jazz in East Germany (GDR). He was one of f ...

(as, cl, fl), Enrico Rava (tp), Paul Rutherford (tb),

Heinz Sauer Heinz Sauer (born December 25, 1932, Merseburg) is a German jazz saxophonist. Sauer was an autodidact on tenor saxophone and began his career playing locally around Frankfurt in the 1950s. He played for many years in Albert Mangelsdorff's ense ...

(ss, ts), Bob Stewart (tuba), Tomasz Stańko (tp), and Kenny Wheeler (tp). The Orchestra has been described as providing "the most remarkable assemblies of outside jazz talent since the AACM big bands". They performed in New Delhi, India for the Jazz Yatra in late 1970s. They performed at the Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi in 1978. The final concert in the group's main lifetime was at the

Chicago Jazz Festival The Chicago Jazz Festival is an admission-free, four-day annual jazz festival in Chicago's Millennium Park. It is run by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and programmed with the assistance of Jazz Institute of Chicago during ...

in 1987. The 40th anniversary line-up for the 2006 concerts and recordings were the saxophone players Evan Parker, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Gerd Dudek, Rudi Mahall (bcl), the trumpets Kenny Wheeler, Manfred Schoof, Axel Dörner, Jean-Luc Cappozzo and trombonists Paul Rutherford,

George E. Lewis George Emanuel Lewis (born July 14, 1952) is an American composer, performer, and scholar of experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians ( AACM) since 1971, when he joined the organization ...

Jeb Bishop Jeb Bishop (born 1962) is an American jazz trombone player. He grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and attended Jesse O. Sanderson High School. He has studied music (classical trombone performance) at Northwestern University, engineering and ...

, J. Bauer) with Alexander von Schlippenbach (p), and drummers Paul Lovens and Paul Lytton.

Discography

* ''Live in Wuppertal'' (FMP, 1973) * ''Globe Unity/Sun'' (MPS 1975) * ''Evidence Vol. 1'' (FMP, 1976) * ''Into the Valley Vol. 2'' (FMP, 1976) * ''Jahrmarkt/Local Fair'' (Po Torch, 1977) * ''Improvisations'' (Japo, 1978) * ''Hamburg '74'' (FMP, 1979) * ''Compositions'' (Japo, 1980) * ''Intergalactic Blow'' (Japo, 1983) * ''20th Anniversary'' (FMP, 1993) * ''Globe Unity 67 & 70'' (Atavistic, 2001) * ''Globe Unity 2002'' (Intakt, 2003) * ''Globe Unity 40 Years'' (Intakt, 2007) * ''Globe Unity 50 Years'' (Intakt, 2018)

References

{{Authority control Free jazz ensembles Experimental big bands Avant-garde jazz ensembles FMP/Free Music Production artists Atavistic Records artists MPS Records artists Intakt Records artists

Discography

See also

References