The Globe Unity Orchestra is a

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during ...

ensemble. Globe Unity was formed in autumn 1966 with a commission received by

Alexander von Schlippenbach Alexander von Schlippenbach (born 7 April 1938) is a German jazz pianist and composer. He came to prominence in the 1960s playing free jazz in a trio with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lovens, and as a member of the Globe Unity Orchest ...

from the

Berlin Jazz Festival JazzFest Berlin (also known as the Berlin Jazz Festival) is a jazz festival in Berlin, Germany. Originally called the "Berliner Jazztage" (''Berlin Jazz Days''), it was founded in 1964 in West Berlin by the Berliner Festspiele. Venues included B ...

. It had its debut at the

Berliner Philharmonie The Berliner Philharmonie () is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany, and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is on ...

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 Willem Breuker (4 November 1944 – 23 July 2010) was a Dutch bandleader, composer, arranger, saxophonist, and clarinetist. Career During the mid 1960s, he played with percussionist Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg, co-founding the Insta ...

(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);

(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 Jaki Liebezeit (born Hans Liebezeit; 26 May 1938 – 22 January 2017) was a German drummer, best known as a founding member of experimental rock band Can. He was called "one of the few drummers to convincingly meld the funky and the cerebral". ...

(d) on one side, Brötzmann (saxophones),

Peter Kowald Peter Kowald (21 April 1944 – 21 September 2002) was a German free jazz and free improvising double bassist and tubist. Career A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with many European ...

(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 Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chica ...

(as, cl),

(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 (tb),

(bcl),

Toshinori Kondo was a Japanese avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion trumpeter. Career Kondo was born in Ehime Prefecture. He attended Kyoto university in 1967, and became close friends with percussionist Tsuchitori Toshiyuki. In 1972 the pair left university, an ...

(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 Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

(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 int ...

(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 Enrico Rava (born 20 August 1939), is an Italian jazz trumpeter. He started on trombone, then changed to the trumpet after hearing Miles Davis. Career He was born in Trieste, Italy. His first commercial work was as a member of Gato Barbieri's ...

(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 Tomasz Ludwik Stańko (11 July 1942 – 29 July 2018) was a Polish trumpeter and composer. Stańko was associated with free jazz and the avant-garde. In 1962, Tomasz Stańko formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with saxophonist Janusz Munia ...

(tp), and

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he was also active ...

(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 Rudi Mahall (born December 23, 1966) is a contemporary jazz bass clarinetist. While studying classical clarinet, Mahall shifted towards contemporary music, improvisation and jazz. He is, or was a member of following bands: Avantgardeband ''Die ...

(bcl), the trumpets Kenny Wheeler, Manfred Schoof, Axel Dörner, Jean-Luc Cappozzo and trombonists Paul Rutherford, George E. Lewis,

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