Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Peter Br?tzmann & Paal Nilssen-Love: Chicken Shit Bingo

Peter Br?tzmann & Paal Nilssen-Love: Chicken Shit Bingo

By John Sharpe
July 16, 2024
View read count

Peter Brötzmann & Paal Nilssen-Love: Chicken Shit Bingo

The late German reedman

Peter Brötzmann

woodwinds
1941 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Peter Br?tzmann thrived on hook ups with drummers. A roll call of his fellows over his career would read like a percussion who's who, but one of his most favored partners over the last period of his life was

Paal Nilssen-Love

drums
b.1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Paal Nilssen-Love. After the Norwegian had joined Br?tzmann's Chicago Tentet in 2004, he partnered him on countless occasions, not only in the larger outfit, but also in quartet, trio and duo formats. But although they made several albums together, all were live dates. This 2015 session offers something different.

Over two days the pair went into the studio, as Nilssen-Love's liners reveal, Br?tzmann with an arsenal of reed instruments, including a newly acquired contralto clarinet, the drummer with an array of so far untried Korean gongs. All receive a good airing in the eight selections of a program which presents a rather more introspective portrait of the duo than the concert setting routinely provided. Br?tzmann toys with melody throughout, often tenderly invested with emotion, sometimes doleful, although generally remaining astringently just the right side of sentimental.

His extemporizations frequently invoke the intervals and contours of the lovely tune codified as "Master Of A Small House" in the company of

Joe McPhee

woodwinds
b.1939

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe McPhee on Tales Out Of Time (Hatology, 1997). It must have had some emblematic significance for Br?tzmann as he returned to it again and again. It crops up regularly on live recordings and anyone who heard him play in his final decades would likely recognize the refrain. Here it appears in its most unalloyed form as a bass saxophone dirge on "Smuddy Water." Even so things go feral before the close, as a fractious squawk develops into a tremulous altissimo.

Other flashes of the expected intensity flare up, in purest form on the pithy "Move On Over" where a drum cavalcade ushers in a squalling woodwind, probably bass clarinet, and again on "Dancing Octopus" with Br?tzmann on nerve-shredding tarogato. But even that ends up in another dimension as Nilssen-Love explores a veritable foundry of sheet metal thunder. Elsewhere they maintain a bubbling simmer, as on the opening "Butterfly Mushroom" which luxuriates in the overtones from piercing contralto clarinet and percussive strikes, or even construct a moving tone poem, as they do on the closer, "Found The Cabin But No People," its elegiac quality given poignant heft by the concluding exhalations fading to silence.

Busy schedules meant that the music never saw the light of day while Br?tzmann was alive, but its issue creates a rich and singular entry in an already mighty discography.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Butterfly Mushroom; Ant Eater Hornback Lizard; Smuddy Water; South Of No Return; Dancing Octopus; Move On Over; Five Of Them Survived The Dream; Found The Cabin But No People.

Personnel

Peter Br?tzmann

woodwinds

Paal Nilssen-Love

drums

Additional Instrumentation

Peter Br?tzmann: tarogato, Bb clarinet, contralto clarinet, bass clarinet, bass saxophone; Paal Nilssen-Love: drums, gongs, percussion.

Album information

Title: Chicken Shit Bingo | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Trost Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Riccardo Arrighini & Andrea Tofanell...
< Previous

Arnaud Dolmen: A Tale Of The Guadelo...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.