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Just Music (band)
Encyclopedia
Just Music were a West German avant-garde music
ensemble, an interchangeable collective
of classically trained instrumentalists founded at the centrum freier cunst, Frankfurt/Main in 1967 by multi-instrumentalist
Alfred Harth
. An inherent anti-commercial bias kept them at arm's length from the mainstream music business, enabling them to experiment at will. "Ein Modell fuer annaehernd herrschaftsfreie Kommunikation und Interaktion" (Flyer, March 1969). Just Music changed their name several times depending on the context.
Other names are New Thing Orchestra, Free Jazz Orkestra Frankfurt, Panta Rei and urKult.
and avant-garde literature. It became an open exchange and performance place for young experimental
artists, poets and musicians in the Frankfurt area with the Just Music ensemble as a main creative pool. American clarinetist Tony Scott
played there with Just Music and also in the following years Harth and Just Music kept open to perform with many others as the German musicians trumpetist and composer Michael Sell (with the Free Jazz Group Wiesbaden), saxophonist Peter Brötzmann
and tuba and bassplayer Peter Kowald
, Czech flutist Jiri Stivin, members of the AACM
, Polish violinist Zbigniew Seifert
, American saxophonist Anthony Braxton
a.o.
In 1969, Just Music recorded the 2nd LP (1002) for Manfred Eicher
's label ECM
and Thomas Cremer, Harth and Thomas Stöwsand made a joint performance with the Nicole Van den Plas Trio from Belgium at the San Sebastian Jazz Festival in Spain. From then on Just Music also worked in cooperation with members of the Nicole Van den Plas Trio. In 1971 Harth and Van den Plas started to focus on duo works and in 1972 with guests as Peter Kowald and drummer Paul Lovens
a.o. in Belgium which later in the same year lead to the foundation of the group E.M.T.
when Just Music had performed their last concerts with partly exchanged members in Poland.
. It incorporated elements of jazz
, classical music
, fluxus
, dada
, happening
and the avant-garde
.
Their music was mostly experimental
, making classification all but impossible and contained an extreme variety of timbres and dynamics at the basis of a spontaneous expression. Process was more important than a result. Just Music partly incorporated their audiences.
, zen
and the fluxus
events in nearby Wiesbaden
. He treated breaking glass, thunder and rain, fireworks or everyday tool's noises as equal synaesthetic manifestations.Harth co-created a toneless wind instrument concept during a studio production at the Hessischer Rundfunk
, experimented muting his saxofones with all kinds of stuff even from outside the keys by covering the saxophone with clothes and implemented backward recorded accordion live on cassette. Johannes Krämer was using a wide variety of unorthodox guitar tunings, and preparing guitars with objects like drumsticks and screwdrivers to alter the instruments' timbre.
On the other hand Just Music had formed the political fraction urKult who demonstrated against the "unilateral presentation and consumption of New Music without political implications" before or even during other relevant concert events and by this provoked the ivory tower of the nearby Darmstädter Ferienkurse events as well as music businesses "as instruments of the establishment".
expression. The name was chosen by Alfred Harth to express that there shall be no pressure for anything. Just Music strictly avoided titles for their works and even several times changed their group name.
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
2009
Avant-garde music
Avant-garde music is a term used to characterize music which is thought to be ahead of its time, i.e. containing innovative elements or fusing different genres....
ensemble, an interchangeable collective
Collective
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project to achieve a common objective...
of classically trained instrumentalists founded at the centrum freier cunst, Frankfurt/Main in 1967 by multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
Alfred Harth
Alfred Harth
Alfred 23 Harth is a German multimedia artist, band leader, multi-instrumentalist musician, and composer who mixes genres in a polystylistic manner...
. An inherent anti-commercial bias kept them at arm's length from the mainstream music business, enabling them to experiment at will. "Ein Modell fuer annaehernd herrschaftsfreie Kommunikation und Interaktion" (Flyer, March 1969). Just Music changed their name several times depending on the context.
Other names are New Thing Orchestra, Free Jazz Orkestra Frankfurt, Panta Rei and urKult.
History
Alfred Harth had founded the club H in 1965 and then the meeting point and platform centrum freier cunst in Frankfurt/Main starting with his essay "On Synaesthetics" in 1967 and the vision of synthesizing avant-garde art, avant-garde musicAvant-garde music
Avant-garde music is a term used to characterize music which is thought to be ahead of its time, i.e. containing innovative elements or fusing different genres....
and avant-garde literature. It became an open exchange and performance place for young experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
artists, poets and musicians in the Frankfurt area with the Just Music ensemble as a main creative pool. American clarinetist Tony Scott
Tony Scott
Anthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...
played there with Just Music and also in the following years Harth and Just Music kept open to perform with many others as the German musicians trumpetist and composer Michael Sell (with the Free Jazz Group Wiesbaden), saxophonist Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...
and tuba and bassplayer Peter Kowald
Peter Kowald
Peter Kowald was a German free jazz musician.A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with a large number of European free jazz and American free-jazz players during his career, including Peter Brötzmann, Irène Schweizer, Karl Berger, Fred...
, Czech flutist Jiri Stivin, members of the AACM
AACM
AACM may refer to:* Ali Akbar College of Music, three schools founded by Indian musician Ali Akbar Khan to teach Indian classical music* Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, one of fourteen cemeteries for American World War II dead on foreign soil...
, Polish violinist Zbigniew Seifert
Zbigniew Seifert
Zbigniew Seifert was a Polish jazz violinist.Seifert was born in Kraków, Poland in 1946. He played alto saxophone early in his career and was strongly influenced by John Coltrane...
, American saxophonist Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...
a.o.
In 1969, Just Music recorded the 2nd LP (1002) for Manfred Eicher
Manfred Eicher
Manfred Eicher is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records and its subsidiaries.Eicher studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He is a record producer and a double-bass player. In 1969 he founded a record label in Munich called ECM - Edition of Contemporary Music...
's label ECM
ECM (record label)
ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...
and Thomas Cremer, Harth and Thomas Stöwsand made a joint performance with the Nicole Van den Plas Trio from Belgium at the San Sebastian Jazz Festival in Spain. From then on Just Music also worked in cooperation with members of the Nicole Van den Plas Trio. In 1971 Harth and Van den Plas started to focus on duo works and in 1972 with guests as Peter Kowald and drummer Paul Lovens
Paul Lovens
Paul Lovens is a musician. He plays drums, percussion, singing saw and various selected and unselected cymbals. He has also performed with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra....
a.o. in Belgium which later in the same year lead to the foundation of the group E.M.T.
E.M.T.
E.M.T. were an international experimental and free improvising music group with German multi-instrumentalist Alfred Harth, Swedish drummer and composer Sven-Åke Johansson, Belgian keyboarder and artist Nicole Van den Plas and guests.-History:...
when Just Music had performed their last concerts with partly exchanged members in Poland.
Music
Just Music's repertoire included written scores and graphic notation by Alfred Harth in the very beginning and then free improvisationFree improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
. It incorporated elements of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
, dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
, happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
and the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
.
Their music was mostly experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
, making classification all but impossible and contained an extreme variety of timbres and dynamics at the basis of a spontaneous expression. Process was more important than a result. Just Music partly incorporated their audiences.
Concept
Since the mid 1960s Alfred Harth was open to all creative horizons influenced by the Stuttgarter Schule around Max BenseMax Bense
Max Bense was a German philosopher, writer, and publicist, known for his work in philosophy of science, logic, aesthetics, and semiotics...
, zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
and the fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
events in nearby Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
. He treated breaking glass, thunder and rain, fireworks or everyday tool's noises as equal synaesthetic manifestations.Harth co-created a toneless wind instrument concept during a studio production at the Hessischer Rundfunk
Hessischer Rundfunk
Hessischer Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the German state of Hesse. The main offices of HR are in Frankfurt am Main. HR is a member of the ARD.- Studios :...
, experimented muting his saxofones with all kinds of stuff even from outside the keys by covering the saxophone with clothes and implemented backward recorded accordion live on cassette. Johannes Krämer was using a wide variety of unorthodox guitar tunings, and preparing guitars with objects like drumsticks and screwdrivers to alter the instruments' timbre.
On the other hand Just Music had formed the political fraction urKult who demonstrated against the "unilateral presentation and consumption of New Music without political implications" before or even during other relevant concert events and by this provoked the ivory tower of the nearby Darmstädter Ferienkurse events as well as music businesses "as instruments of the establishment".
Name
Just Music is almost a GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
expression. The name was chosen by Alfred Harth to express that there shall be no pressure for anything. Just Music strictly avoided titles for their works and even several times changed their group name.
Performances (selection)
- at composer Dieter SchnebelDieter SchnebelDieter Schnebel is a composer. From 1976 until his retirement in 1995, Schnebel served as professor of experimental music at the Berlin Hochschule der Künste.-Career:...
's concert series for atonal music in Frankfurt/Main
1968
- at the main cathedral, Dom, in Frankfurt/Main
- TV-Feature with concrete poet Franz Mon in MainzMainzMainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
- at the Liederhalle,Mozartsaal, StuttgartStuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
,radio recorded by Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) - concert managed by Siegfried Schmidt-Joos in DüsseldorfDüsseldorfDüsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
- performs Christian WolffChristian Wolff (composer)Christian G. Wolff is an American composer of experimental classical music.-Biography:Wolff was born in Nice in France to German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who had published works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin. After relocating to the U.S...
's "Play" from the Prose Collection at the Theater am Turm (TAT),Frankfurt/Main - studio production at the Frankfurt radio, Hessischer RundfunkHessischer RundfunkHessischer Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the German state of Hesse. The main offices of HR are in Frankfurt am Main. HR is a member of the ARD.- Studios :...
, plus interview with Alfred Harth
1969
- at the Rational Theater in Munich (first concert together with Thomas Stoewsand who then moved to Frankfurt and stayed member until the last concerts in Poland)
- at the Action Center in MunichMunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
- at the Jazzfestival San SebastianSan SebastiánDonostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...
,Spain, in cooperation with the Nicole Van den Plas Trio from Belgium - at the Stadttheater BremerhavenBremerhavenBremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
1970
- radio play Alles wie zuvor in cooperation with composer Aleida Montijn produced at the radio Frankfurt/Main, Hessischer RundfunkHessischer RundfunkHessischer Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the German state of Hesse. The main offices of HR are in Frankfurt am Main. HR is a member of the ARD.- Studios :...
- at the 12th German Jazzfestival in Frankfurt/Main
- at the 12th German Jazzfestival with the European Free Jazz Orchestra (A.Harth, P.Stock) conducted by members of the AACMAACMAACM may refer to:* Ali Akbar College of Music, three schools founded by Indian musician Ali Akbar Khan to teach Indian classical music* Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, one of fourteen cemeteries for American World War II dead on foreign soil...
- at the Jazzfestival PřerovPrerovPřerov is a town in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic where the Bečva river flows through. Přerov is a statute town . It has population of about 47,373 to January 2, 2008. Přerov is about 22 km south west of Olomouc. In the past it was a major crossroad in the heart of Moravia in the...
(with N.Van den Plas, A.De Tiege) and with Jiri Stivin in PraguePraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992... - live at the radio Prague, Czechoslovakia
- one month daily at the Theatre Lucernaire, Paris, France (with Eugene Broeckhoven)
- two weeks daily at the theatre festival, Théâtre de la Recherche, in AvignonAvignonAvignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...
, France, (with J.Van den Plas) - at the Jazzfestival BilzenBilzenBilzen is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg near Hasselt. On January 1, 2006, Bilzen had a total population of 30,057...
(Cremer, Harth, Stoewsand), Belgium - studio production at the Frankfurt radio, Hessischer RundfunkHessischer RundfunkHessischer Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the German state of Hesse. The main offices of HR are in Frankfurt am Main. HR is a member of the ARD.- Studios :...
, with Peter KowaldPeter KowaldPeter Kowald was a German free jazz musician.A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with a large number of European free jazz and American free-jazz players during his career, including Peter Brötzmann, Irène Schweizer, Karl Berger, Fred...
, Heinz Sauer, Michael Sell, N.Van den Plas a.o.
1971
- in BredaBredaBreda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...
, Netherlands - at the Belgian Radio, BRTBRTBRT may refer to:* "Be right there" in Internet slang.* Baltic Rubber Trade, Ltd., owner of the BRT trademark.* Bayrak Radyo Televizyon Kurumu is the national public broadcaster of Northern Cyprus....
- at the Jazzfestival GhentGhentGhent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
as Panta Rei (with N. and J. Van den Plas), Belgium - at the Action Center, Munich, session with Anthony BraxtonAnthony BraxtonAnthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...
, Cremer, Harth, Stoewsand - concert in München with Cremer, Manfred EicherManfred EicherManfred Eicher is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records and its subsidiaries.Eicher studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He is a record producer and a double-bass player. In 1969 he founded a record label in Munich called ECM - Edition of Contemporary Music...
(bass),Harth,Stoewsand, N.Van den Plas - studio production at the Frankfurt radio, Hessischer RundfunkHessischer RundfunkHessischer Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the German state of Hesse. The main offices of HR are in Frankfurt am Main. HR is a member of the ARD.- Studios :...
, with Peter BrötzmannPeter BrötzmannPeter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...
, N.Van den Plas a.o. - at the Festival Jazz nad Odra, Wrocław, Poland
1972
- at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Cremer, Harth, N.Van den Plas, Volhard), BrusselsBrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium, recorded for a radio program curated by Fred Van HoveFred Van HoveFred Van Hove is a Belgian jazz musician and a pioneer of European free jazz. He is a pianist, accordionist, church organist, and carillonist, an improviser and a composer... - last concerts: in KrakówKrakówKraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
with violinist Zbigniew SeifertZbigniew SeifertZbigniew Seifert was a Polish jazz violinist.Seifert was born in Kraków, Poland in 1946. He played alto saxophone early in his career and was strongly influenced by John Coltrane...
and at the University WarsawWarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Poland, (with Herwig Pöschl)
2009
- revival at the festival ROT in Frankfurt/Main - Just Music skips to ROT from 1969 with Alfred HarthAlfred HarthAlfred 23 Harth is a German multimedia artist, band leader, multi-instrumentalist musician, and composer who mixes genres in a polystylistic manner...
, Johannes Krämer, Nicole Van den Plas, Peter Stock, Witold Teplitz, Franz Volhard, radio recorded by the Hessischer RundfunkHessischer RundfunkHessischer Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the German state of Hesse. The main offices of HR are in Frankfurt am Main. HR is a member of the ARD.- Studios :...
Personnel
- Eugene Broeckhoven (Belgium) - drums
- Thomas Cremer – drums,clarinet,voice
- Andre De Tiege (Belgium) - bass
- Ronnie Dusoir (Belgium) - dr
- Alfred HarthAlfred HarthAlfred 23 Harth is a German multimedia artist, band leader, multi-instrumentalist musician, and composer who mixes genres in a polystylistic manner...
– tenorsax,clarinet,bassclarinet,trumpet,voice,misc. - Dieter Herrmann – trombone
- Johannes Krämer – guitar, voice
- Herwig Pöschl (Austria) – drums
- Hans Schwindt - clarinet, altosax
- Peter Stock – bass
- Thomas Stoewsand – cello, flutes, voice
- Witold Teplitz – violin, clarinet
- Franz Volhard – cello
- Jean Van den Plas (Belgium) – cello, bass
- Nicole Van den Plas (Belgium) - piano
- Edmond Van Lierde (Belgium) - altosax
Discography
- Just Music, self-produced LP, 300 items, 1969
- Just Music ECMECM (record label)ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...
1002, 1969 (cover art) - Born Free ScoutScout RecordsScout Records was the relatively short-lived record label founded and owned in the late 1960s by German concert promoters Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau, before in 1979 they founded their main label L+R Records....
ScS-11, 1970 - 4.Januar 1970, LP selfproduction, 300 items, 1970
- Four CDRs with archive material from 1968-1971 by Just Music,(Productions<), 2009