15 Kinder & Brötzmann, Van Hove, Bennink, Free Jazz Und Kinder (FMP, 1973)

Recorded April 1972 during Kinder Und Künste at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin

The late, great Peter Brötzmann, Han Bennink and Fred Van Hove came up with the idea of setting untrained musicians (ages 8-12) on instruments accompanying the three free jazz musicians originally in 1971. At the time, the demand for this program was so great (according to Brötzmann over 1,000 eager, amateur musicians showed up!) that the three adult musicians felt overwhelmed and decided to postpone the workshop for the next Kinder Und Künste in l1972. 

The following year, the adult musicians decided to break the children up into groups and work with them for a four day period to, perhaps, lend some order to the chaos and prevent too many musicians from joining the project. Brötzmann, van Hove and Bennink all played their respective instruments (saxophone, piano and percussion), while the children improvised over this (minimal) structure.  It appears, again, according to the liner notes written by Brötzmann, this plan didn't quite work out, and they weren't able to work as intensely with the kids as they would have liked to. 

Based on the results, which you can hear on the recording, Brötzman made a few observations about the experience: musicians can learn and borrow for their own techniques after improvising with the children. The action showed that there was a need for more dynamic and less conventional music education in schools. Such experiments shouldn't be confined to institutions like the Academie der Künste, but should be incorporated into public school music programs. 

But what does it sound like? It doesn't deviate much from the free work of the men involved, nor the music released by FMP label (co-founded by Brötzmann). If you find that stuff interesting, listenable, etc then it seems to me that you will find this release even more worthwhile because of the musicians and techniques involved. And this, perhaps, is the main point of this record: less a musical document to be played repeatedly, more a sociopolitical, educational and political document regarding how to do things otherwise. Very much reflective of this moment in German history and very much reflective of the brilliant, unique visions of these three musicians. 

⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sadly, this doesn't seem to be on YouTube or any streaming service. If you find it somewhere, put the link in the comments! Danke!