Saw Peter Brötzmann, Toshinori Kondo and Heather Leigh yesterday.
Originally Brötz and Kondo were scheduled to play with Sabu Toyozumi and I was really looking forward to seeing him but he was sick so Leigh replaced him.
It was a bit shocking to see how frail Brötzmann and Kondo are nowadays, standing close to the voluptuous Leigh they looked like hobbits.
At first the trio didn't seem comfortable with each other with some awkward (yet still interesting) moments but as the concert progressed there were more and more instances of incredible beauty. Brötzmann was on fire as always, switching from tenor sax to tarogato and clarinet, Kondo was psychedelic as ****, Leigh was a bit underwhelming and samey but nonetheless providing an essential background.
They were constantly switching between solo, duo and trio parts and things never got boring.
It was over in just an hour and when people were demanding an encore, Brötzmann came out again, thanked everyone and said that "the lungs are empty" and the ending was beautiful as it was (it was indeed epic) so there won't be an encore.
I didn't really mind. It was fun and I was glad to see those legends together.
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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.
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