VARIOUS ARTISTS
Founded in 1969 as an outgrowth of an annual Berlin festival called the Total Music Meeting (which began the previous year), FMP was always a modest operation, with a tiny staff and little hope of remaining solvent without state arts grants, but it has no equal when it comes to representing the development and aesthetic range of European free jazz. Arising in the mid- to late 60s, primarily in the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany, European free jazz was distinct from its stateside predecessor, and inspired many musicians to revolt against the emulation of American idioms, a practice that had been the norm for decades. They took inspiration from contemporary classical music, especially serialism and atonality, as well as from the Fluxus movement, whose adherents loved absurdity and provocation and brought a playful openness to their notion of what constituted a “performance.” In some cases the music’s connection to the blues—still the bedrock of most American jazz—was imperceptible or entirely severed.
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The first Total Music Meeting was organized by reedist Peter Brötzmann, a key figure in the history of European free jazz, and bassist Jost Gebers, who would soon put down his instrument to start FMP. Brötzmann became the label’s most prolific, popular, and loyal artist, and helped shape its visual aesthetic with his paintings, prints, and drawings. Almost every important European free-jazz musician recorded for FMP, and even a list that restricts itself to the label’s most prolific contributors is impressive—it includes saxophonists Brötzmann, Evan Parker, and Rüdiger Carl; trumpeters Manfred Schoof, Kenny Wheeler, and Enrico Rava; trombonists Johannes and Connie Bauer, Günter Christmann, and Radu Malfatti; drummers Paul Lovens, Sven-Ake Johansson, and Günter “Baby” Sommer; pianists Alexander von Schlippenbach, Irene Schweizer, and Fred Van Hove; and bassists Peter Kowald, Buschi Niebergall, and Harry Miller. And that’s leaving aside the many like-minded Americans who got in on the action.
At the end of 1999, Gebers stepped down and handed FMP to a longtime acquaintance, Helma Schleif, partner of reedist Wolfgang Fuchs—a decision he came to regret. According to Kampmann’s essay, Schleif was supposed to restrict herself to releasing and marketing music through FMP Publishing—an entity distinct from FMP itself, which would cease to exist—and wind down the operation within a few years. The Total Music Meeting, as well as the other concerts and workshops affiliated with FMP, were to be discontinued. In part this was because in 1997 Gebers had persuaded government officials to temporarily exempt FMP from funding cuts by explaining that the label would soon be a shadow of itself, no longer presenting the events on which it spent most of its state money. Schleif not only continued to organize live-music events but allegedly violated her licensing agreement with FMP Publishing, provoking it to terminate its contract with her in 2003. Gebers began a long fight to regain control of the company, finally prevailing in 2006. He resumed releasing quality music, but he was no more eager to keep running a label than he had been when he bowed out years before—and the legal battle had exhausted him further.
(Sub Pop/Next Ambiance/Stonetree)
The songs are mostly slow to midtempo, with sorrowful melodies so beautiful they create an aura of hope and uplift almost in spite of themselves; some of the lyrics celebrate love or Garifuna culture, and others lament political corruption, infidelity, or the hardships of immigration. Though the music builds on traditional paranda rhythms and forms, it’s clearly a modern studio creation, with the occasional vocal filter or other evidence of a producer’s touch. A few tunes, like “Ereba,” sound slick and generic—they’re the kind of “world music” that tries to hybridize too many elements at once and ends up losing whatever might have made it distinctive. But even in those cases, Martinez’s enthusiasm, earnestness, and generally winning personality manage to compensate. And the best songs, where Martinez and the music pull in the same direction, have a smart transcontinental depth—the blend of genres is well-proportioned and enlightening.
