Nikolai Yudanov / Peter Brotzmann FRYED FRUIT CD 2001

Nikolai Yudanov
Fryed Fruit
Label: Red Toucan 9316 
2001

The music on this CD was created during our tour as a trio in Finland in the summer of 1999. We recorded in the Kerubi Club in Joensuu, a small industrial town in central Finland. The very "dry" acoustics in the small nightclub altered our approach to some of the compositions. We liked the outcome... (N. Yudanov)

In a genre of music often heralded for its socialistic potential, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann might be the artist who most truly realizes those ideals. Active for three-plus decades, the bristly German reedmaster has led his share of energy-laden ensembles; yet, even at this point in his career, Brötz still enthusiastically participates as a member of several one-off collectives and even occasionally as a sideman. Fryed Fruit, released by the reinvigorated Red Toucan label, captures Brötzmann in one these collective free-for-alls—accompanied by the venerable Russian drummer Nikolai Yudanov and young Finnish guitarist Sakari Luoma in an hour-long flight of ecstatic fancy.

The music resulting from this meeting is old-school energy music, classic in every sense. Brötzmann rifles through his arsenal of reeds with customary, paint-peeling finesse, starting out on tenor, then switching to tarogato for "Xanadu" and "Around the Circle." Similarly, Yudanov maintains the vigorous pulse—tearing it up with Sunny Murray-esque glee while simultaneously keeping an ear open to subtlety. Luoma's guitar work vacillates between brilliant and questionable; his contributions to the music's quieter interludes come off as slightly meddling (as in the introduction to "Xanadu"), but his chunky phase-shifted power chords consistently urge the trio to heavier plateaus.

Brötzmann's ballsy wail yelps immediately to life on the opening "Monkey Wrench"; and it's only a matter of minutes before the trio locks together at full-bore intensity. "Red, White & Yellow" takes a little longer to gather steam over Luoma's tentative volume-swelled guitar, but the subsequent tenor/drums duo section resuscitates the music's flow with hotheaded poise. "Xanadu" wastes much time getting back to the tried-and-true freakout level that, once it's reclaimed, finds Luoma serving up a volley of frayed notes to reinforce Brötzmann's iron-lunged sustain. "Around the Circle" is the set's apex, slowly building from malfunctioning cassette chaos to a frenetic outpouring as Brötzmann proceeds to split his tarogato tones like a speedfreak lumberjack. "Fryed Fruit" seems almost an afterthought—Luoma tries on his Van Halen and McLaughlin hats for over half the piece until Brötzmann effectively silences him with astounding hunks of raw tenor.

While I can't claim this trio's approach to be much more than one-dimensional, their primitive energy packs such a resounding wallop that it's difficult to fault them for a lack of diversity. And even though it might be more delicacy than staple in a well-balanced musical diet, Fryed Fruit definitely won't leave a bad taste in any free jazz lover's mouth.

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