NDR Jazz Workshop No. 164; produced by Michael Naura.
"Alarm" and this version of "Jerry Sacem" were included on the LP Alarm (FMP 1030). The notes to that LP mention several other tunes:
- Ahab (A. Schlippenbach), 7:10
- Sur l'autoroute (W. Breuker), 7:10
- Grandpa and the Kid (H. Miller), 9:00
- Another Flat Djungle (W. Breuker), 9:10
- Jerry Sacem, version 1 (F. Wright), 10:15
- Minor Double Blues (A. Schlippenbach), 9:55
In the liner notes to the CD reissue of the FMP LP (Atavistic UMS 257CD), however, Brötzmann comments that
The story is simple. We were touring with this band, and the reason I could put the band
together in the first place was a radio gig in Hamburg. Michael Naura, chief of the jazz dept there,
was setting up a series of on-air concerts in a 200-seat studio, so we performed the first piece,
which I called "Alarm." I used the graphic instructions for a reaction to a nuclear emergency,
a series of waves and straight tones, repeated in a certain way.
We had planned two more pieces, one by Willem Breuker and one by Frank Wright.
My piece took about 40 minutes, the first half of the concert. At the end of the performance,
Naura came to me -- while we were still on the air -- and whispered that the house got a bomb
threat and had to be evacuated. So I had to bring the piece quickly to an end and the audience
was asked to leave the hall. We also had to pack and leave. Police and special forces showed up
with all kinds of equipment, gear, dogs –- we know all that better now than then.
That was the end of the concert and that’s the 40 minutes we have on tape.
If so, how did the unissued (and allegedly unperformed and unrecorded) tunes come to have timings
attached to them?
Some recordings of "Minor Double Blues" are incomplete, ending with a Naura voiceover closing announcement.
I am grateful to Otto Sohn for sharing the complete version with me.
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