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Globe Unity Orchestra
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
The Globe Unity Orchestra is a free jazz ensemble from Germany. It came into being in the autumn of 1966, when the pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach was commissioned by the Berlin Jazz Festival to put together a large orchestra. It made its debut on 3 November at the Berliner Philharmonie. There it combined the quartet of Gunter Hampel, the quintet of Manfred Schoof and the trio of Peter Brötzmann.
Music and breakthrough
In the years that followed, other European and American musicians joined, among them Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Albert Mangelsdorff, Willem Breuker and the drummers Paul Lovens and Paul Lytton. The orchestra was described as one of the most remarkable gatherings of avant-garde jazz since the AACM big bands. In the late 1970s it also played in New Delhi, at the Jazz Yatra. Its records include Globe Unity, Jahrmarkt, Compositions and Intergalactic Blow. The last concert of its most important period took place in 1987 at the Chicago Jazz Festival. For the fortieth anniversary in 2006 a new line-up came together, with Kenny Wheeler, Paul Rutherford and George E. Lewis, among others.
Influence
The orchestra showed that free jazz was not meant only for small groups but could also work in a large ensemble, and it gave European improvised music a face of its own.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1967Globe Unity
- 1977Jahrmarkt / Local Fair
- 1980Compositions
- 1983Intergalactic Blow
- 1991Rumbling
- 2001Globe Unity 67 & 70
- 200320th Anniversary
- 2003Globe Unity 2002
- 2007Globe Unity - 40 Years
- 2010Improvisations 1-4
- 2011Baden-Baden '75
- 2018Globe Unity - 50 Years
Mentioned in other articles
- European free improvisation Genre
In Germany the pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach founded the Globe Unity Orchestra in 1966, and the saxophonist Peter Brötzmann of Wuppertal recorded the loud Machine Gun in 1968.