German Rock Lexikon - Bands

EMBRYO

Biografie

EMBRYO NEWS 1999
The 30th year of embryo was a year of encounter with master-musicians from all over the world.
It began with a festival in Munich in Babylon, which has the biggest stage in the Kunstpark Ost, where the surprising ideas of the chinese pipa and flute-master Sa Mu attracted the attention of the public as well as that of his over 30 fellow-musicians. The whole event turned out to be a happy party; different continents embraced and communicated with each other, a four-hour journey through the sounds of the whole planet.
Africa was represented by the senegalese drummer Famadi Sako, who impressed the other drummers with his thunderlike beats on the djembé. With him were some of the finest american horn players: Alan Praskin, Chuck Henderson and Marty Cook, who has been in the polls as one of the best trombone-players. Also from China Xizhi Nie, a multi-instrumentalist of distinction, who plays chinese violins, a wind instrument called sheng and has created his own style of a dadaistic cross-continental scat-singing. From Afghanistan, vocalist and harmonium-player Jamal Mohmand and his young accompanist on the tabla, Farid. Percussionist Suchreddin Chonov from Usbekistan communicated almost telepathically with the chinese singer Li Li. Bassist Rocky Knaur from Canada took turns with the two other bass players, Chris Lachotta and Jens Pollheide. Legendary embryo-musicians such as Roman Bunka or Michi Wehmeyer were on stage and joined the Amon Düül musicians Chris Karrer and Dieter Serfas, who complemented the drumming of Lothar Stahl. The unique event, organised by Christian Burchard, was recorded on audio and video-tapes and parts of it will be issued on the double cd German Rock 2000.
Some weeks later, egyptian violinist and composer Abdu Dagir came to Munich. Roman Bunka organised his stay, since he has been playing with and learning from him since many years, as well as presented him to the european audience. The sessions involved fewer musicians, and were entirely acoustic, with a chamber-music sort of atmosphere and on a high musical level. Abdu Dagir has played in the orchestra of Egypt's most famous female singer, Oum Kalzum, and is a living treasure-box as far as oriental music is concerned. His violin improvisations and his composition are highly esteemed in all arab countries.
In 1999, the famous museum Fondació Miró helped to realise two projects with embryo. Two important musicians have been invited: In May, trumpet-player Jurij Parfenov who has been elected musician-of-the-year in 1998 by his Russian colleagues; he has a unique style that blends asian musical culture with that of the west, which he is well acquainted with because he plays in different groups such as the postfolk-avantgarde group Trio from Moscow, in the band of the american saxophone player Johnny Griffin, and is featured trumpeter in Oleg Lundstren's big band. His playing is a success all over the world. He has received the Duke-Ellington-Award in Washington, and has toured in Egypt and India.
On the tour in May he met Peter Michael Hamel, formerly with the legendary group Between, with whom he and embryo played in St-John's church in Hamburg. A video has been produced on board the ship M. S. Stubnitz in Rostock. In July, the King of Gnawa-music Mahmoud Gania with his group. He is a living legend, has played with the likes of Pharoah Sanders and Carlos Santana, to name but two. Even guitarist Jimi Hendrix spent a few months in his house to take some lessons. Mahmoud Gania is an acknowledged master of the extremly popular Gnawa culture, in which the music is used for it's healing effects. In 1998, embryo had visited Mahmoud Gania in Essaouira and recorded some sessions that have appeared on the double cd Istanbul/Casablanca (Schneeball-Indigo 8536-2).
In June 1998, the tour began with a concert in the hall of the Fondació Miró in Barcelona. In Italy, they met embryo and Roman Bunka, who had brought with him the quanun-player Gamal Lotfi from Cairo. This combination of musicians was highly acclaimed in Rome's biggest ethinic festival in the Villa Ada, in Venice, Bologna, Varese, Ferrara. Fortunately, the concert that they played at the Feierwerk-Festival in Munich has been recorded with three digital cameras, so that at least some of the fantastic material can be issued. Everybody expressed their willingness to continue the collaboration as Mahmoud Gania and his musicians had to leave for concerts in the United States.
Some weeks later, the embryo-nucleus that features Christian Burchard, Jens Pollheide, Dieter Serfas, Lothar Stahl and Karsten Hochapfel was in Barcelona again for a further collaboration with Jurij Parfenov, who had been invited once again by the Fondació Miró. The concert took place on the roofs of Barcelona, in the garden of the Fondació to have room enough and a nice atmosphere for the enthusiatic Spanish audience.
Spain's biggest daily paper El País characterised the concert as a "great event with a magic effect" as well as a "passionate sound-trip". For some songs, guests such as the catalonian percussionist Marti Perramon or the bass player and head of the group ContempArabic, Stephan Athanas joined embryo spontaneously. To be sure there'll be a cd "Live at the Miró Foundation", a kind of musical thanks for the invaluable help the Foundation has provided.
Some days after, the were exciting sessions in the club Heliogábal, where embryo met the japanese shakuhatchi and flute player Hiroshi Kobayashi for the first time after four years.
Embryo's and Jurij Parfenov's playing had interlaced and cobined so well during the tour that the resulting arrangements of themes from the kirgisian or tartarian musical tradition enchanted critics and audience, as well as the musicians; the melodies haunted us even as Jurij Parfenov had already departed, on our tour in Sicily, together with the Sicilian ethno-jazz-group Nni Lusinghi.
The highlight of the year was a series of concerts with Mal Waldron, who is a true giant of Modern Jazz and has recently been on the cover of all the important jazz magazines. He has recorded more than 600 records, his first in 1949, and has played with most of the major jazz artists: Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Max Roach, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Eric Dolphy.... But he erarned most of his artistic reputation when he was accompanist to the great Billie Holiday. His musical activities are impossible to list here, and many of his compositions have become jazz standards. Even contemporary artists such as the saxophonist Steve Coleman play on his records.
Christian Burchard had met Mal Waldron before embryo haad been founded. There'll shortly be a re-issue of a recording made in '67, which features Dieter Serfas on the drums. Christian and Dieter have been knowing each other, as well as being friends, since forty years since. On the 3rd of december, there was a duo-concert by Christian and Mal to announce the re-issue of the highly acclaimed "Into the Light" (MASO CD 90116) , which was followed by a workshop late-night session, where, only Mal Waldron's tunes were played.
On the following day Mal played withthe embryo big band that featured some of the finest modern wind players of the Munich scene: from the USA Alan Praskin, Monty Waters and Chuck Henderson, from Russain Alexandr Alexandrow and Lena Bloch, from China Xizhi Nie, Masaro Nishimoto from Japan and Norbert Stammberger and Götz Liekfeld from Munich. There were three double-bassists: Chris Lachotta, Nick McCarthy and, from Russia again, Vladimir Volkov. Karsten Hochapfel played the cello, Titus Waldenfels was on guitar and the drums of Dieter Serfas were complemented by Max Weissenfeldt. With the exception of a drum interlude, Christian Burchard directed the music from his vibraphone, and the dark, sinister piano chords of Mal Waldron shaped the musical structure of that evening.
On december the 5th, fewer musicians were on stage, but the Nürnberger Nachrichten wrote: "Whoever has missed this concert may rightfully be sorry."The interplay of the embryo-musicians (once again with the group legendary musicians such as Roman Bunka and Edgar Hofmann) is characterised thus: "What is special about this group is the dense dialogue of the eight musicians, which move at ease between the genres of World Music and jazz-rock."
Some days after Mal Waldron's departure, embryo welcomed the Russian postfolk-ensemble Tri-O featuring Sergej Letov and, once again, Jurij Parfenov and Alexandr Alexandrow. After a big session and an end-of-the-millenium-tour to Berlin, where they met two of New York's foremost improvisers, Marty Cook and Larry Porter, all the musicians said goodbye to Tri-O after a last live concert, where the new arrangements of tartarian and kirgisian music enchanted the audience once again.
[Embryo, Klaus Unland & Jens Pollheide]