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I started as a guitarist and singer, all the way in the sixties.
So, in the begining of the seventies I changed instrument and music style.
Because rock music didn't have a chance.
I couldn't sing my own lyrics,
they told me, that I had to cut my hair short, if I wanted to have a career.
Playing the trumbone was a different case.
I could play my own music.
So, I started to play improvised music in the early seventies,
and nobody poked its nose into my things.
And also, at that time in the DDR it was very trendy,
not only in the DDR, but internationally,
so, those were the great times.
We can really talk about an international trend.
Improvisation also appeared in the classical scene.
At that period, in the DDR many people were listening to Lutoslawski, Penderecki.
There are a lot of improvisation deliberately composed in to their pieces.
Every musician has to work their material, that way he could be recognised somehow.
You need melodies for that, so you have to create your own world of melodies.
This is important. An other important thing is, to do this building by following some sort of dramaturgy.
And it's not harmful to practice composing from time to time, because improvising is like composing in real time.
This is more like a requirement.
I think jazz has deep roots in society.
It reflects on actual events in society and in politics.
Or maybe, jazz tries to deal with offenses.
You can transmit messages with jazz, for example pain.
For that matter, I think every kind of music, that carries value,
also has some sort of connection with various groups of society.
For example the hippies, and their music.
Or Coltrane, who had a very tight bond with the black liberation movements.
The relationship of Archie Shepp and Malcolm X is also a good example.
When music can really step into people's lives,
it really becomes alive. When it can correspond to the everyday reality.
People became more acceptable to improvised music,
and I think impovised music beacame an inseparable part of European music culture since that.
What is more, nowdays I think more kids are listening to free jazz, than tradicional jazz.
This is only my opinion, I don't know what con you see from the other side.
It's strange, that first we had to invite the great masters to this part of Europe,
like Ken Vandermark, Peter Brötzmann, or Joe McPhee, to kind of legalize this improvised music first with their presence.
They showed us, that we can play freely, and that should be right.
It doesn't matter, that we pushed this for years,
now we are together, and it made us sort of legitimate.
That meant more promotion, and more media attention for us.
Ther is of course a teacher-student nature of our relationship, which is important in this profession.
I think the concept of free jazz
had a real meaning for only a short period of time,
in the sixties.
I think
if we use this word today, it would lead to misunderstandings.
I think, and everybody knows this already,
in this world nothig is free.
And in the past decades,
we developed forms and structures in which freedom has a different approach
as in the sixties.
Improvised music is not easy to make,
there are a lot of influences mixed together, musical influences...
Of course I see myself as a completely normal jazz musician.
Of course the main saxophonists of the jazz history had an effect on me as well.
My favourite saxophone player from the past decades is Coleman Hawkins and Sonny Rollins.
but i've learnt a lot form outside the jazz scene, from other musicians.
I've worked for a long time with Nam June Paik
That was a very important experience for me.
I'm actually a painter, and I had many influences from painting as well.
And so on, and so on...
We can't talk about one single story which had a effect on me.
I met Michiyo Yagi five years ago in Tokyo.
If I remember correctly, there was a concert in my university
and I was aksed to play with Peter.
I really like how she plays on the koto.
She doesn't play in a traditional way, sht tries to create her own stories.
Basicly I play traditional Japanese music, on a traditional Japanese instrument.
But it's important for me to plant my own music in the boundries of that,
to move forward the evolution of my music.
I'm a rookie in free jazz and in improvised music.
I have to learn a lot of things, so I consider myself very lucky
because I can work toogether with these great men like Peter and Paal.
She's a very strong woman.
It's not very common in our profession.
I'm not thinking about the future very much, I'm happy in the present.
I'm happy with these very different people who I work with.
I'm happy about the Chicago Tentett, about Paal Nilsen-Love and I'm happy about the work I do with Michiyo.
Things happen, and luckily I always find one or two youg musician...
So, I'm optimistic about myself, and my story so far.
I don't know where all these things will lead us. We will see that.